my buttons, let me show you them

Thing the first: Today was a SNOW DAY. It was fantastic. I made a big homemade breakfast and then just lounged around, doing various work-y and craft-y things. Very restful.

Thing the next: My recentest obsession is: buttons. They are neat! And cute! And useful! What's not to like? I had bought a random box of Ball jars at Walmart a while back, and just now realized that cute little jars make perfect cute little button containers.



Also, over Thanksgiving break on a random craft-store whim, I invested a total of $2.30 in two packs of "MAXANT Buttons To Cover" which promptly fell to the bottom of my travelling-back-to-Iowa bags. But not for long! Today, I made them! They are the AWESOME. They are maybe the easiest crafty thing to make ever (seriously: cut fabric into circle. push the whole dealy together. tada! button) and you can have buttons that match anything! So of course I made some that match nothing I actually need buttons for. But someday, they will be needed. I made tiny purple ones and not-so-tiny star print ones.

In other news (like say, knitting) I have been working like mad on Neaty! She is all sewn up! What's left: 31 ends to sew in ...GAHhh, and the left side buttonband to finish (once I get the yarn for it in the mail). I'm happy with the general cozy-ness of the yarn and sweater design, not so happy with the fact that the yarn estimates given in the pattern were WAY off. I am going to have used something like 80 more yards of contrast (trim) color than the pattern called for by the time this is all said and done. So warning if you're looking into this pattern, buy extra stuff, don't listen to the crazy Rowan pattern yarn-estimatey people, because clearly they're confused, just a bit.

yay! kinda

My camera got here! But... I was not here, so it did not stay - it got back on the FedEx truck and so I don't actually have it. I signed the little slip and stuck it back on the door, so let's all cross our fingers for tomorrow.

I started on the lapel section of Salina this afternoon - I am so close to being done with the entire front and back sections! I also got the yarn I ordered for Neaty (see two posts down...) and it's kinda chartreuse-y. I plan on making it work, because I'm pretty sure that's what Tim Gunn would tell me to do. In the same order I also got a copy of Knitting From The Top. I am way excited, I've had an urge for a while now to get in on the designing-side of sweaters, and from what I hear/see related to this book, it'll be a fantastic start.

Also I am down to being 9578th on the ravelry list. Less than ten thousand away! Yay! Kinda!

grar

My camera is gone, well, for right now. I hope to know in a few days whether or not the fixin'll be free. That would be soooo lovely, what with the being a grad student and all.

I finished the back of Salina today! For some reason the neck shaping confused me, but I think I got it all worked out. Did I mention yet how superawesome Felted Tweed is? Because it is. I need to find more felted-tweed-using-patterns, now!



I also bought some yarn for Neaty from Rowan 42. The Rowan Cocoon called for looks soooo nice and soft and all that, but I'm not feeling quite up to spending the hundred-odd bucks that'd take right now. I found Laines du Nord Softlights on elann.com though, which looks to be a good substitute... and the order, with some extra for longer sleeves (because I apparently have freaky long arms and ew, unintentional shorty sleeves!) hit somewhere around $30. That I can do. I looked up the Softlights on google as well, just to check out that it was a decent yarn, and found this. WHICH IS SO CUTE. And she comments specifically on its soft-and-snuggliness, which is what I'm all about for this sweater.

I made a really snazzy MSpaint picture to figure out the colors, too. Because I like to utilize the miracle of technology. Technology that is as old as me.


These are the two greens I ordered - my dilemma was which one for main color. Based on these extremely lifelike models of the hypothetical sweater, I came out liking the one using the light green as the main color, and darker green as the collar/cuffs. The Rowan pattern does it in a similar way with tan and brown, and I think it just has a really cool look. What do you think?

Yippee! Now back to grading (in the world of what-should-I-be-doing) and watching Buffy (in the world of yay!). I'm mid-season-six right now and whoa. Lots to process. Also I cry a lot (in a good way!) when I watch Buffy by myself. I have lots of feelings, what can I say.