button, button, who's got the button?

Just me, apparently. The comments from my post the other day have revealed a disturbing trend ... missing buttons! I thought I better get these sewn on as soon as possible before I, too, succumbed to the temptation of just leaving them off.

Fortunately, the Woolie Ewe (one of my lys) did still have these in stock - I had 8 already and bought 4 more (doesn't hurt to have a few extra).

Of course, while I was there did I think about needing shorter circular needles for the sleeves of this thing? Obviously not! I don't see myself trying to knit those sleeves with dpn sock needles (my only other size 3s) so I'll be making a trip to Yarn and Stitches (my other lys) for yet more circular needles.

Ok, all you Fair Isle afficiendos - I need help. The edge of my neck band and my button band wants to curl up (even though I bound off in k2, p2 rib to match the corrugated ribbing). Will this fix itself when I block? I was going to baste the button band closed along the edges before it goes on the wooly board. I've thought about lightly steaming it with the steam iron, too. Any ideas? (I've pinned the edges down for the photo, otherwise you wouldn't be able to see the buttons at all.)

I used to do a lot of charity quilting (lots and lots of baby quilts) for Parkland Hospital. Parkland is the teaching hospital (and charity hospital) down here and an incredible number of babies have been born there. Lots of preemies and high risk babies, too. They're always needing blankies, hats, and other going-home stuff. When I started quilting I made a deal with myself - for every quilt I made for me or my family and friends I would make one for the hospital (the hospital ended up with more than that).

I didn't make that kind of commitment when I started knitting again, so now I'm trying to make up for it a bit. This is the Five Rectangle baby sweater. I resisted 'tweaking' the pattern since I'm using this one as a demo for the ladies at work. Earlier this year, I taught 7 or 8 people the basics and I want them to see that with only that knowledge they can make sweaters, baby hats, and baby booties. I'm hoping to send a box to Parkland in the next few months. This little sweater took about 6 hours (didn't really keep track of that) and one skein of Cottontots yarn (one of the bigger skeins). It's really lavender - the photo looks more blue. I'll whip up a matching hat and booties later this week.

I also spun up 60 yards of the Black Welsh Mountain top yesterday. That's about as much as my little support spindle can hold. Plied it, washed it, hung it in the tree out back. Forgot that the sprinklers would come on at 3 am. Wrung it out a bit this morning and left it hanging in the tree. As I was driving to work noticed that it was starting to rain. That's going to be the best washed skein of yarn I've ever made.