I Like Big Buttons and I Cannot Lie...

If there's one thing that causes me to become undone, it's buttons.

Ha, get it? Undone? Buttons? You do them up? Yuk, yuk, yuk... It's a gooder.

I have a weakness for things from a haberdashery. One of my favourite things to do as a child was to visit a fabric store and run my hands along the sides of the bolts of fabrics, like a giant xylophone. I liked to push my fingers into the velvet and rub my face into the satin (which was probably a horrible thing for a store owner to watch). And I loved the buttons... still do. When I was a kindergarten teacher, I would often let the children string the buttons from a jarful I found at a charity shop. They usually made beautiful things from them!

When I found out about Anadiomena's Moody Sweater Pattern, I knew I had to make it. I never expected to want to make something with such a high neck, but the first words in my brain were, "Check out those buttons..."

When you spend a bunch of time knitting a garment, the last thing you want is details like buttons or zippers to ruin the whole lot. I have a weakness for ornate buttons, but I knew that I wanted to find something that wouldn't overwhelm the garment. I needed to find a way to satisfy the tacky, doodly side of my personality, without compromising the wearability of this sweater.

So, off to the internet I went (which is the only place I buy buttons from nowadays, having only a Walmart as my other option, and who wants to have the same thing as everyone else?). I went to Etsy and typed into the search, "big buttons wooden."

And voilà:  These appeared on the screen. They are nearly two inches in diameter, wooden and beautiful. I got them from a shop called Lyanwood.

And, of course, the inevitable happened: I ordered a few more, just to make the shipping worthwhile. I decided to make this a wooden button order, because I found out that wooden buttons work really well on handknits because they are lighter. I also prefer the wood over the plastic options. These purple ones make me think of grape Kool Aid:

And I loved the spice orange of these buttons. They'd be beautiful on a grey sweater, don't you think?

I also got these as a freebie from the shop owner. I think they must be coconut buttons, but I really don't know. I think I prefer the lighter side to the darker side, but we'll see what they end up on.

Hey, when you say button, do you say, "buh-en" or "but-ten" or "budden?" My friend, dkzack, usually says, "but-ten!!" like they're the happiest thing in the world.

And you know what? Maybe the are!