Extravayarnza

So, I've once again been very busy since you last heard from me.
Robin had his Obedience class Monday night. We unfortunately found out we have 2 more classes rather than one. Robin is acting more and more skiddish with this teacher. The teacher actually asked if he was abused by his last owner & accused me of not working with him enough. Those of you who know Robin, you know those accusations are ridiculous. Luckily I was on my game that night & snapped right back at him & told the Dick (conveniently that's his name) that Robin just doesn't like him & that I'd appreciate it if he didn't directly address or ever touch my dog again.
Next week I'm breaking my no hotdog rule & making sure Robin has an extra special treat for the class.

The next day brought a visitor to my yarn, Hedwig!

Hedwig was knit with 2 balls of Debbie Bliss Astrakhan & 1 ball of Anny Blatt Fine Kid. The pattern can be found in Charmed Knits (patterns inspired by the Harry Potter books/movies).
The pattern was fun to knit. I did run into a rather large issue when sewing it up though. The base of the body was 3 times larger around than the bottom edge of the body. I ended up folding it in 4ths to make it fit. I emailed Alison to find out what was up & I'm still waiting to hear back from her, I'll let you know if I find out what's up with the Errol pattern.

Tonight I was finally able to finish binding off my Spider's-Web Shawl!
It's currently soaking wet, blocking on the only bit of floor that is big enough to hold it (and only because I moved some rather large pieces of furniture).
The room it's in has vaulted ceilings, I'm standing on top of a large desk & holding the camera over my head (near the highest part of the ceiling) & I still couldn't get the whole thing in the frame. ...


Pattern: Miss Lambert's Spider's-web Shawl from Victorian Lace Today (Full Hexagon)
Yarn: Inspiration from SWTC, color 388, 21 Balls!
This shawl was a real needle killer! My size 2 Bamboo survived, my size 4 Bamboo had the metal casing on the join bent way out of shape so it started cutting the yarn, the size 6 Denise had the ends snapped off the cable, finally I relented & when I moved up to the biggest needle I used a size 9 Addi Turbo, those are indestructible.
I'll do a better photo shoot once the shawl/blanket is dry. At 2.3 pounds & 7.5 feet across (lightly blocked) I think this has definitely moved into the blanket range.

So what's the next shawl for me?
Well, I'm test knitting this shawl for Sharon Winsauer (designer of the dragon shawl)
This is proving to be just as challenging of a knit. I'm about half way through chart 1 of 15 & and really loving it! I'll start posting photos as soon as it looks like something.

Okay, lets end on a super happy note!
In fact it's a happy puppy!

Tonight Robin graduated from his Intro to Agility class!
For "Finals" they set up an actual full course for us to run that included all the standard obstacles except the teeter totter & the weave poles.
Robin did super well. The only thing we would have gotten marked down for on our second run was a refusal of the dog walk, but we backed up a bit and he went right over it on take 2. This was done all off leash, with a couple dozen dogs near by,and someone on a big riding mower right next to the park. He listened to me the whole time! I'm so proud of him.
Now I need to decided if we want to jump into the next class up or take this one again to help build his confidence. The instructors said they'd support me either way. I'm leaning toward taking this one again since it would be Wednesday nights again & I would have to really rearrange things at the shop to free up my Thursday nights.