Baudelaire are now done too.

And it’s almost cold enough today to wear them. Almost.
Specs:
Pattern: Baudelaire by Cookie A from Knitty
Yarn: Zarina by Filatura Di Crosa, purchased at The Wool Inn
Needles: 2.25mm
Totally enjoyable knit, gorgeous socks, what’s not to love?
So I started some new socks, again by Cookie A.

Monkey socks, from Knitty. The yarn is Kraemer Yarns Sterling Silk & Silver, which I purchased at Stitch Cafe in Los Angeles. It was hand dyed by the staff there, and Emily pretty much swooned when she saw it, so these socks will be hers. It also seemed appropriate, seeing as David frequently refers to her as the Wild Monkey.
Past experience says she’ll wear them once or twice before she somehow loses one of them.
Yesterday I had a total ditz moment. Em had a doctors appointment in the afternoon, and she also had sports at the local gym, so I gave permission for her to come home straight after sport. That means she gets home at around 2.30 instead of 4pm, but she actually prefers not to come home early, because she likes to socialise on the bus with her friends.
Anyway, I was watching the clock, and when I figured she was about 10 minutes late, I started to worry. I tried calling her mobile phone, but there was no answer. I mentioned it to David, and he tried to call her as well.
No answer.
10 minutes later, I was really working myself up. I didn’t know whether to be angry that she was dawdling with her friends, or worried that something had happened. The gym is less than 10 minutes walk away, and it’s literally just around the corner, on busy streets.
I walked out the front and looked up the street for her, but still couldn’t see her. So I jumped in the car and drove up to the gym.
I noticed the buses out the front of the gym and wondered what they were still doing there, they should have headed back to school half an hour earlier.
Then I looked at the clock.
It was 2.02pm. I’d thought it was 3pm.
She wasn’t late, I was early.
Then I had to explain the missed calls and the text messages.
I guess I know where she gets her ditziness from after all!

Charlotte is the first project finished! Here’s how she looked pre blocking.

And blocked and fringed.

The first time I knit Charlotte, I added a knitted lace border rather than the fringing, but I think I like the fringing. Mind you, it took ages to cut it all up and add it.
The pattern says to cast off at the end of the knitting, then to do a row of single crochet, and then add the crochet loops for the fringe. I decided to do it a little differently. I can’t crochet to save my life, and American crochet terminology is different to Australian crochet terminology. Apart from that, I wouldn’t know a single crochet if it came and bit me on the butt.
So I just did a crochet loop bind off, which I also think gave it a little more stretchiness than a knit cast off edge would. I’m not a fan of cast off edges on lace.
Done, in 8 days. Quite a contrast to the Shetland Shawl!
Buttercup is continuing. At the moment I’m still working on this.

The never ending tie. It needs to be 140cm long, and it doesn’t seem to matter how much knitting I do, it’s just not getting there! Other than that, Buttercup is nearly done. It’s blocked and seamed, all it needs is this tie, and crochet loops on the sleeves for the buttonholes.
In Twinkie news, yes, she is still slim and sleek, although you wouldn’t know it from this angle.

She’s keeping in shape by dancing.

Whenever Emily practices her dancing, Twinkie likes to come in and show her how it’s done.
Next year, it’s So You Think You Can Dance, rabbit style.

All my projects seem to be closing in on their respective finishing lines.
Charlotte is racing along.

This was exactly the right lace project to follow the Shetland Shawl. Fingering weight on 3.5mm needles feels like chunky yarn on broomsticks after cobweb on 2.5mm needles!
Buttercup is a bathing beauty.

All done, and blocking. All I have to do is seam her up, and finish knitting the garter band for the bottom. That bit is really, really boring, so it’s taking a while.
And the only other project currently on the needles is the Baudelaire socks.

As per usual, I have three projects going at once. A lace project, a garment and a pair of socks. Once they’re done, I can start three more.
What’s next? Not really sure yet, but this arrived yesterday.

Oh.My.Gravy. It’s heaven in a ball band. Filatura Di Crosa Superior, 70% Cashmere, 30% silk, 100% droolworthy. Not a hint of scratchiness, it’s just lush. I think this will hit the needles in short order.

All Charlotte, all the time.

Nothing but Charlotte! As you can see, I didn’t rip it, I left it as is and the more I look at it, the more I like it. I do wish I’d swapped colours 1 and 2 around though. I think the two greens were too close in colour, and a little bit of contrast would have been better, but I’m not so bothered that I’m going to start over.
Poor Buttercup has been ignored. I’m blaming the weather. Sydney has had a sad lack of decent weather this summer. If we were having warmer weather I’d be more inclined to pick it up and finish it, I think.
And just because she’s had a lack of blog air time of late, here’s Twinkie.

She’s soaking up the sunlight and my adoration in equal amounts.

I love you people, my imaginary friends! Every one of your comments made me smile, thank you. My family smile and admire my knitting, but they don’t “get” it the way all of you do.
So, in the wake of finishing the Shetland Shawl, I suddenly find my knitting future wide open. I did pickup Buttercup and make one sleeve.

I had to incorporate some pretty big modifications in that sleeve. Fortunately I took notes for the next one! I’m knitting the size small for myself, and that fits just fine in the body, but there was no way those itty-bitty sleeves were going around my upper arm. So I added a few stitches and readjusted the armhole shaping to make up for the additional stitches. It seems to be fine now, we’ll see how it goes.
So all that remains of Buttercup is one more sleeve and a tie. I could have that done in a few days!
But I let temptation beguile me, and resurrected a long, long dead project.

It’s the Charlotte’s Web shawl! My friend Jill sent me this for my birthday back in 2004. I knit it up, and then it sat, for ages, waiting for an edging. Then I edged it, blocked it and it was huge. H-U-G-E. SO I frogged it in a huff and threw it aside.
But last night I decided that a triangle shawl in fingering weight is exactly what I need after a square in cobweb, so on the needles it went.
Alas, it may soon come off. I’m not sure that I’m happy with the colour combo I went with this time, especiaslly after looking at the way I went last time!