Knittytastic weekend

Wow - what a great day I had on Saturday. I went to a class at the lovely Loop in Islington with the great Amy Singer of Knitty fame. The class was to help us to work on our lace knitting skills and started the Tuscany shawl from the no sheep for you book. It was also Amy's birthday - so happy birthday Amy and thank you for spending the day teaching!

I had some lush silk yarn that I purchased at Ally Pally - deep royal purple, it was much thicker than everybody else's - they were all using seasilk. I had bought some seasilk in periwinkle but for some reason decided to be different - Amy did liken it to drawing with big crayons, which I thought was rather apt and totally agree with. I really wanted some of the silken that was used in the book, but couldn't get any in time - pretty please someone in the UK, can you stock this! I also asked the wonderful Dee at Posh yarn if she had any of her silk left, but sadly she didn't - so chunky crayons for me. Actually it was great because the shawl grew really quickly and it was really easy to see any cock-ups.

The other people in the class were really fun - it was great to meet so many interesting knitters. Hello to all the lovely people I met! They were all really inspiring in their own way, particularly in giving me a good kick up the arse to get my blog sorted out and to put all my stuff onto Ravely!

I spent Sunday knitting and went to boarders for coffee with friends. I'm making a baby jacket - for my new godson - I can't believe I have been asked to be a godmother - I am really honored and excited. I am now busy sewing it all together, I actually really enjoy the making up process, I know lots of people can't stand it but I love making those neat seams and sewing in the ends (Although I do everything possible to reduce the number of ends!) good finishing can be the difference between homemade and handcrafted.

I'm trying to be good at the moment and not spend too much but I couldn't resist some cashmere yarn at Loop from Knitting Goddess.

Also this from Sunday's yarn at Posh yarn goodies - it's called Victoria and is an aran weight 50% cashmere 50% silk - I am finally going to make a clapotis!