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.

I managed to finish Harry’s Scarf in the Nick of Time. I put the fringe on it Thursday morning.

I tagged everything with the fiber content and washing instructions - I had a vision of a mom pulling a sodden, shrunken mass out of the washing machine. And we carried it off to the library. The Wine and Cheese thing went well, I washed about a million glasses (that was my job) and learned that I Really Don’t Like Blue Cheese. I had always suspected that was the case, but it has now been confirmed by experts. The last time Michael looked at the bid sheets, Harry’s Scarf was at $40. This was after I started washing glasses but before the end of the shindig and we didn’t get to see them again. We never discovered the fate of the Fund Raiser Scarf, but it went home with someone who wasn’t us.

But the best part of the evening is that I got to wear Remembering Honey! I hope someone took a picture…

Great Gran also finished up the ENORMOUS amount of knitting that she was doing for her Church Bazaar. We took Baby hats, baby blankets, baby shoes, a little sweater, two short capes and one regular-sized afghan to the church yesterday morning. The sale is today; I am getting M up in a minute because I saw some really wonderful bird houses and want to be sure to get one.
They are raising money for a new sanctuary, Ivan took a large chunk of the old one.

Great Gran and I are back to our regularly scheduled knitting. I am working on M’s cardigan and Great Gran’s new project is Helmet Liners for the soldiers. She is really excited because they used to make something similar during World War II. The Denise Needles have really come in handy.

The Emergency Yarn Order arrived on Saturday and, in yet another Astounding Yarn Miracle, is the SAME DYELOT. How lucky can a girl get? I may even have enough time to finish. If knitting on this scarf is all I do for the next three days. Unfortunately, life rarely permits a person to only do one thing and I have a pretty tight week scheduled. Add to that my Allergies (it’s not the goldenrod, it’s some other yellow thing that blooms at the same time). The SneezeNoMore Medicine has me feeling a little Wonky so it’s a good thing that the only mad skill required for a Hogwarts scarf is knitting in circles. I’m a third of the way along.

Lady Bird is included for scale.

I also ordered some Parade.

Blue for M and green for me! Doesn’t my mug look pretty?

I don’t really need any more sock yarn. I’ve got enough for at least five pairs of socks already, but Parade is sport weight! And self-striping! And Knitpicks has free shipping on $30 orders. I’m a sucker for free shipping.

Also of note: my Aunt and her Little Friend came over for a Knitting Lesson on Friday. I started them off learning the knit stitch with some leftover Rowan Biggie Print on #13s (10 inches long and plastic - short, light needles make for less Awkward learning). Their homework is to finish knitting the ball of yarn. I’ve ordered Lion Brand’s Landscapes in several different colorways (so they can pick) for scarves. In the next lesson, they’ll learn to cast on and then make a simple garter stitch scarf (counting their stitches ever few rows to make sure that the loose one on the edge hasn’t made them add an extra). I like to start people out on an easy project in a yarn with stitch definition (so they can see what they are doing) but a fair amount of interest (so that less-than-perfect craftsmanship is less-than-obvious). Even if they never make anything else in their entire lives, they will have a decent looking scarf that they can tell people they made. I also try not to spend too much on the yarn so that if they never finish, they didn’t blow $40 on materials. Once they’ve finished a scarf, then they can spend obscene amounts of money on Luxury Yarns and Hand Turned Needles. But until then, stick with the mid-range yarns and the lighter plastic needles. Keep the beginners away from large aluminum needles! All you get with that is a lot of swearing and throwing of projects. No one wants that - someone could loose an eye.

Emily Ivey and the Knitting Workshop Present: The Fund-Raiser Hat and Scarf

The pattern for this Delightful Set can be found here in html format. I am adding a link to my Patterns page in case you need it a year from now and find combing through the archives Tedious.

I gotta tell ya: I just love this yarn! The Andean Silk is Dreamy. My stitches are well-defined even though the garmet has developed a delicious little halo. The best part is that Andean Silk creates a wonderful finished object that looks like it cost a lot more than it did. It blocked beautifully - almost crisply - but maintained a fabulous drape. I will absolutely use it again!

Once I was finished with the cabled hat and scarf, I immediately cast on for the Hogwarts Scarf (Library Knitting #2). As I was working on the first few rounds, I started thinking (as I occasionally do) that this was not enough yarn to make a really long, fat scarf. Turns out, it’s not enough yarn to make a really long, fat scarf. I am illiterate and somehow managed to misread the yarn requirements and only order half as much yarn as I need. The new stuff is sure to be a different dyelot. Sure, I could have called KnitPicks and begged them to paw through piles of yarn checking numbers, and I probably should have. But I am embarrassed about this whole thing (which is why I have decided to share the incident here, with only a Few Personal Friends). So I didn’t call. Instead, I have convinced myself that different dyelots is no big deal: it’s a striped scarf, right? I’ll just stagger the dyelots and maybe no one will notice. How’s that for a Plan? And the supplemental yarn may not even make it here in time (I’ve got to finish it by Thursday week) so the whole dilemma may be moot anyway. If I miss the deadline, I think I’ll make it up anyway for M’s sister. She will be the envy of her high school. All the Cool Kids have hand-knit Hogwarts Scarves.

The Up Side to the the Yarn *ahem* Difficulties, is that I have had a bunch of time to work on M’s cardigan. Which I am having a very good time making.

You can’t tell from the picture, but I am past the armhole shaping and in the neck decrease Home Streatch. Of that piece of cardigan anyway. There are still two sleeves, the other front and the back to go. No to mention the front and neck bands. And the seaming. The miles and miles and miles of seaming.