"if you want to destroy my sweater, pull this string as I walk away..."

All done!

ok, almost all done. I still have to sew on the pockets and the buttons. And for some reason I've got Weezer stuck in my brain.. ouch!

If you recall when I originally posted about the sweater I thought I might like some vintage minty green shell or mother of pearl buttons. The big box craft store had a huge sale last weekend and all their buttons were half off so I bought a whole bunch, half of which I will probably never use.

I found some green shell buttons similar to what I'd imagined:

Hmm, no, not quite right. A little too boring and a little too shiny. Maybe if they'd been just a touch bigger and had a little ridge around the edge... but these just don't work.

I also found these buttons:

If only I could get my silly camera to focus on them! They're quite lovely and my blurry picture does not do them justice. They're just barely big enough, the patina and the color go perfectly with the yarn and, the detail gives them texture and pop. These buttons rock! I just gotta sew them on.

So, I learned a few things while knitting this sweater:

• Small mistakes aren't that hard to hide, especially in a piece like this, so long as you keep your stitch count right and don't do something really fugly.
• Those cheep plastic stitch markers suck. They constantly feel like they're going to break, they don't slide nicely over the needles, and they feel just plain wrong in your hands. Cotton scrap yarn works much better (cotton so it doesn't shed contrasting fibers on your work).
• Short circular needles have short needle parts. Short needle parts can be awkward.
  
• Ah hah! I'm a texture/feel-it girl. The way the whole thing feels and moves in my hands makes a huge difference in how much I enjoy knitting it. I know this seems like a no-brainer, but I usually think of myself as a process girl. For knitting, it seems, the feel is super important. The process is important, too, but it plays second fiddle. This explains my early distaste for inexpensive aluminum needles and my instantaneous aversion to those nasty plastic stitch markers.
  
• When it comes to finishing a nice warm sweater like this, motivation plummets when temperatures rise. Duh! Or maybe it's just that I enjoy the knitting part a whole heck of a lot more than the finishing work, even when the finishing is minimal. Also, Duh.
  
• There were errors in this pattern. *GASP* The Horror! Ok, no big deal. I've got the mad math skillz. Or at least enough math skills to sort out stitch count errors and the like. I was actually surprised that the errors and occasional vague instructions didn't cause me any real difficulty. Maybe I'm better at this than I thought!
  

So, sweater's done. Or, at least the knitting part is done. That's one knitting challenge down and many more to go. Time to move on to socks!

Actually, I moved on to socks last night. Hey, nice lady from the Whitmore Lake Yarn Co? Ya know that addi TURBO circular needle you talked me into buying when I thought I wanted a bamboo one? Wow! This is truly fantastically amazing. I love it. I want more. Thank you!


... If you want to destroy my sweater (wa wa)
pull this string as I walk away.
Watch me unravel, I'll soon be naked
lying on the floor, lying on the floor..
I've come undone...

(ugh! that song is a brain worm! help!!)

Get on your bikes and ride!

This is s my bicycle. She's a very nice bicycle and I like her very much. Today my bicycle and I have a mission. Buster is taking his new boat and a couple of his fishing buddies down the Huron river and we need to "spot cars" for him. This means that we will ride to Hudson Mills Metropark, where they put in this morning, and drive the van and trailer to Dexter-Huron Metropark so it's waiting for them when they arrive there. These two parks are both along one of my usual bike routes. I brought my camera along so I can share some of the sights with you.

About 3 miles from home as we ride along Huron River Drive, we cross the river for the first time just west of Wagner Rd.
It's extra pretty here today looking downstream off the bridge. You probably can't tell from the picture but the river is clean and clear and absolutely gorgeous today.

Another mile down the road we come to one of my favorite places, the East Delhi Bridge. Buster and I got married at the park here and had our picture taken on this very bridge:


This bridge was built by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio in the late 1800s. It is now on the books as the center of a historic district (I'm not ntirely sure what other historic sites are in this area -- I'll have to look into it and get back to you). In 2005 the county decided that the bridge could no longer safely handle automobile traffic so they closed it. You can still bike or walk over it but it's closed to motorized traffic. Washtenaw County considered tearing the bridge down and replacing it with something safe and modern and boring but the community rallied to save this beautiful iron truss bridge. According to this website, the bridge will be rehabilitated and probably reopened to traffic sometime this year.

Along with being a really nifty old iron truss bridge, it's also a great place to watch people run the Delhi Rapids:

The rapids are right downstream of Skip's Canoe where you can rent heavy aluminum canoes for a day trip down the river. Skip gets pretty cranky if you run these rapids in one of his canoes.

Upriver a bit more I ride by this house:

I have no clue who lives here, but their front yard makes me smile every time I ride by. It's always in bloom from early spring to late fall. Today it's those blurry orange flowers. In another month or so those day lilies in the foreground will be flowering and something else will pop up in the other part of the yard to replace the orange flowers. This yard is always a happy riot of color.

Ahh, what an idyllic stretch of dappled road:

You may be asking, "you mean 'dappled shade', not 'dappled road', right?"

Sadly, no. Take another look. That is indeed dappled, bumpy, miserable, road -- Yuck!

And this isn't even the worst of it -- the most sinister potholes are hiding in that shade waiting to eat up any poor innocent bicycle tire that ventures too near. But don't worry. The west bound lanes are fairly clear in comparison and I ride a different road heading back east. For bikers in this area, this hive of scum and villainy is on east bound Huron River Drive between Dexter-Huron Metropark and Zeeb road. To avoid it, take Joy road between Mast to Zeeb. Washtenaw County road commission says they plan to vanquish this nest of vile potholes this year. Take with thee my tax money and go forth to slay the evil potholes, I beg of thee!

(sorry, guess I got a little punchy there!)

Just a few short miles left before I reach Buster's van. Check out this nifty car for sale!

I wonder if that antique gas pump offers antique prices!

I'm past the half way point of my ride now and I'm starting to get a little hungry. I wonder if the folks selling that car have any cookies.

Here we are at "Rapids view" near the north end of Hudson Mills Metropark.
You can't see them in the picture, but there are lots and lots of people here BBQ'ing and enjoying the holiday weekend. I wonder if any of them have any cookies they want to share.

And look! Here's Buster's van. Hope I remembered to bring the keys. Maybe Buster left me some cookies in the van.

Darn, no cookies here. By the way, this is Buster's dream car. Normally someone's dream car is some sporty little thing or some big fancy luxury car. Not Buster! His dream car is this lovely Aerostar with a fishing rod rack mounted under the roof and an extra pair of waders in the back.

Once the van and trailer are safely parked at Dexter-Huron Metropark, I head back out on my bike for the hilly part of my ride (if any part of a ride in this part of Michigan can rightfully be called hilly). Along Joy Road right at the top of a nice little hill where I'm normally a bit winded, the sweet smell of a sheep farm permeates the air:

Hey Mrs. Sheep, you got any cookies? no? Too baa-ad.


Oh look! Little baby lambs! mmm... lamb chops... lamb stew... leg o' lamb. Aren't they cute? Such tasty things should not be so adorable! It's just wrong!

Just a few miles to go. Check out this big red barn.

I like barns. I wonder if anyone's home over there. Maybe they've got cookies.

Another few miles and I'm back where I started. I don't have any pictures from my arrival back home. My camera battery died. But I found a cookie!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!