Surprises

Well, the first surprise is that I'm actually blogging again. Good grief; not sure how I managed to go almost a month without doing that, sorry!

There are also knitting surprises to talk about. First of all, I've been working on something for DD1's upcoming birthday. She wanted me to use the "Errol" pattern from the Harry Potter-themed "Charmed Knits" book (which I have made before with much difficulty but now have my notes from that project to make it vastly easier now) to make a "Hedwig" owl. And so, I have:

(about a month ago)

(what it looks like now, minus the beak, which is done but I forgot to photograph it)

I bet she'll love it.

I also made a cardigan for Sylvie, owner of Lettuce Knit, who had a birthday recently. Earlier in the year she had given me a gift of yarn out of the blue, so I thought it was only fitting that I use it to make something for her. :) I had some of the same yarn in a few other colours, left over from a gorgeous shawl I did a few years ago, and the combination of all that yarn was just enough (seriously, I had nothing left of one of the colours when all was said and done) to do the Hap Cardigan, which I wanted an excuse to make. :) It comes from the same issue of Knit Now as my Stippling blanket, and I think it's really beautiful. Especially in these colours, which suit Sylvie bee-yew-tifully:

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I guessed at the size, but apparently I'm a good guesser because it fit her perfectly. I was ever so pleased.:)

I also finished my husband's birthday socks:

This was a challenge, because about two thirds through the second sock, the colourway pattern changed. Not a huge amount, but definitely enough that I had to start doing some strategic chopping-and-reattaching of yarn in order to end up with vaguely identical socks. I hate that.

And also, I've been working on my mom's Christmas present, the Maja shawl. Here it was a month ago:

But by now it's almost all done - I finally blocked it this afternoon:

Finally, I started something for DD3's birthday, which is coming up in August:

I'm not sure at this point whether I like the lack of good contrast between the two colours, so I may yet frog it. But I adore the pattern - it's Lady Emmeline, by Holly Yeoh (I love her stuff), and it's from the same issue of Petite Purls as my Flutterby Tam pattern.

More coming; hopefully way sooner than this post took!