Joining Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday.
Knitting, or, fun with the button box.
I went through my button box and came up with these two possibilities for the In Threes child sweater. The white ones are real mother-of-pearl.
The knitting is done, the ends are woven in; all that is left are buttons and blocking, plus writing up a tag with fiber content and washing instructions.
Oh, the button box. When I was hunting through it for potential sweater buttons, I decided there were way too many small white buttons cluttering up the search. Apparently my MIL, whose button box I inherited, cut the buttons off every single dress shirt my FIL ever wore out. So I sorted them by size, number of holes, and finish (pearl vs. not-pearl). Sorting = fun for the anal-obsessed!
Not every button made it into the sort. Once I put the sorted box away, any buttons found on the floor went into the trash. I have way more little white buttons than I will ever need. And, yes, the 1976-vintage carpet by my chair is covered with snarf and animal hair. Your point?
I have found another use for the button box!
Reading.
So you want to talk about race by Ijeoma Oluo. Very readable, gives some specific tactics to use during uncomfortable conversations. If you kinda wanta sorta talk about race, this book is useful. Non-threatening. 5★
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The Poet by Michael Connelly. Pretty sure I read this back in the day — ©1996 — but it showed up in my library pick-up last week, so I am reading it again. Nearly done, and I remember almost nothing from reading it before. 3★
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Still listening to The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. I generally listen to audiobooks when I’m driving, but this #%$X@ corona stay-at-home time means I seldom venture out. I’ve had to resort to listening to it while knitting; oh, the humanity! The story follows five women who deliver books on horseback to people living in the hills and hollows of Kentucky Appalachia in the 1930s. I am enjoying it immensely; will probably recommend it to my book group. 4★
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kmkat & her kneedles 
I love the little sweater — and the buttons (both sets!) you’ve picked out. And I used to LOVE sorting and re-sorting the buttons in my great grandmother’s button box when I was a little girl! (Too bad one of my cousins nabbed it when she died. There were some incredible buttons in there. . . ) Anyway. The best thing about having vintage, multi-colored carpet? EVERTHING matches, and it doesn’t show dirt!!!!) XO
Thanks for the book recommendations – I looked to see if my library has “So You Want To Talk About Race” but it is checked out with many holds on it. That is actually a good sign that maybe people in my Chicagoland suburb want to talk about race. Makes me hope for the future! I love how you call your carpeting “vintage” – like the 1976 “vintage” linoleum with “vintage” wallpaper in my laundry room! LOL!
I enjoy button sorting, too!
I listened to “So You Want To Talk About Race” last year and found it a good starting point. Though I was appalled by how many things that should be obvious actually have to be spelled out. (Like ‘the person who is the target of racism gets to be the one who decides if something is racist or not’ – why is that hard?)
What a sweet sweater. Thanks for helping my TBR stack grow!
Love the sweater and those buttons! (Either works, really… gosh what lovely choices!)
Thank you for the book rec’s!!
One of my favorite sense memories of growing up is running my fingers through my mother’s button box: the feel of the smooth buttons and the sound of them bouncing off each other.
all those buttons!!! wow!!!!! I don’t like sewing on buttons. I like to glue the to paper…Weird I know
For a child’s sweater, I would definitely go with the ones that are more likely to stand up to abuse. 😉
So You Want To Talk About Race is on my TBR. I bought the ebook, but haven’t read it yet. Good to know that it’s easy to read!
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