Last of the loot

We stopped in Liverpool on our way down south for the holidays, and I had to check out Purlesque. It's an exceedingly cute shop on top of a vintage clothing boutique - not much in the way of yarn, but oh my the buttons! Buttons are quickly become my most-stashed item.


No idea what I'm going to do with 3 kettle buttons, but I'll figure something out. Possibly as decoration on some sort of hat.


I bought these little things with the intent to make more button earrings. As I was leaving the shop, my DH pointed out that Purlesque actually sells these exact buttons made into earrings already. Great minds thing alike?

Anyway, that's the last of the "Look what I got!" posts for now. I'll have some more WIPs and maybe even an FO to show soon.

button heaven

Well. The week kind of got away from me there. I blame the sun. The sun! The last few days have been absolutely lovely, and I've spent lots of time outside away from the hopeless little screen. (But probably not enough.) Glorious. This is our summer, so I should enjoy it, since it'll be proper Scottish weather once again soon.

Ahem. Anyway, I did go to Duttons for Buttons when I was in York. How could I not?



The ground floor is where the buttons are. It's small - there's enough room for a few people to turn around in, provided nobody is flailing excitedly. The small size adds to the impact of the button-covered walls, however.



Since each box has a tiny compartments filled with each of the button varieties shown on the outside, the actual number of individual buttons in this shop is staggering. SO MANY BUTTONS. It was great fun poking around in there.

The rickety stairs up to the other floors beckoned, so up we went. Since it was pointed out on my last post about York, I feel a bit bad about how many of my adventures require decidedly unaccessible locations for those with mobility issues. I'm very very lucky that I am able to walk extensively and climb stairs, and in my situation of privilege I don't automatically think of those who have different abilities. The fact that I can do these things while others can't is sad and unfortunate. There is obviously work to be done - however, in some cases I'm not sure what can be done. Installing a lift in an tiny old medieval house like Duttons for Buttons? Yikes. The whole place might tumble down! Get on it, engineering.

In any case. The other floors of the shop have needlework supplies and yarn, and the very top floor has this gorgeous roof. Between this and York Minster, I was sufficiently humbled by medieval engineering. Built to last, indeed.



My mom is a crafty-type as well, with several overflowing boxes of fun old buttons at home. I grew up rummaging through them happily, and probably developed my button-love as a result. I don't recall ever specifically going button shopping with my mother before this, but given the circumstances it could have been disastrous. As it was, she walked away with a grab-bag of miscellaneous buttons to add to that collection. I goggled over them all and settled for two blue buttons. Perhaps not that exciting by themselves.... but check out what I made with them.



I have my button studs at last! I decided that I didn't want the shiny earring post base showing through the button holes, so I cut a bit off the base and positioned it slightly off-centre like so:



Tada!



The perfect souvenir from my day in York. I don't think I'm entirely finished with button earrings, though. Now I want them in every colour. Naturally.

swag - fairly restrained edition

After teasing you about my Woolfest swag, I feel I should preface this post with a simple fact: despite the abundance of amazing things present, I didn't buy very much at Woolfest. Part of me isn't even sure why, though it probably comes from two directions. First, I'm not a big spender at the best of times, and I'm still coming out of my unemployed-for-nearly-two-years cheapness hole where I felt guilty about each nonessential purchase (and sometimes guilty about the essential ones). Second, the event was so overwhelming that I didn't know where to look or what to look for.

Anyway. I went to Woolfest with one yarny item on my shopping list: red aran-weight wool yarn for a hat for my Grandma. I came home with the following:



See the red yarn? I thought not.

The yarn I did buy is from Sparkleduck - it is called Stratus, which is a BFL/Silk/Cashmere sockweight yarn. The colourway is Mallard, appropriately enough. It is semi-solid - there's more green than shows in the photo, and it is decidedly not dull-looking in the least. I will probably make a scarf or shawl from this, since there is no way I'm putting a yarn this fancy on my feet. Sparkleduck's entire stall was filled with amazing colour, and it took me ages to pick one to take home with me!

In the above photo, you can also see my fancy houndstooth Woolvember badge, that I purchased from Kate Davies' stall. (She wasn't there when I wandered by, so I was spared an awkward starstruck tongue-tied encounter, I guess. More on this theme later.)



I also bought some fabulous buttons to add to my growing collection of buttons I have no idea what to do with. The ceramic one is large and chunky and would be a good accent on a hat, I think. The wooden square ones are made of reclaimed floor boards, and I just like gazing at them, so who knows what they'll be. I'll enjoy them in the meantime.



Speaking of starstruck encounters, Lily and Amanda France (whose blogging and designing I follow avidly) stopped by the Ruth and Belinda stall, and I blurted out "HELLO! I KNOW YOU FROM THE INTERNET!" or something equally eloquent, and proceeded to babble for a bit. Apparently I was the first to recognize and accost Lily at Woolfest that day, but I'm sure it happened many more times. Haha. Anyway, they were obviously lovely and not phased by my awkwardness.

I also met Heather from the Nude Ewe, and had my mind totally blown when we realised we'd gone to the same high school in Canada. Small yarn worlds! We weren't at high school at the same time, but in any case that has never happened to me before. Amazing. I'm ashamed to say that although I'd heard of the Nude Ewe prior to Woolfest, I hadn't a clue what they were all about. Now that I know, I'm fascinated - yarn spun from the fleeces of conservation grazing sheep. Genius.

In summary, yay for Woolfest! I met so many interesting people, saw so many beautiful yarns, and had great fun communing with the woolly beasts. Now I see why fibre events are such a big deal.

Embellish the Story - 2KCBWDAY3 / 2KCBWDAY8

Embellishments come in all types and forms. Some are more than purely decorative and form a practical function – pretty buttons are as much part of holding a garment together as mere decoration, and some are just there to give a piece an extra ‘something’. Blog about an embellishment, be it a zipper, amigurumi eyes or applique patch which you are either saving to use or have in the past used to decorate a project with. Write about whether you are a very minimalist kind of knitter with classic lines and timeless plain knits or whether you love all the bells and whistles or sticking sewing and otherwise attaching decoration to your pieces.

I've chosen the wildcard topic for today because I neither have tidy stitches nor a tidy mind.



These buttons were a birthday gift from a good friend. They're pretty awesome and crazy, but what do I do with them? Truth be told, I'm a really boring dresser. I'm a bit scared to use wild buttons, thinking they might be distracting, or make the garment less versatile. This is probably also why I find myself drawn to monochromatic colour combinations. When confronted with crazy buttons, I want to put them in the button box to stare at longingly, but I'm stumped when it comes to using them.



Still, I really want to use these buttons for something and break out of my boring button use. Ten buttons is enough for a cardigan, and the buttons are large enough that I'd probably use a worsted/aran weight yarn to match. But what colour? What pattern?


Ack, didn't realize how dusty the table was until just now. Oops.

What should I do with these buttons? What would you use them for?

For more Knitting and Crochet Blog Week posts, search 2KCBWDAY3.