Extravayarnza

Some knitting content...

I've started a new shawl to work on. Recently I received 20 balls of SWTC's new yarn Inspiration in color 338. I love this yarns silky texture & drape. The Alpaca gives the Soy Silk a wonderful halo.

I paired it up with the Spider's-Web shawl from Victorian Lace Today. Since I have tons of yarn I'm knitting the full Hexagon.

Won't that be nice to curl up in next fall. The Inspiration is a bit heavier than the Kid Silk Haze, but I like a shawl with some weight  to it rather than one that feels like it will fly away.

It's going to be difficult to photograph progress on this one. It's knit from the center out (my last big shawl was knit from the outside in, much easier to photograph). But, so far the fabric is phenomenal!

I'm not getting tons of knitting time at the moment. The 'kids' are keeping me on my toes. Trent is slowly coming around.

and I just love sitting here writing & looking down to see this

Today we walked all the way around the block! That's a long way for a pup who's just learning to walk on a leash. He did so good, we might try to walk closest section of the Northern Tier Trail next weekend. (well maybe drive the 4 blocks to get to the entrance & just walk the quarter mile or so to the bridge)

Isn't my new banner just so cute! I finally figured out what size to make the photo so it fits. Trent has no problem being by Robin, as long as Robin doesn't try to play with him. Trent's just not down with that.

Let me just say this will be a pretty random post. I have been quite busy this week.

In knitting news I first need to say a big Thank You to my Hogwarts Sock Kit pal she has already sent me my kit & it's so cool!!!

Yeah, most of that chocolate is already gone...
I love JaWoll sock yarn. It's so soft & wears like iron. My first 'real' knit socks we're out of this yarn & they're still around and kickin'. (my actual first pair was out of Bernat Hot Sox acrylic and have fun fur cuffs so I just bring myself to count those)
Plus the Harry Potter candy was so yummy.
BTW: Alison's new Harry Potter knitting book, Charmed Knits came into the shop today & sold out today! I immediately reordered it & since the ship out of Grand Rapids more copies will be here either Friday or Monday. The book is totally wonderful in every way. I'm trying to decided if I need a weasley sweater or a wizard cloak first...
My current knitting focus is finishing my Spiderweb shawl for TNNA. I don't know if it's going to happen (I might be driving to Toronto next weekend, so that would improve my knitting time, on that note can anyone recommend a good/cheap hotel room in Toronto? preferably not too far from the Yarn Harlot book party)
I've now finished my third ball of SWTC inspiration (alpaca & soy silk) and am around 20 rounds from finishing the first chart. That's 2 maybe 3 more days of knitting to finish the first section.

My current big project at work is this:

I'm switching our old customer appreciation card system over to new cards & a new storage system. The main bulk of the work is switching everyone over to the new cards & marking them all off. My hand had such a cramp by the end of the day. I worked on this for 5 hours straight & only made it to M.
But the new cards look so much nicer!

and the new file drawers hold so many more cards (no more worries about over stuffed roladex things) and they are very pretty looking~

The other bit of shop news is the tragic loss of one of our neighboring businesses. Lazeez restaurant a few blocks from us burned down on Tuesday afternoon. It happened so fast. I went out to give Robin a potty break. When we went behind the building the skies were blue. We walked back around to everyone standing on the side walk with shocked looks on their faces. This is what we saw.


Luckily everyone was warned before the fire got out of control & no one was seriously injured. It really makes you feel powerless to see how fast their business was destroyed.

Okay, let's move to a happier subject...
How about a pretty flower picture?

I saw this lovely walking through the MSU perennial gardens. The signs still seem to be being sorted out, so I don't know what it is, but it's really a pretty plant.

I didn't let our Obedience teacher get to me like he did last week. He again told me to do something with Robin that I won't do, I just played dumb & didn't do it. (I am so not grabbing his muzzle & holding it shut to keep him from barking).
Luckily Robin & I both love our Agility class. Tonight he went through with flying colors! He's now seen & performed every obstacle that he will eventually see in competition. Many are still at a beginner setting, but he's seen them & know what the point of each of them are. We even are starting to work on sequencing. My favorite to see him perform tonight was A-frame to tire jump to weaves (all off leash & on my command! that's so cool because those are difficult obstacles) & we also did chute (a blind tunnel he has to push through) to a jump, then a 180 degree turn to the stay table. It's starting to feel like this is really going to happen.
The funniest moment of the night was when we were doing an exercise where we did a circle of different types of jumps. Some of the jumps are window or tire jump, so I dropped the leash to let Robin go through. The plan was just to let the leash trail behind & complete the exercise, however Robin hates his leash dragging on the ground. So he just stopped & picked his leash up in his mouth and continued to jump. Every time he jumped he opened his mouth & the leash fell out. Then he stopped & picked it up again before the next jump. This happened over & over all around the circle.
I think next week the leash needs to just come off.
However nothing tires out a pup like an hour of agility training...

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.