buttons | Tarnished Copper - Formerly Project Hallway

Buy The Cowell Beach Beret Knitting Pattern for $4.00 US

I do believe that that silly old groundhog was right this year. Yesterday I woke up and Ramon and the windows in the kitchen open. Light was pouring in and the birds were chirping. Holy cow, it is already spring. Then, I stepped outside to put my basil plant on the table for some of this lovely weather, and boom, 45°F.

Okay, so it’s not quite spring yet, but I do tell you, Spring is Springing out there!

Back when I created Cowl Beach, I also had in mind a Beret. Well I started it last fall using my final skein of Spud and Chloe Sweater in Beluga, the same yarn as the cowl. And then it accidentally fell off of my radar. until January. I only had the decreasing left, which was quickly completed. Originally, my goal was to have this published on February 1st, or 12 days ago. Alas, I just couldn’t fit all of this in. Mommy-time came first. I was able to get three of my 7 patterns published by that date, and then the gloom of cold of a few rainy days and February weather stopped me from from staying very long in Motivation-Town.

I finished the hat on the eve of January 30th. It looked like it would be in time for my deadline. I updated my pattern with my final notes, but I still had that darn tutorial to do for how to pick up the stitches from the horizontal, ribbed, overlapped brim. I didn’t want to just explain how to do it. Often, instructions can be confusing. I am a visual person, and like to have things explained both ways when I come across something now. Right after finishing the hat I threw it in my washing tub, and then pulled it over a plate, and into the oven it went.

Wait. What?

Yes, the oven. I set the oven to just over 130°F to dry some of my knitwear after washing. First of all, I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT RECOMMEND ANYONE ELSE DOING THIS, OR CONDONE IT IN ANY WAY! Secondly, with the move going on, I really just don’t have anywhere else to block my work. Third. I was on a time crunch, and with no sun out, and short days wool takes FOREVER to dry. The dry heat of the oven on super low helps me speed things up a bit. I keep a super accurate thermometer going at all times to make sure that I don’t put anyone in any danger, but again, let me stress, Kids, DON’T do this!

The next morning the hat still had quite a bit left to dry. With the plate in there, not all of the moisture could escape and evaporate, so I flipped it over, and decided to revel for a moment at how proud I felt about having so little yarn left. It is no secret that I like to try to use my materials to their fullest potential. I am VERY happy that I finished this hat with only one skein of Spud and Chloe Sweater, and had just a tiny amount left! I put it next to this lego for a size comparison.

Okay, it was really a little more than that. That is really a Mega Block. But still, that is very little left, and something to be proud of.

Please note the the strawberries on the Little Buckaroo’s face. Strawberries are his favorite.

After publishing my Twenty for Five Pullover, Levieva Sweater, and Carried Away Cowl I ran out of steam.

Then, this week started out on a truly great note!

On Monday, we just had the most fabulous day ever. Ramon stayed home from the new house remodel for the first time in two and a half months. He took the baby and I over to Santa Cruz for breakfast, and to enjoy the beautiful day. I was hoping to get some pictures of this hat then, but it was so bright, and so sunny picture taking was pretty much impossible.

Please note the crashing wave on the rocks in front of Ramon and the Little Buckaroo’s baby hand holding the stroller.

We went for a walk past beautiful Cowl Beach, and up past the light-house. The waves were huge, and there, amongst the seagulls and surfers I found my motivation again.

Perhaps it was from having a day off from the usual routine. Perhaps it was having Ramon home, and knowing that I could take “the long shower” without worrying about Little Screamy-Pants. Whatever it was when we got back I was able to get to work, and now we have Part 1 of Spring is Springing, at long last my new Cowell Beach Beret Knitting Pattern.

As a tribute to one of my favorite places, I have created a cowl named Cowl Beach, with continuous crashing waves of its own. As a companion piece, I have created this beret, which uses exactly 1 skein of Spud & Chloe Sweater. With the unusual horizontal ribbing, I have included a tutorial for how to integrate the finished ribbing with the beginning of the rest of the beret with both written instructions and pictures. Also included, is the same tutorial that I diligently developed for Cowl Beach (the Cowl), showing how to create the waves seamlessly in the round. A feat which I worked very hard to figure out and accomplish and feel very proud of.

Buy The Cowell Beach Beret Knitting Pattern for $4.00 US

I bet you have some sort of idea how my afternoon went.

You know, I have been wondering for years, why when you buy a nice article of clothing, or a winter jacket the buttons always come off. The Gap hasn’t been able to sew a button—or in recently much of anything else—in years. I bought a great wool coat from H&M in 2008, and in New York in 2009 all the buttons came off, and I was left in the snow—ok, fine, rain—freezing my ass off. Well, I think I have figured out the answer to this great riddle. The automatic button-hole feature doesn’t work, and then sewing on the actual buttons takes forever! Who wants to do that? Maybe the real quality of a garment can be determined by looking at how many buttons it has on it, and how hard you have to pull to get them off.

When I bought the machine, it seemed so magical that you could just press one button and create a perfect button-hole. Well, like they always say, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. My Bernina came with lots of new bells and whistles that I did have on my (previously my mother’s) 30 year old Singer. Only problem with the Singer was that it wouldn’t actually sew anymore. So, out it went, after a month riding around in my trunk because I felt to guilty about donating my mother’s old sewing machine to actually do the deed. My mother of course said, “Why do you still have that old thing? Get rid of it already!”

Well, any new feature takes a while to get used to. The automatic needle threader, well, that took a while. But now, it happens with the greatest of ease. (So many sewing puns I want to make, seams, seems, ease, oh the list goes on). The one-step-button-hole feature has yet to have all of the kinks worked out. I have made over 100 button holes with the thing, almost all in scrap fabric, and tried many different ways of approaching the button-hole feature, like following the instructions for the first 75, and then experimenting for the last 25. Well, I though I had that little sucker all figured out. Three button holes into the second tailored shirt of the week, I ruined it. Ok, Ramon convinced me to keep going, but I will never feel the same about that shirt. And the thing about a button-hole is that you can’t just bust out the seam ripper.

So, then comes sewing on the actual buttons. I had a slight slip and watched as my gleaming sharp needle went underneath my thumb nail, and into the flesh. Ew, but more importantly OUCH. I said to Ramon that it would probably be a good idea to squish some hydrogen-peroxide down in there. To which he replied, “It couldn’t hurt, I mean … um .. probably not a bad idea.” So after doing the “I pierced the inside of my fingernail with a sharp needle, then put hydrogen-peroxide in it, and now it really fucking stings” dance for a few minutes, I got back to the task at hand.

I think it is time for a thimble.

Pictured: The three tailored shirts I have finished. The purple one is from before Project Hallway, from a pattern I heavily altered. The black and white shirts were both completed this week, from custom patterns that were derived from the purple shirt.