Rippin' mood

Yesterday, I baked a batch of Fimo buttons...ripped out the failed zipper/awkward hook and eye band on this:

And reknit the band to be wider and with button holes. And I sewed on the buttons:
Hopefully this means I will actually start wearing the damn sweater. Yes, I have managed to stretch the shoulders out so I don't feel like someone is grabbing me under the armpits all day long. I don't think the button band looks quite as nice as the zipper version of the sweater but as I am completely incapable of sewing a zipper on a sweater (even after referencing numerous tutorials and on-line photo demos) it'll have to suffice.

On other knitting fronts, I have decided that I hate this sock:
so I ripped it out. Too bumpy and fussy for me. I think I'm in a rippin' mood right now so watchout rippables, here I come!

On a more positive note, I started this:
My first toe-up sock knit in the Regia yarn I brought back from Germany. If ever there was a colorway that served as an antidote to winter, this is it. The ridiculous thing is that this yarn comes from a series called "Canadian Colors" where each colorway is named after a different Canadian province. Did you know that Manitoba looks like a tropical sunset? Me neither. I also have the Toronto colorway.

And my feelings about toe-up socks? Neeeeeh. I found the increases on the toe far more awkward than the decreases one would use with top-down. I had read that people liked toe-up because you could try it on at any time and make changes, but the first time I knit this toe (yes, there were a number of attempts before getting it even halfway right) I couldn't tell that I was making a mammoth sock until I had finished all the increases. Then I realized that it might fit a bear paw and had to rip it back (luckily I'm in that rippin' mood, eh?). Unless someone can give me a better sales pitch on the benefits of toe-ups, I'll be a top-down sock maker from now on. Besides,"toe-up" doesn't have much linguistic alure and "top-down" sounds like I'm riding in a red convertible with the sun shining. That's a nice image to have when you are stuck inside because the weather is so cold that it will freeze your snot if you dare to breathe.