Snakes on a Sweater*

Yeah, I'm that far out of the main stream.

I'm this far away from finishing Mrs. Darcy. (Er, still.) The second sleeve is done all the way up to the sleeve cap of the second sleeve when I ran out of yarn. I didn't really run out of yarn, after all, I bought seven skeins of the stuff. (I'm not really sure what I was thinking.) Anyway, I finished the fourth skein and, rather than wind up another perfectly, well, perfect skein of the stuff I, instead, decided that it would be thrifty of me to frog the first sleeve, the one that was knitted too tight and far, far too long, and reuse that yarn. Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! Anyway, so I did that, but I thought that it would be better for the yarn (and my sanity) if I washed it first before trying to reuse it, as it was way, way crimpy. So that had a bath today and is hanging in the bathroom on the shower rod with 2 hangers hanging off of it to give it that extra impetus to dry straight. Unfortunately, as I have found out while blocking each individual piece of the sweater (all the better for seaming, you see) once fully emersed in liquid (and I let knitted things soak for at least an hout to let it get nice and saturated) it takes about two days to dry.

Le sigh.

So anywho, I was out yesterday shopping for wood, which I was unable to get, let's just not go there, and I realized that since I was so close to finishing Mrs. Darcy, and the Tilted Duster too, really, that I had better start looking for some buttons. Now, I have no idea where people get all their cool buttons, because there sure aren't any stores around here that sell cool buttons, but my aunt mentioned there was a fabric store that might have something. So, off to find the mysterious fabric store we went.

It was Jo-Ann Fabric.

Now, I have to say that in the past, and not recent past eaither, I have had bad experiences with Jo-Ann Fabrics, which really has been no fault of the store itself and purely due to my own stupidity. Years ago beyond the mists of time that pre-date Etsy and Ebay and this thing we call The Internet, one had to physically travel to a store to buy, well, anything, unless it came out of a mail-order catalogue. This was also in the days that a store that strictly sold yarn was unheard of, a myth, kind of akin to la chupacabra (but one that would not eat your goats if you were not careful). The only big box craft type stores in town were Michael's and Jo-Ann's and though I was not, and still am not, a sewer, I would inevitably end up at Jo-Ann's and be disappointed, because dude, THEY DON'T SELL YARN. Lots of other cool crap, but no yarn. But do you know what they do sell (now anyway, and besides some pretty nice fabrics?)

Lots and lots of (mostly) cool buttons.

I could not believe how many cool buttons I found! At Jo-Ann Fabrics! Buttons! This pleases me greatly, because if you actually look at their website most of the buttons listed are pretty lame. What's up with that, Jo-Ann Fabrics? (Kinda makes me wish I had bought more buttons.) Here are the three (well, six) that I walked away with:


And here is what I was thinking. Maybe this (which my aunt was partial to but I was concerned about it being too matchy-matchy):


Or this:


And for the Duster maybe this:


There were so many pretty buttons there (along with some pretty hideous ones, but I am blocking those out of my memory), and it was only through sheer force of will that I did not walk out of that store with $50 in buttons. What think ye?

In other news, I pretty much completely ignored the advice of almost everyone and kept the Options dpns because, despite the relative heaviness of them they are so smooth and shiney in their titanium coatedness that I love them. I ended up knitting the sleeves of Mrs. Darcy with the 8s (the actual correct size, thank you very much) rather than the icky old plastic 7s that I >was using, and had a much more enjoyable time of it. Am having a much more enjoyable time of it. Make no mistake though, the new order is in the mail (gad).

And in other other news, I finally started on the fourth and last ball of Noro for the entrelac scarf. Cue the angelic choir. Not that I don't like knitting it, but it was starting to seem like that third ball was never going to end. I've just about finished the 40th tier, and I officially proclaim that knit 75% complete. That's good since I so want to cast on for some other scarf pattern, because this year everyones getting scarves for Christmas. Yesindeedydo.

And finally, have you seen this blog? (I think I have a new favorite.)


*Snakes on a Sweater refers, oddly enough, not to the movie Snakes on a Plane, but to Lime & Violet's podcast Snakes on a Podcast. Though I have been a devout listener of Brenda Dayne's podcast, Cast-On since the very beginning, I never did navigate over to Lime & Violet. So, once again, I am last to the party. I have just caught up through episode 11. I think I have a couple of long nights ahead of me...

posted by Carrie @ 5:39 PM