It fits, but....

What's one more little section of 'redo'? We had cake (Duncan Hines Carmel with Carmel frosting - her favorite) with little ice cream before the big reveal.

The buttons picked were the first ones, the Celtic Knots. They went the best with the cables on the sweater. However, to quote Mom, "when you get to being this age (81) your fingers don't work as well with little, fiddly buttons." So, it was a good idea NOT to use the hearts. I'll keep those for Kitchen Towels or baby sweaters.

And here's another picture.

Here she is in the sweater, before I redo the neck/button band. I think we're going to add in a couple of more stitches, make it a wider band for her, and she wanted fewer and larger buttons. If I get the knitting done tonight (thank GOODNESS I don't have to wait until she goes to bed!) I'll take her with me tomorrow to pick out her own buttons. *sigh* all that stress. Oh, well, since it's a sweater for her, I'm much happier to have her input on it anyway. Nuts, I should have taken a picture of the back of the sweater while she had it on. It's a perfect fit in the back! Very nice to know I picked the right size when I wasn't here to measure her or her other sweaters when I had gotten started. Oh, yes, she loves the sweater. After she opened it her first words were, "I love cables!" Now, they both have sweaters/vests with matching cables.

Now, check out the earrings that Dad gave her tonight! See? This is why I couldn't have worked on it in front of her and told her it was for someone else. We all know it's her favorite color! The earrings match perfectly!

Oh, and it's started to snow outside and it should last for about 24 hours. Who is taking bets on my flight at dinner time? Right now, it's all slushy and the temps are dropping. Syracuse daughter is praying for a snow day. She's trying to finish up her papers. Snow-good for her? Not so good for flights.

I know it's blurry, but I was taking it through the screen and didn't want to go outside and use a flash...

2:05 AM-Hiding a sweater

At 2:05 AM, I cut the last thread and then went to lightly block the sweater. The front button band is a little tighter than I'd like so over night I hung a pair of scissors to pull it down. If it doesn't 'feel' right after she tries it on, I have no problem pulling it out and reknitting it. I won't have to wait until midnight to get started on it. I'll be able to do it at 6pm. However, the next step of the drama here, was how to hide the sweater.

Mom gets up several times a night and since I was crawling into bed around 3:00-4:00am on a good night here, her 6am wake up time was wayyyyyyyyyyyy too early for me. That meant that I had to find a place to hide the sweater after I'd used the spray bottle on it to 'encourage' the lengthening of the front button placket. I couldn't lay it flat on the dryer or on the dinning room table. And since she likes to come into the bedroom while I'm still asleep to get things out of her desk I was left with only one solution (there is no closet in that room...)

What appear to be ordinary very dark drapes really are terrific hiding places. Can't see the sweater here? Look again...

I retook the pictures today in daylight. The sweater is hanging from the center frame of the window, behind the blinds. Then I pulled the curtains shut and while it was still dark outside, you couldn't see a thing! Sneaky huh?

Next time, I'm starting the sweater 6 months before her birthday. Not 29 days.

Oh, pa-lease...Stop laughing...who am I kidding?

Now, here's where I need some help. I'm too tired to think this one through. While they're still at church for a 90 year old's birthday luncheon, I came home early to bake her cake. I need to sew on buttons but can't decide. Help?

The first thought I had was for the Celtic knots going well with the cables ..but then...

I found the hearts. Hearts are always pretty for girls, but wasn't so sure they'd be easy for her to manipulate. Her hands were a today, I noticed. bit shaky in church this morning.

The last ones I found were these hearts. They're really pretty, but would they be 'too busy' a pattern on the sweater with all the cables?

Click on the pictures to make them bigger to see. I have until 3PM EST today to make a decision. And my brain is a wee bit tired....