Buttons, WIPs and the Sock Hop

Yesterday, I promised to show the buttons I bought for my lilac La Gran cardigan. I must say that I am quite pleased with myself. I usually don’t do this well at shopping.

They are made of Czech glass (if you know beads, you know that Czech glass is great quality glass) with a metalicky finish (look, Ma, I made a new word!). I got them from As Cute as a Button online. They may look like a strange choice for a lilac sweater, but I assure you I have an ulterior motive. I have made and received A LOT of purple jewelry, and I wanted buttons to complement the beads and gems, not overpower them. So how did I do?

We won’t discuss the cost of the buttons.

As for WIPs, in a strange fit of arithmetical fever, I calculated the exact number of stitches per sleeve of the La Gran cardigan (you need not comment on the arithmetical fever–I know I’m crazy). I can say with great arithmetical (I looked up the spelling of this word, so now I intend to use it) confidence that I have completed 57% of sleeve two. Sigh.

Nancy, for whom I am knitting the Madder Ribbed Socks in CTH peacock yarn, made the gross error of telling me that I didn’t need to rush with her socks when I apologized for taking so long. So, I finished the Rib and Cable Socks for me as I had less to do. I am on the knit even portion of the foot of sock 2 for Nancy. I need a power knitting session! They are turning out better than any other pair I have made, so it will be great to complete them. It is October after all! And I did join the Sock Hop at Romancing the Yarn along with Socktoberfest. I feel I should not double display, so I need to get the socks going! And I have…a little…

The self-striping yarn (I did NOT do that to the ball of yarn, I received it that way) is the second pair for my MIL. I have made these smaller as the others were too wide. I hope these fit. The grey are for myself. When I went to wear some black slacks the other day, I realized that I had very little appropriate sockwear. I can’t wear black socks as the dye inflames the bottoms of my feet, but I can wear grey. I have no idea why I have this problem, and my feet aren’t talking. But they have rejected black nylons, black polyester, black wool and black cotton sockwear. So, grey it is. I am making my own sock design! It is almost impossible to see in the photo, but here’s a try:

The leg design below the K2P2 cuff is the Gingerbread Cable from Vogue Knitting Stithionary 2: Cables. I wanted a subtle pattern, and it is easy to knit, so I hope all continues well. I plan to show these at the Sock Hop. Nancy’s socks and the MIL socks will probably go to Socktoberfest. So much to do!