Embellishments

Having shown you my button collection I thought you might like to see the rest of the shiny things in my craft stash. Although I'm not a very bling person I do quite like beaded knitting and from time to time I add some beads to my stash. Unlike the buttons these are normally bought with a plan in mind although I don't always get round to putting the plan into action and sometimes the plan doesn't work out anyway. Here's my small bead collection:

As you can see some of tubes are nearly empty - the gold ones on my Pergola shawl and the silver ones on a hat that I still haven't finished writing up. Of these I think I actually have a vague plan for the multi-coloured tube at the front - I'm thinking of a shawl in a silver grey or a grey/lilac smoky colour yarn. I have the yarn and the beads but I've not got further than that as I keep getting distracted. I also think they would look lovely on long lace cuffs on a lightweight cardigan, possibly with the body in 4ply and the cuffs in laceweight...decisions, decisions

Never the right buttons to hand

I have a small(ish) button collection. It only runs to three tins...

Accumulating buttons is something of a family tradition. My mum had a battered cream tin that I think she got from her mum filled to bursting with all sorts of buttons. And a separate collection of buttons on cards which lived in her sewing box (a repurposed plastic 1960s baby changing box). This tin lived in the top of the coat cupboard and was used for a variety of purposes including gambling chips for playing Pontoon and 21, learning about colours and venn diagrams, and very occasionally for sewing onto things as fastening devices. I think all my sisters have some sort of button stash ranging - in at least one case the button stash would put any specialist button retailer to shame.

This is my collection (from left to right) - general odds and ends, sets, and vintage

And here are some highlights:

The little metal whales were part of a set and the rest are on my niece's Through the Woods hood, the black and white ones are a set bought at my very first Knitting and Stitching Show (the last one held at the NEC), the three candy coloured ones also came from the show and I think might inspire some colourwork on a hat in the near future, and finally the mice also came from a show and are just adorable. I have no idea what I will use them from but I had to have them when I saw them.

So this is my button stash. It's not massive but it's not tiny either and you'd think that if I needed to find 9 cream/pearl buttons at about 13mm diameter that don't even need to match then I wouldn't have a problem. Turns out that's not the case. A search  through the tins yesterday brings me to the conclusion that I have a great many buttons that are tiny, quite a few that are huge and all the ones in-between are impractical or the wrong colour for the project at hand. There are a lot that I don't imagine will ever reach their potential as fastening devices (or even as embellishments) but I can't bring myself to cull them. Even these buttons can one day become gambling chips!

PS: I bought the buttons I needed from JosyRose which has a lovely button selection

Unfinished Friday

I can't believe I've not updated for nearly a week. I am a bad blogger. Then again I've not done a massive amount of bloggable things this week. To make up for it here's a picture heavy blog post of progress and pretty things:

Merino Tencel Laceweight in Flower Power from the Knitting Goddess

This gorgeous butter soft yarn is from The Knitting Goddess and I bought it when she was giving 50% of her sales to the Disasters Emergency Committee (correction) for Pakistan Disaster Relief. Knitting seems to attract charity giving and lots of people on Ravelry have been giving money from pattern or yarn sales often to Medicins sans Frontieres or Doctors without Borders. MSF is supported by lots of knitters, crocheters and yarnies often via p/hop which is a very worthy cause to support.

Peggy Sue

This is an awful photo of Peggy Sue in progess (see there has been some progress). That first sleeve needs about 8 more rows and then there's sleeve 2, buttons and blocking to go.

Iridescent beads

Some very pretty peacock shaded beads from Spellbound Beads. I was rummaging for the shawl pin seen holding Peggy Sue together above and found a tub of beads I'd forgotten about. And they're so pretty!

John's Scarf

John's scarf now has two repeats and I've finally remembered to print out the chart pattern so once Peggy Sue is finished this takes priority. In the meantime it's had a short trip outside to bask in most unusual sunshine. for someone who is afeared of cables I'm quite pleased with this.

And finally, for the non-knitters around some lovely purple clematis which is at it's best at the moment. Sadly this one might have to come out this year so the climbing roses can have more room so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.