Thank You Michael Palin

A Popular Pin

I added yesterday's button photo to my Pinterest "button" board and it's already been re-pinned 13 times!  Impressive!

Let's celebrate

Yesterday's Buttons

All in a row...

A Cap Fit for a Beast









I've spent most of today doing a re-organisation of my mass-produced plastic buttons, I know, I know... you see, this is what you learn about me when I blog everyday. I have a terrible love/hate relationship with these buttons. They're never "good enough" to wire onto a piece of mat board and display, and never quite "good enough" to sew onto a garment, yet, they're too good to send to charity and they're perfect for crafting - which I really should do.  I plan to shove them into glass jars, like this, in hopes that looking at them often will inspire.  

Progress continues on the Cap Shawl, mentioned first in this post.  It's become quite gigantic now and looks like a big fuzzy tam fit for a Sasquatch, this project is definitely going through an awkward phase.  It's so big now it takes nearly half an hour to do one lace row and I'm only on row 133 of 161.  This may take me a while to complete.  I've been working on one or two smaller knitting projects to distract me from this one, but they are nothing I can share yet on the blog, not until much later in the year. 

Did anyone catch this commercial when it aired during the Super Bowl?  I've only just discovered it today.  Fabulous costume!

Pins!

Has everyone out there discovered Pinterest?  If not, I highly recommend it for anyone who loves eye candy.  It's a virtual pinboard that allows you to "pin" images from the internet onto "boards".  I started pinning around Christmas time and have put together quite a few boards so far.  This is my "buttons" board, and here is my "colourful" board.

Love!

A Long, Lonely Journey

One of my latest obsessions has been vintage bakelite.  Buttons, jewelry, housewares - just name it, I'm all over it.  It comes in a limited range of colours, but they look fabulous all jumbled together.  Though I'm getting fairly good at recognising it by look and feel, one sure fire test is the Simichrome test.  By taking the teeniest amount of Simichrome polishing paste on the tip of a q-tip, wiping it onto the article in question, then wiping it off with the other end of the swab, you'll get a deep yellow smudge.  There are a few other products (like Formula 409) that will have the same effect, but Simichrome is far and away the easiest to control since it comes in a paste, and at approximately $10 US a tube, it seemed to me like a small investment for something that should last quite a long time.  Last Autumn I started looking on-line for a supplier in Canada.  Unfortunately, the only one I could find was Amazon.ca and they wanted more than $25 a tube, plus shipping.  Well, really! 

So instead, I bought a tube off a seller on eBay for $10 US, plus about $2 shipping - that's still half the price amazon wanted, and then I waited.  It was posted by the seller on October 24th with a tracking number, which I followed on-line all the way to Windsor, ON, where it fell off the grid, I

thought, forever...

But then...it arrived, just like that, yesterday.

I'm not sure, what kind of strange, lonely adventure the parcels that travel through Canada Post have, but I like to imagine it's gone exploring Iceland in a wooly sweater like this:

                                                                                                                                

Stargazing

Recently off the needles, a quick project scarf. 

The yarn is Stargazer by Estelle.  I'm not usually one for polyester/acrylic novelty yarns, but I saw a finished scarf at Wolseley Wool, and was so taken with the project I had to make one myself.

It's made by picking up 125 loops along the top of the yarn, instead of a regular cast-on, then knitting garter stitch for 11 rows, again, only working the loops.

My one complaint about this yarn was that it was extremely slick, and my scarf slid right off the needles twice while knitting, forcing me to start the entire scarf again, fortunately, a stargazer scarf can be knit in one evening, so it only took me two.

The finished project has a very Carman Miranda-esque quality.  Mona, at the yarn shop, mentioned someone using the yarn to make a frilly trim along the bottom edge of a girl's skirt.  I wonder if this will become the "Fun Fur" of the twentyteens?

I'll update tomorrow, here's another video to keep you entertained...

Of Monsters, Men and Meyer Lemons

Well, what a lengthy break I've taken from the blog.  So long, in fact, that blogger has changed their format and I have to re-learn how to post to my blog.  This may be the perfect opportunity to live up to my promise on the 101 list to blog every day for two weeks (two weeks, what was I thinking?!) - it's number 75 if you can't be bothered reading through them all. 

So, instead of inundating you with loads of photos and blather about all things from weeks past, I'll be breaking up the excitement into daily installments, a la Dickens, for two weeks!  Promise...

Does anyone remember my wee Meyer Lemon tree, well we harvested the biggest crop yet!  Six! 

After the great harvest, I made Preserved Lemons, which is a new recipe.  I've made preserves before, but this is a bit different, you don't cook the lemons, just pack them into a sterilised jar with salt, spices and lemon juice and leave them in a dark cupboard for two weeks, shaking periodically.

It seems to me like an insufficient amount of sterilisation, however, I'll let you know how they turn out, seeing as I'll be blogging everyday.  Promise...

I should add that immediately after harvest, the tree dropped all of its leaves and now looks as though it's dead.  I should probably find out if lemon trees are deciduous.  They are... aren't they?
Here's a wee treat while we wait for the lemons to preserve themselves, and for leaves to sprout again, a video for Little Talk, by Icelandic band, Of Monsters and Men.  It's perfection!

http://www.muchmusic.com/music/thewedge/playlist/cid/614320/pid/15762/of-monsters-and-men-little-talks