Lesson Learned

(Pictures to come, as soon as the camera is located following the Christmas Spectacular)

I'm sometimes an optimist...I had a great idea the day after my birthday (August 21st for those who want to send presents) that I would knit Mom a sweater for her birthday (August 29th). Yeah, knit a sweater in a week? I really thought I could do it...Dad, however, was not convinced. When I told him I was knitting a sweater for Mom's birthday, he looked at me like someone looks at a small child who says, "I'm going to be Superman when I grow up!"...You know the look, right? Well, I knit and I knit like a madwoman...but alas, the week passed and I had not completed the sweater, so I gifted an alternate gift and resolved to have it done for Christmas.



Although I had originally intended this sweater to be a complete surprise, I started to get a little nervous about the fit. I am a little bigger than mom and it seemed to fit me just a wee bit snug, so I was pretty sure it would fit her, but then I started thinking, "What if it's too small and I'm just estimating wrong?!?" So, I broke down and told her that I was knitting her a gift and I thought that she'd rather have it fit than be surprised when she opened it...she agreed and tried it on. It FIT! (Which kind of makes me sorry I showed it to her, since all worked out well.) So I kept knitting , but at a more relaxed pace--after all, I had four months to finish, right? I knit a few socks (please note I did not say a pair of socks...I knit 2 socks each from a different pair), a hat, some slippers, and continued knitting the sweater. Then, December rolls around and I started to panic, just a bit. I HAD to get this sweater finished by Christmas or I would not be able to look at myself in the mirror. And so I knit...and knit...and finally finished knitting the sweater. I washed it, blocked it so the lace would expand to where it should be, and that's where I ran into a problem...buttons.



Have you ever tried to find exactly the right button to fit a specific size button hole in the perfectly matching color? Yeah, not so easy...So I scoured the stores for an appropriately sized button in just the right color. I lucked out when I hit JoAnn's and found the PERFECT buttons. They even came in a set of 3 (the number I needed) !!



So, the lesson learned here? Buy the buttons FIRST!!