my desk is a mess...

You may remember this entry. You remember this photo (And that guy? How could you forget him?): 

That was the pattern.

I know, I know, totally retro -- almost in the macrame owl category. But something about it appealed to me and I've always loved anything Elizabeth Zimmerman, and guess what? I finished! 

I believe in telling the world when you've gotten to the end of something -- particularly when you re-knit parts twice and had to cut off the i-cord loops for button holes and when you started way back in December. 

Here's the finished vest: 

I particularly love the buttons. Real black walnut halves. Yes! See, I remembered seeing them on some yarn website YEARS ago and did this intense, several evenings long, Google search. Still didn't find them. But thought this one website looked like the one that USED to sell them. I wrote them a long, heartfelt email, and they said that YES they used to carry the walnut buttons, used to saw them in half themselves (I believe). Didn't know if they had any, but would search the shelves.

Lo and behold, a package came in the mail!

Aren't they sweet? 

Yarn is from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Schoolhouse Press. I'm not sure they still have this, but it's authentic Scottish wool -- yes, scratchy but lovely. I don't mind it. It makes me feel warm.