Steady progress

Well, the Pfaffenhofen sweater is making good progress. This was where I was up to as of Wednesday..

...and I'm now beyond that and on to the first sleeve. I am seriously impressed with the yardage of the WM DK. That first skein got me almost down to the ribbing at the lower edge, and that was with a couple of inches of bust darts and an additional 18 rounds added to the body of the garment. 
Winding the second skein was an experience I could have done without, though. I was trundling along quite happily until the skein decided to go rogue and leapt off my swift (I have an Amish-style one that sits on the floor) and I ended up with a tangle that took four HOURS to undo!
My winder is an old faithful though. It's a little plastic one that my mother used to use for winding wool off cones for machine knitting. I have many childhood memories of it being attached to the edge of a coffee table or the kitchen table and her winding little cakes of wool on it. I think everyone has sounds that take them back and the whirring of that little ball winder going round and round is definitely one of mine. I have a bigger one for winding really large skeins (there's no way this one would cope with the mile of yarn that is a WM lace skein) but if I can use this one, I do.

As long as I'm careful with it, it copes brilliantly with even a full 200g of WM DK and with a full skein of Pure which has over 500 yards of yarn. The only thing I need to watch is that when the ball gets big enough, the little silver guide isn't quite high enough up to stop the yarn scooting underneath the white lip and getting stuck in the gears, but that's what you get for using more yarn than the winder is supposed to accommodate. Holding my hand higher on the yarn and watching it closely so I can stop winding straight away minimises the problem.

Now onwards and downwards towards the ends of the sleeves!