Not exactly progress

The Blob is still not blocked, but it has had buttons sewn on. Twice. And it still isn't finished. I went looking in my button can for suitable buttons; I thought I had some leather shank buttons in there. But after dumping the whole lot out on the guest bed and going through them all, I was one button short. I know there's a joke in there somewhere, but I'm saying it anyway. I did find enough leather buttons, but they were the kind with holes, not a shank, so I sewed them on anyway. But the knitted fabric is too bulky and I wasn't happy with the way it bunched up, so I took them off. Yesterday, I went to Joann's (Without the sweater, of course; what do you think I am, some sort of genius?), where I found two different wooden shank buttons so I bought enough of each for the sweater. Last night, I showed both of them, the small oak ones and the large mahogany ones, to ToolMan who proclaimed the large mahogany ones were perfect. So, I sewed on the small oak ones. To the wrong side of the front. The Blob is now taking a time out in the guest room until it decides to cooperate with my finishing techniques. Or until I am in a mood to take off the wrong buttons and sew the right buttons on the right side. Fourteenth time is the charm, right?

And I am still knitting on the Big Black Things, so progress is being made on that front. Thankfully they need neither buttons nor blocking; they do however require duplicate stitch. We shall see how successfully, or not, that goes.

I did knit something that I can actually show you. Except, I didn't knit them.



I have to confess; I crocheted. I know it's wrong, but I just couldn't help myself. I haven't been happy with the way the bobbins turned, or didn't, on the lazy kate so I decided to make some felted "washers" for it. Some leftover Dale of Norway, a size G hook, and 15 minutes later I had some round things; then a couple spins through the washer and dryer with the dirty towels and they were well felted. Hopefully, this will quiet the noisy plying. And they didn't need buttons.

I did finish that batch of roving; it's in lace weight singles, resting on the bobbin. It's not as brown as I had anticipated. I was hoping for "New England Autumn", but it turned out more like . . . .



"Brady Bunch Kitchen." Barbara suggested plying it with something else to make the colors "pop"; I'm not sure any color in there is capable of "pop." I'm going to Andean ply it because I at this point I already don't like it, so I have nothing to lose. If all else fails, I'll over dye it and cable it with something else.

After all knitting on The Blob (which is not exactly vibrantly colored), the Big Black Things, and spinning all that brown, I needed some COLOR to work on. StitchJones to the rescue!



Would you just look at those colors! Sharon's colors are highly saturated, and even though she's not a spinner (but I'm working on her), she knows how to dye roving so the colors stay true when spun. This is 4 ounces of Corriedale in her "On The Vine" colorway.



These colors are making me of someone on the Christmas list. I'm thinking this will become a hat; I have a skein of Sharon's kettle-dyed semi-solid that would make a great scarf to go with this. And I won't have to sew on a single button.