A friend recently moved to the town of Petaluma, about an hour north of San Francisco.  Today we visited her, and we happened to walk by the LYS, Knitterly, so of course we had to peek in.  Oh my goodness, they have beautiful things!  

I love the cutesy needles for kids!

The needles!

The stitch markers!

There were way more buttons than this small sample.

The buttons!

The Habu!

The sample knits in Knitterly were particularly nice.  I’m not always inspired by the samples in the shops, but they have really simple, stylish things that I could imagine knitting and wearing.

The sample knits!

The books and notions!

Can you believe that I didn’t buy any yarn???  The kids/SO were not feeling particularly patient, so for this visit I had to be satisfied with just a few pictures and a strong desire to return, next time perhaps with a particular project in mind to shop for!

Our friend took us to a house where there is chicken feed in a bucket for passers-by to feed the chickens in their yard!  Who could resist?

The chickens!

It was HOT!  The Wee Girl wondered if the plants were sweating.

The colors!

We also passed by the local sewing/fabric shop, which looked adorable, but the non-crafty types were not up for it.  Next time???

During the evening, I made some good progress on the Wonder Woman sweater.  At the beginning of a movie, I was still on the gold section, by the end I was on the second star.  Pretty good!

The stars!

The Wonder Woman sweater KAL was meeting early at Knit Night for an official Cast-on.  In preparation, I knitted and washed a swatch that I found to be just right for the sweater.  I was lucky to have hit the jackpot on my first try (US size 7!)  The yarn is Cascade Hollywood, which as one would imagine, is sparkly!

A sparkly swatch!

I thought we were all swatching before the Official Cast-on, but I was the only one who did, so I got to jump right into the math of knitting.  This pattern is written for a grown-up, but I’m knitting mine for the Wee Girl, so I have some adjusting to do.  However, the pattern uses this yarn doubled, and  at my gauge with a single strand, it looks like I can follow the directions/charts for a women’s size S.  Fingers crossed that it’ll be simple!

3 swatches going on!

So far so good!  I’m super tired so I’ll try to get in a few more rows tonight; hopefully i’ll have some progress to show you tomorrow!

Yesss!  With my cardigan blocked, and a few toddler-free hours on my hands, I was able to shop for buttons this morning at Imagiknit.

How to choose??

It was harder than usual to choose buttons today!  This “Vermillion” colorway is between pink and red, and I didn’t want to choose a neutral black or brown and feeling like my shoes or accessories would always have to match.  I wanted something subtle so that I could pair the cardigan with any basic color and also so that the buttons wouldn’t be the focus, since the cabling is so pretty. 

In the end I chose….

My selection

I roped my 6 year-old into taking a few photos for me before the daylight disappeared.  It was tricky, most of them were out of focus, but she took a few good ones.

I look pretty pleased that it’s done!

Back view (waist shaping!)

I was right in expecting the Tosh Bulky to grow with wet blocking!  Before blocking it was a tad too small, but it grew just the right amount.

Full view.

Close-up of cable details.

The only problem is that I think I should tighten up the buttonholes a little bit.  Overall, this was a great pattern to knit (did I mention that I LOVE the way the sleeves were done? Picked-up stitches and short rows, zero seaming!!!!), and with this bulky yarn, this cardigan will be great for chilly San Francisco days and nights when I feel like wearing something more flattering than a baggy fleece jacket!