more parading.....

Hooboy, it was good for me and my sanity that I posted that little lovely (and completed) lace project yesterday. It reminded me that lace can indeed be worth the effort. I had nearly forgotten. That's because yesterday, as I was typing up that post up, I was simultaneously (and intermittently) attempting to fix a huuuuge mistake in my current lace knitting project.

I'm working on a simple little shawlette, and for all its simplicity, it has been kicking my arse since the very first section. Yesterday I found a mistake that was so bad, it required me to rip a hole into a lace border that was 13 stitches wide and 7 rows deep in order to fix things (if you aren't a knitter, imagine having a gaping hole in your favorite sweater, complete with those running dangling strands criss-crossing throughout the hole, and then imagine trying to put the sweater back together exactly as it was before).
NOT. FUN.

It took hours. Not hours of solid work, but hours of diligence balanced with time outs. I'd work on it for 20 minutes, then back away slowly, then come back a bit later. Over and over again. It was so bad at one point I almost swore off knitting lace entirely. "Never Again!!!" I cursed, shaking my fists at the sky (where I guess the lace knitting gods live). I almost stabbed my eyes out with my knitting needles just so I wouldn't have to look at the hot mess any longer!

I am back on track now, finally....but man! It was such a painful fix!!
I maybe oughta just ripped it back and started over.
But I did it. And I won (you hear that, lace gods?!!).
I am the ruler of my knitting, dammit.

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Next in line in my little parade of knitted things is a fix I had to do to something else I finished recently. Remember that mink beret? Well, it turned out that the whole damn hat, especially the band, had stretched out a little bit too much for my taste after the first few wearings.
My fix?? Sewing elastic into the inside of the hat band.



Since I had the sewing kit out (and being the lover of vintage buttons that I am), while I was at it with the needle and thread, I tacked on a little somethin' somethin' to spruce the hat up a bit.


It's another old metal button from the stash, probably late 1800's or early 1900's. The metal is sort of a brassy brownish color, but the center of the button has a pinkish purple sort of tint over it. It's charming :-)


I like it.
And while everyone else "puts a bird on it," I'll just keep putting buttons on it ;-)