Having finished the body of ze blue cardi, I’ve hit the inevitable fork in the road. To the Left: lord, there are two sleeves to go. To the Right: find a way to make it FUN!

Most fun for me? Doing other work on the piece that will incite me to finish the parts that annoy.

First up? The Left Button Band.

Now this is logical because it gives lots of information about both the final look of the piece and it gives a roadmap on where to put the buttonholes when the Right Band is worked.

And because I had a few spare moments this morning, I dug out the Button Basket!

It’s been in the mix for years now, and it seems it fills it self to bursting when I’m not looking. Inside, buttons sorted by color and type — on the left, there’s the Black Buttons in their place of honor: a now old Le Droguerie bag from Paris. I own more black buttons than any other type. What’s simply amazing is the variety of size, shape and materials one can find.

But, I’m thinking white buttons on this one and even though there’s some blue lovelies in there, this is chock full of cards of white, in a bag from my other favorite button palace, MJ Trims in NYC.

I like to staple all the same-type cards together so I can just pull them out en masse — here’s some shell buttons. And here’s some vintage cards of plastic fantasique that have flea-marketed their way into the basket over the years.

Will it be the smooth and shiny modern buttons or will the vintage disks hit the catwalk? Gives me something big to think about while I knit Sleeve #1.

  Monday Morning Mirth  

Call me silly but a rose being a rose being a rose, most people do not drift too far from type in their personal likes and dislikes. You like your butter or your margarine. Coke or Pepsi. Gaz, no Gaz (this made me giggle every time I have the good fortune to be eating in PARIS!).

For me this trickles right down to the basic daily events. Nothing is immune from my peccadillos, not even the parking garage. Imagine, if you will, a downtown palace of wheels, a little dank, a little dirty, a little musty. It’s the City; nothing is ever pristine.

You have 10 levels to choose from and yet, you always go to the very same one. You tell yourself it’s the one that you can fly out of when you’re done working for the man, but you know. It’s the way the elevator hallway calls your name. It’s the way the Parking Guys put up stuff to make you remember where you parked your pitiful wheels.

It’s Level #3 — Fashion or nothing, 10 ft tall:

The lovely Erica Anne writes: “I look at these photos and somehow, the humidity that’s been hanging around me like a heavy steel blue cloak dissipates and I can breathe deeply the cool, fresh, smooth softness of robin’s egg blue.”

This is true! It’s been so hot here the last few days, tuning up one’s visible fields with cool calm color really does cue the rest of the body towards a less heated plane. I’ve been knitting like mad with this in my lap, slurping up the cool rays coming off the color in waves like water washing me down. It wards off the air, which, because you are 99% water, in its humid state wants to bond with you like never before; shields you from frying like a little piece of bacon in the sun.

Air conditioning, but of course, helps too.

For no real apparent reason, I used to be a real snob about air conditioning, telling all my friends and anyone who would listen just how wonderful it was when things started steaming. Yes! One’s sinuses can clear and skin skews towards peach but after a week or so of indexed +100’s who gives a, well, you know. Crank that thing!

So, sitting in the shade or inside, I’ve gotten quite a bit of the body done — am 7 rows away from the ribbing and the very exciting casting on over the pocket area. I’m making the body 1″ shorter than the other Basic Chic Hoodie’s I’ve done and will be making 5/8 length sleeves.