Monday, September 06, 2010

Darn Buttons

There are no buttons to be had in Elko. At least not any that would work for my nearly finished sweaters.

Remember the Holly Jacket?


For all intents and purposes it is finished. You'll notice I haven't taken it out of my current projects list. I finally found some buttons in Boise that look good on the sweater. The problem is the inner buttons. They don't fit in the holes. Part of the problem could be my wonky button band,


and another part could be that I sewed them too tightly against the fabric. I'm not sure that fixing either of those problems would solve the larger problem, so I'm going to sew on some snaps to keep it closed.

My goal this week is to finish the current projects. Along with Holly, I've just about finished Laccaria. I'm working on weaving in the ends (as you can see in the picture). This sweater will probably go the way of Holly, though, and wait months on end for appropriate buttons.


Finally, I'm finishing Playful Stripes. I have buttons for that, which I got in Boise with the buttons for Holly. I need to graft the armholes first. I'm procrastinating on that one. Somehow weaving in a million ends is more attractive than grafting.


I'm itching to make something with cables. I also want to make Goodale, but I don't have the yarn for it. I can't really buy yarn right now, unfortunately. I think I'm going to satisfy the cable craving with either Liffey or Snapdragon Flip-tops. I'm in the mood for mittens more than a hat, but the design of the hat is calling me. Who knows? My craving will probably change before I allow myself to cast on for a new project.

What about my travels, you ask? Brian and I went to Salt Lake City to see She & Him in the park. That was fun. We stayed on to camp and climb with friends--well, I climbed. It hailed on us so we bailed.Brian and I backpacked in to a small lake, which was really nice. We tried camping just outside Salt Lake the next night, but we got to the campgrounds past curfew. It really makes us angry that they lock the gates at 10 pm. They even put those tire spikes on the exit so you can't get in. What about folks like us? What if you already have a site and decided to go out to dinner? Horrible. I'm starting to think that people in Utah like torture, too. We went on a two-mile hike that had a 2,000 foot elevation gain. Ridiculous. It was even difficult coming down! We ate at an incredible restaurant to make up for our pain. We even ordered wine and the most delicious dessert.

Michigan was amazing as usual. The UP is such a special place in the summer, and seeing my friends is worth waiting for all year.