Decisions

I hope to have some FOs to photograph in the next few days. Some lovely things will be completed today, now that I have some gorgeous buttons from M&J Trimming. I don't even want to tell you how much I spent on a tiny handful of buttons! But they will be so worth it, as you will see. And if you're ever in NYC, you should check it out: the buttons! the gimp! the feather trim! the crystals! the ribbon! Mon Dieu! I'm glad I went with specific projects to focus upon and Isobel to keep me from spending the day there. I think she enjoyed our adventure to the Garment District, though her favorite part was the giant plastic lobster hanging from the Red Lobster entrance in Times Square. Guess she's a New England girl at heart!

So, on to decisions. What next? I want to knit something for me and have been assessing the stash and my Ravelry queue...
-Black Dog Designs Ink Flared Sweater in BMFA's Geisha
-Tangled Yoke Cardigan in Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed DK
-Rosy Tucker's Cocktail Capelet in Green Mountain Spinnery's Sylvan Spirit (different gauge yarn than the pattern, so would involve some swatching and math, probably)
-Kat Coyle's Tulips cardigan in Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk (after I frog the cute vest I made a few years back but never wear)
-A Cardigan for Arwen in O-Wool (I may not have enough of this, though someone on Ravelry made it in a larger size with 6.25 skeins - I have six)

In other news we have about six weeks to go to D-day, and I've been thinking about what to do with my wedding and engagement rings. I'm not sure I'll do anything with them for a while, but this article was interesting, as were the comments. I mooned about over the wedding band for weeks before we ordered it (and then they made the wrong one and had to line the store sample with more platinum to make it fit since there wasn't time to make another one - oy!), so it's kind of sad to not wear it but it is a symbol of something that is emotionally over and will soon be legally ended.

Most of the time I have no excuse for not blogging, but last week Isobel and I were at my parents' as my dear aunt had passed away. She fought breast, then bone, then brain cancer for the past ten years. She did it with humor and a can-do attitude, but now she is free of her suffering. For that we are all grateful. It was a bittersweet wake and funeral. Some people waited over an hour at the wake to condole with my uncle and cousin. But it was great to see some cousins and my aunt and uncle who drove up from Florida. I'm glad we went, and my parents were happy to have some cheery distraction in Isobel.

But I brought my rings back from my folks' where they had been for safekeeping. The best way to transport them was to wear them, and it was strange. Familiar yet discomfiting. Also weird-feeling was being back at my parents' house, since we flew home when the end was near for my aunt due to end of Spring Break craziness with the airlines and then extended our stay to attend the wake and funeral. The not knowing when we were going back to New York was reminiscent of some of my wandering feelings last year. But we did get to go visit my grandmother, which is always a treat, though I didn't get to treat myself to a visit to the Fold, since Isobel had just passed out in the backseat when we hit the exit for Marengo. Next time.

Thinking about The Fold has me leaning towards Ink Flare in Geisha, since it's the yarn I bought last time I was there, and I'm very curious to knit it up. I could hold off on the Cocktail Capelet until it gets a little warmer here (and until we get closer to planning a happy post-D-day nuptial-type event), and I'm not sure I'm ready to plunge back into a largely stockinette sweater, even one for me. My brother has his sweater, and we did a little blocking when I was home to hopefully add some length to sleeves and body. I'll have to get him to take a picture.