At dinner on Tuesday, Great Gran pointed out that it was only two months ’til Christmas. I gotta get on that – the Traditional Limited Edition Emily Ivey Handmade Christmas Ornaments are usually finished by now. But don’t worry, I have a plan.

It’s such a good plan that I had time to make a play house for the cats.

Angus is not pleased that their new house is close to the fireplace. It used to be a quiet neighborhood.

I ended up selecting these as the Official Buttons of the Must Have Cardigan:

I think that’s a butterfly under the thing that looks like an olive branch. But it could be a cicada.

And the final effect is something like this:

It’s so nice to have closure.

And the book I looked at while posing for the above picture is Handknit Holidays. Simply Delicious. There is a sweater in there that makes the entire book worth owning. You’ll know it when you see it, I was a little bit breathless after flipping through the first time. And if you don’t drool over the sweater, there are always the cabled tree skirt and matching stockings, the ornaments, the table runner, and the really tall socks that My Darling Sister wants (she will have to swear that she will wear them before I make them – but I am contemplating a shorter version to wear with clogs). Handknit Holidays is packed with knitting goodness and probably the best $20 I’ve spent this year (yarn and corduroy flats excluded, of course). I’d be looking through it right now but I don’t have it with me. I’ve left it with Great Gran for tonight – we’ll see if she can spot the Sweater of Emily’s Dreams. This is just as well, I’ve got to tutor my cousin in algebra tomorrow and I need to work my way through Chapter 7 to be sure I know what I’m doing. They are starting radical equations and irrational expressions. Sounds like fun, huh?

PS Great Gran and I are going to try felting one more time! This is our inspiration.

During the Depression, my Great Gran-Dad’s job was buying up the stock of stores that were going out of business. When he came to Bay Minette, he loved the town and the department store so he bought the entire thing, moved here with his family (which included Great Gran) and went into business. Even though he closed the department store years and years ago, there is still store related stuff around (the attic of our house was stuffed with it). I’ve got a couple mirrors and a whole bunch of book shelves (Mom’s got this great yellow cabinet and a Hoosier cabinet that I covet) and Great Gran has an Enormous Box of buttons. She was over here the other day and noticed that I STILL didn’t have buttons on the Must Have Cardigan. She suggested that I go through the Box to find something I liked.

I was not kidding when I said it was an Enormous Box.

There are all kinds of cool things in there. I know, I looked at every single button. So did Betty and Lucy. With further help, I managed to create a short list.

Naturally, my three favorites were one of a kind (bad news when you need seven buttons). But that encouraged me to narrow the field a little further. What did I end up with? You’ll just have to wait until after I attach them and finally display the Must Have Cardigan in Triumph! I hear Monday is going to be almost chilly here…

I did finish the other front to M’s cardigan and have moved on to the back band.

Progress will be suspended for the next couple hours: it’s time for M to get up and dig some holes in which to plant things! The Kiwanis Club’s annual barbeque is today, too. They don’t get GrillZilla out very often and it is really a Sight To Behold.