109 thoughts on “Deciding”

  1. VERY COOL! I love the sweater, to the point I’ve been hunting for the book online 🙂
    Will the next project be in spring colors? (and hey, i’m first to comment right now! YAY! LOL)

  4. Can’t wait to see what’s next on the needles – perhaps that cross-stitch kit you bought? ;)j/k

  5. Beautiful!
    I find myself in the same boat… Things have been wrapped up… Spin or knit? SPIN OR KNIT?!!?
    🙂 Happy knitting!

  7. Start on a pair of Christmas socks for someone? Get WAY ahead of the game.

  8. Congrats! The sweater looks divine, you appear to still have your sanity intact (most of it?) and yay for new mad embroidery skillz!

  9. How about restorative lace – something for YOURSELF?
    Congratulations on the very charming sweater. I would not have done the embroidery at all.

  13. Hey Steph, nice sweater! How about casting on 3 or 4 things? Then you can play with lots of yarn all at once, just like me 🙂

  16. Nice sweater, I’m sure Luis will look great in it. I expect it will be a treasured heirloom in that family.

  18. I vote for socks but I always vote for socks. 😉
    I absolutely adore your button bin! Is this the vintage one? It’s amazing!

  19. Yeah Steph- I had no doubts you could pull it off. Like you I’ve given up most needlework except knitting of course. I still have a stray cross stitch kit here and there. Decided life was to short to do stuff you didn’t really love to do. Make something pretty for yourself- spring is coming- supposed to be 84 here in Northern California today.
    How is Sam? Can you post an update on the blog? Still sending her love asnd healing.
    Judy

  21. I love your bowl of buttons. I have a giant antique canning jar of buttons I love. My grandmother’s always cut off buttons and saved them when disposing of old clothing. Have used several of them on sweaters for my granddaughters and they are perfect. They are buttons you can no longer purchase in any store.

  22. Sweater is gorgeous! and don’t you love running your hands through all those buttons..aahhhh. On another note, my emails to you ATyarnharlotDOTcom must be getting caught in a spam filter cuz they’re coming from work – so here’s the thing. I have a ball of green/purpleish Kauni that is too scratchy for me. So as not to seem like a stalker, I’ll mail it to Lettuce Knits and ask them to hold it for you. If it’s not your colors, pls pass it along. thanks!!

  23. You say that, but we all know and love you well enough that we can’t be surprised when you show up with a gray cardigan tomorrow.
    Not that there’s anything wrong with that 😉

  25. Do something in a spring green. Maybe just a slightly variegated spring green.
    You could try the “Spatterdash Wristwarmers” that I recently discovered on raverly. Or not, I just have them on the brain because they’re so pretty. 🙂

  26. Presbytera and Rams will say “Joe’s Gansey” but I’m not as mean as they are.

  27. I love the sweater. And I love all your buttons. But they look as if they need sorting into sets so you can see how many you have. Here’s a plan: obtain a lot of small ziplock bags (the little ones which are sometimes used for certain illegal substances,) a rainy day like today, and Hank. Or anyone who likes sorting things. My mom used to let my sister and me sort through her button collection. I can’t imagine what you will knit next, but I’m betting it will be vibrant.

  29. The sweater looks lovely! Very well done 🙂
    I also have a sweater just waiting for buttons that I will have to raid my collection for. I have a similar tin that has buttons from both my mother and my grandmother.
    The little bird buttons peaking out from the top of the sweater are absolutely precious!
    Have fun with your next project. Definitely something spring to ward off the 15cm of snow they are calling for today and tomorrow! (Here in Peterborough at least, which means you will likely see it too.)

  30. The little birdies under the left shoulder of the sweater– please, please share: Where did you get them? Are they still available somewhere? My God, they’re lovely– cute without being too cute, you know?

  32. That sweater is awesome. I am in my own cardigan hell right now and can’t wait to start the next thing, but determined to finish this one first! I vote for a beuatiful spring cardigan…think green!

  33. I may be a bit slow. I have been reading this blog a long time, really I have. But … are you a monogamous knitter? Surely not. Where are the other 10 projects, partly done, packed in bags with their needles attached? Do you do WIPs?

  35. Nice work girl. I knew you could do it, nobody said it would be fun, but we knew you would love the outcome!!

  36. Because I am still working on the MINDLESS
    Doctor Who scarf how about some thing for your mum
    Mothers day will be soon.

  37. Steph the wee sweater is truly lovely. By chance what book did it come from? I would love to knit this for the many babies in my life. With thanks. D

  38. All those buttons and yet the catkin has none? It’s a shame. I am with you, those are flowers, not snowflakes. They did look like snowflakes but the embroidery changes them to flowers. It is lovely all the same.

  39. That sweater is gorgeous and your knitting and embroidery are fantastic! This time of year I need color. If I were you after all that grey I’d do something colorful!

  41. Might I suggest the Jackson Street Cardigan from Glenna C. I am just about to start it. Perfect light cardigan for spring into summer.

  42. Oh my, your beautiful bowl o’ buttons brings back fond memories of the huge collection my grandmother had in her sewing cabinet. It was truly a gluttonous feast of button gloriousness. My cousin and I used to play a game called ‘cash register’ and the buttons were cash (it was just an excuse to go thru my grandmother’s sewing cabinet) which I inherited when she passed, as well as her very old, all metal, Singer sewing machine with treadle. I ended up having to sell everything. Don’t ever give up that stash!
    Absolutely beautiful work with the sweater. That is one lucky little baby!

  43. It’s beautiful and totally worth the finickity embroidering. So if you’re going for something completely different now, how about a little spring flavoured spinning to cleanse the fibre palette?

  44. Just seeing all of those buttons makes my heart flutter. I want to run my fingers through them and listen to them hitting each other. I am off to get my tin button box and do just that.

  45. Thank you for posting the button photo. I have a great tin that has no use. It’s sitting in my recycling and I keep putting it aside when the recycling goes to the curb. I also have a bag of buttons from the thrift store that I’m afraid will burst someday. NOW both worries will be solved by each other. Yeah!

  46. I love the sweater. So very very sweet. I have a few pregnant people in my life that I want to knit for this year, and I think there may be something very like that for at least one of them….

  47. Great to see your button tin again. I have the Feb,2008 post (where you showed it before) in my favorites list. You were looking for buttons for a grey sweater then also. We have some buttons in common, and I have my Mom’s buttons and my MIL’s also and have been collecting on my own for over 45 years. I have about 18 small jars with bright buttons in my sewing room where the sunlight can shine on them. That makes me happy whenever I look at them.

  48. It could be anything, but that anything might end up being grey again. Maybe even with embroidery.
    OK, maybe no to the embroidery.

  51. Can someone please explain why buttons so frequently do not match the garment? Certainly that grey might be hard to match. And a fashion touch might be supplied by buttons. Buy why oh why would someone put heavy brass buttons on a fine black wool suit?

  52. It’s an epic baby sweater- I love it!
    If you want a very interesting knit for an adult woman, I am having such fun knitting ‘Wildmere Cardigan’ by Alexis Winslow. It’s a wonderful design and so very fun to knit due to the unusual construction. There’s a idea for you!

  54. Love the little baby Jacket the colour is lovely. Looking forward to seeing what you will knit next. The anticipation of a new project is magic…..

  55. I’m having button issues myself at the moment. Made a baby sweater with a front neck placket; forgot I would need to sew on buttons. I HATE sewing on buttons, even very cute ones. Maybe if I gave myself over to making the buttons and hand-painting them it would make me feel better-disposed towards them, but I doubt it. I love buttons as objects, have a very similar collection to yours garnered over several generations; but until I can get someone else to sew them on for me I will still resent the hell out of them.

  56. Hey, so that’s where my Great’s button tin is! I’ve been looking for it for weeks.

  57. BUTTONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Buttons, buttons, buttons,buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons!!!!

  61. My heart skipped a beat when the page loaded & I laid eyes on that button stash – talk about eye candy!!! You’ve amassed an impressive collection!!
    Oh & the sweater looks awesome lol

  62. Use buttons with 4 holes. Do not ever put shank buttons on a baby garment, lest they chew them off, swallow, and choke. A relative’s infant choked on breakfast cereal three times before they switched to the kind with holes in the pieces.

  64. I like the brown leather ones in the upper right hand corner.
    I usually take longer choosing the buttons than knitting the sweater.

  65. Ohhhhh…. someone who actually has more buttons than I do. And the little bird buttons are totally adorable.

  66. Ooooh! I want that button collection! It is getting *so* hard to find buttons – unless you just want metal ones on everything you knit. 🙁
    Sweater is gorgeous. Congrats on staying with it! How about some real Spring colors now?

  68. Oh that pot of buttons … my Mum still has her HUGE box of assorted buttons that she bought in about 1966 for five shillings (for younger readers: shillings were a prehistoric form of British money, with each shilling equalling today’s 5 pence — in those days you could actually buy something with this amount). It is a well-known fact that the button box contains both an infinite number of buttons and paradoxically, the precise number of matching buttons that you need for any project MINUS ONE. We have tested this many times …

  70. Hope the aches in Sam’s arm are diminishing – ouch and ouch. I did a straight arm fall years ago and the break really ached like heck. And, that sweater is out of a time machine – quite classic and quiet and comfy looking.

  71. The sweater is, of course, beautiful… I HAVE that book– I’ll have to take a look at that pattern (bought it when you made another Dale of Norway baby/toddler sweater a few years ago–the 2 color one with squares?) BUT I am soooo envious of your BUTTON collection!! What a bountiful stash!!

  72. you are incredibly awesome at task completion! sigh… i guess everyone needs a role model, thanks for being mine. 🙂

  76. I am in awe of that sweater.
    As a pediatrician, I have to tell you that if you’re going to put buttons on a baby sweater, you always want to use the kind with holes all the way through. That way if by some chance they pull one off, stick it in their mouth and aspirate it, they can breathe through it until it can be removed. It happens, and it really does make a difference!

  77. I think I would have done a split stitch or a back stitch around the “flakes”. The reason they look like flowers is because they are not angular enough. I noticed in the Ravelry pattern pictures that they also look like flowers. Snowflakes are made of crystals. Crystals are angular. Mystery solved! LOL Try the other stitch types & see what you think.

  78. I’m going to suggest you do a nice lacy sling for Sam’s arm, one that she can later wear as a wrap or shawl. Springtime colors, of course, but use a warm-weather yarn so it doesn’t get too hot on her neck.
    Or you could start Joe’s Christmas socks. I heard a rumor he wants some over-the-calf ones this year. . .;-)!

  79. LOL And here I thought only my family kept buttons in tins! Thanks for the trip down memory lane 🙂 And, the sweater is gorgeous!

  83. For a few seconds I was again a little girl curled up on the braided rug playing with the buttons from my mother’s blue enamelled tin treasure chest while Mom knitted away. Every button in that chest was a treasure to me. Thank you for the awesome photo.

  85. Just today my 2 yo granddaughter and I were going through my decades old button jar (buttons from me, my mother and MIL.) She loves to spend time sorting them and searching through to find her favs – always the TEAL ones 🙂 Memories through the generations!!
    Please keep us updated on Sam’s progress – I now it is too soon for a report yet. But good thoughts are with her.

  87. 1. I totally would have skipped the embroidery on the sweater. I liked the snowflakes as they were.
    2. I love that you have so many buttons.
    3. I didn’t read the post about Sam and her elbow until I was at work on Tuesday, and the firewall there keeps me from posting comments; but I wanted to wish her a speedy recovery. Oh, and to let her know that, in our house, injuries are often treated with milkshakes.

  88. I love how all the white buttons are different from one another! Sorting out the identicals in a big jar of white buttons was one of my favorite tasks for my Tiny Tux sweater (needed three of one size white, two of another, and three stemmed black ones–the LYS owner said, “Here, we meant to sort these sometime,” and put me at a table.) How many of the same size and shape do you need to find?

  89. My grandmother had a button bin just like that, in an old cracker tin with a lid. I used to spend hours playing with the buttons. She would cringe when I dumped them all out on the kitchen floor, but patiently walked away and left me to it. I miss that button bin. Thanks for the memories…of my French Canadian grandmother.

  91. That sweater makes me happy just looking at it. I suggest gray buttons to they fade into the beautiful background.

  96. The embroidery bit is cute, but I ask myself: does chain-stitching the edges of the snowflake make the sweater more beautiful? No. So I would have skipped the embroidery bit. But you get a medal for slogging it out as written.

  101. It’s not just another baby sweater, it’s a labour of love AND a work of art! Magnifique!

  102. Oh, the button selection stage. What fun! I often see knitters at my local fabric shop (Vogue Fabrics) hunched over the button boxes at the notions counter, totally engrossed in selecting just *the* right button. I often ask them about their WIP….and they of course, tell me all the details of the pattern, yarn, etc. Speaking of buttons, I’ve got a stash of vintage ones I need to work with. Yipes.

  103. I would say a coracle but you’d fret where to put it when it was done.
    Knitted teacups?

  104. That little sweater is beyond incredible! And those little birdie buttons in the background are too cute for words.

  105. I second Gretchen ~ a cast cozy for Sam seems like a perfect project.
    How is she coping. I broke my right thumb 12 years ago and as soon as it was healed up, broke the left wrist. Not fun! Sending healing thoughts her way!

  106. I am awaiting your next project! Love seeing what you are knitting and where you are going!

  108. You’re totally right, there’s nothing that warms the heart like a present that’s really used. I must confess I stopped sewing for my mother when I realized that she put everything, even the sweatshirts, directly into the cedar chest..

  109. Your button bowl inspired me to begin to keep the buttons I find on floor at work. I process returns for a 3rd party company that ships our men’s and woman’s clothes (fulfillment for online catalog) and we are constantly finding buttons from items that customers return.
    The buttons are in small packs. The customer returns the extra buttons and they are always falling out of the packages! As we have no idea what item they come from, they are frequently swept up and thrown away.
    Now I have a reason to bend over and get them! Thanks! Steph Strikes Another Idea!
    bjr

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