Doilies! Nell! Sock! Wheeee!

The Damn Doilies are Done!
Yippee!
I actually finished them, like, last Wednesday. See, I miss a couple days of blogging and all hell breaks loose.
So I shall go chronologically and hope nothing interesting happens until I have you up-to-date.
Most importantly, I finished the doilies.
Phew!
I did my fake blocking routine of wetting them and smoothing them out with my hands.
I wanted to get a nice picture of them all together, which is why I didn't tell you this exciting news earlier.
Now, I just have to complete the equally challenging task of getting to the post office. Ha!

Doily Recap
These are basically the Spiralen by Marie Niedner & Gussi von Reden (that link will take you to the Ravelry page), which I expanded to be 12".
I used a US1 needle.
The yarn was some mystery crochet cotton out of my stash, and some fresh crochet cotton I bought.
They aren't actually hard, and they don't actually take a long time. Unless you are trying to make them bigger and you run out of thread.

I Worked on Nell!
When I finished the doilies, I thought to myself, "Boy, this finishing projects business is fun! I can see why people focus on it."
Having destroyed the poor Cotton Ribbed Sock at this point, I was inspired to get out my Nell sweater and have another whack at it.
You might remember I've been struggling with Nell for about two years now.
Knitting the body was a breeze, but I am apparently totally incapable of knitting a button band properly.
Because of this, when last we saw Nell back in January, I had sewn the front opening shut. Sure it's a cardigan, but it's not a wear over other clothes cardigan.
(Of course, I've also sworn off cardigan knitting, but I reserve the write to change my mind.)
I didn't sew the front completely shut, so it would still have that top-button-open look.
To work the second half of the collar, I picked up the seven stitches on the back of the button band just below the button and started knitting up.
However, as you might be able to see in this picture, I don't think it's working quite right.
The button is on the outside, and I think it looks goofy.
Sigh.
I've decided I have to rip it out, pick up on the outside/public side of the band, work the one button hole, and then continue on.
I will, of course, be sewing this little button band portion to the front of the sweater where it belongs. It won't be flapping loose in the breeze.
This new, planned arrangement should give me a more accurate illusion of a button down sweater with the top button open.

Cotton Rib Sock, Reborn
No picture for this one.
Thanks to a train trip into The City on Friday, and some project monogamy over the weekend, I've finished the first of the Cotton Rib Socks.
One down, one to go.
I stuck with the 48 stitches all the way down and the fit on the foot seems fine. The leg is showing potential for bagging, but I think that is just the nature of cotton socks.
I'm just going to have to ignore it and carry on!