Button, button

This has been a weekend of memories. A dear friend, who was a roommate in my youth, has lost her husband after a short and violent illness.

O furious Wind, I am only a straw before you;
How could I know where I will be blown next?
Whoever claims to have made a pact with Destiny
Reveals himself a liar and a fool;
What is any of us but a straw in a storm?
How could anyone make a pact with a hurricane?

Love Is The Master
~Rumi

This evening I felt at a loss and wanted comfort from the turmoil in my mind. I remembered that Erik Erikson called his wife's, Joan's, bead collection "the eyes of the Mother". So I pulled out my button collection and it cheered me to pour through my favorites and admire their beauty and endurance.

I keep my best buttons in my Sajou sewing box that my friend gave me last year for Christmas. It's a wonderful box full of French sewing items: a square of marking chalk, little scissors, threads, needles, tapes and things:



...and I love the cover especially, with its picture of a dog and cat winding yarn:



Here are some of my favorite buttons, though the photos aren't very clear.

These are a set of green Bakelite toggles, softly shiny and marbled:



And these are Bakelite of a rare clear amber colour:



These three are flat Bakelite, brown... but they're elongated hearts and I love them:



and these are tiny little amber-coloured early celluloid:



These sweet little buttons are porcelain pressed into dog heads and hand painted:



and, finally, my swallows in teal green and coral pink:



So charming! I'm saving these for the perfect garment. Do you think it will ever materialize?

Another thing I find comforting when my mind is troubled is crochet. I don't know whether it's my association of crochet with loved relatives long passed, or the soothing ease of the hook's work, but I always keep a crocheted blanket project on hand for trying times.



After 32 squares of my brilliant variegated Socks That Rock yarn, I've started on a few of the shaded-solid colourways...



This is (left to right in 3 rows) Winter Solstice, Ramalaba, Help Us, Rhonda!, KMBFLA, Brick, Buttah, Saffron Jungle, and Nyame, Sunstone, and Mossay...

When I started this traditional Granny Square blanket, I couldn't find exactly the pattern that I wanted, with a four-petaled flower in the center and a balanced contrast with a dark background that would show off the colours...



So, I made up my own:

Sophia's Memory Garden Blanket (Traditional)

Each square takes just a couple of yards of bright fingering weight yarn, and an equal or very slightly longer amount of dark yarn.

The hook is a US D/ 3.25 mm size - I use a Skacel Addi Swing Hook.

Start with the bright yarn and make a chain of 5 stitches. Join to make a round.

Chain 4, and into this circle make 2 DC, ch1, 3 DC, ch1, 3 DC, ch1, 3 DC, and ch1. Join this last chain to the 4th ch of the chain 4 that began your flower. Slip st across the top of the 2 DC to the center Ch1.

Change to the dark yarn. Into the ch1 space chain 4 and then 2 DC, 1ch, 3 DC. *Do not chain one. Skip to the next Chain 1 space and make 3 DC, ch1, 3 DC.* Repeat from * twice more. End by connecting with a slipped stitch to the 4th chain in the chain 4.

Slip st across the top of the 2 DC to the center Ch1.Change to the bright yarn. Into the chain 1 space, chain 4 and then 2 DC, 1ch, 3 DC. *Do not chain one. Skip to the next Chain 1 space and make 3 DC, ch1, 3 DC.* Repeat from * into each chain 1 space. End by connecting with a slipped stitch to the 4th ch in the first chain 4 of the round. Repeat another round with the bright yarn.

Repeat two rounds with the dark yarn and fasten off.

I found it best to fasten off each round after finishing a bright or dark sequence and crochet over the tail to weave it in. When I've finished enough squares - and the 32 I photographed above appear to be only about a tenth of what I'll need - I'll probably slip stitch them together and then crochet a small shell stitch border all around.

It is comforting to make. But I think it will be even more comforting to curl cosily under it at the end of a cold, sad weekend.

All knits need buttons!

This week my friend from Down Under came for a visit and we went to the Brimfield Antique Fair, looking for vintage buttons. We were very successful and we saw John Malkovich in the button booth!

You know you wanted to see my friend Mark and all the antique Brimfield buttons:

This is Marky at my house. Isn't he handsome? He looks rather like John Malkovich himself! But what's that he's reading????? Its a facsimile of an antique knitting book from Pastimes Press!





These are vintage Celluloid buttons from the 1930's, and down near the bottom right you see a Bakelite Scotty Dog button. I only have one, and Marky has the other.



Now, these are Vegetable Ivory buttons and there are some unusual ones in this group! Near the top and middle are two Plaids, there is a carved Leaf, and look at the center bottom of the photo amd you will see a carved Spider - very rare!



I bought this old button card for a mermaid of my acquaintance (my little sister) who is very into clothing design - its odd for a mermaid to be into clothes don't you think? It would seem more in keeping for her to be into seaweed, or seashells, or fish! But she's a very artsy mermaid!