Max wore his Easter sweater to brunch on Easter as planned. And we have the photos (with his Aunt Sonja)to prove it.

Only the most heartless critic will notice that there are no buttons or button loops and that the naked button band has a rather unfinished look to it. And I might as well confess that there are a couple of yarn ends running loose in the left sleeve. And it is a good thing that he is a nice squirmy baby — the rumpled state of the unblocked wool seems but the natural result of pre-toddler tusseling. The point is that he was able to wear the sweater. Triumph!

It was a near thing. We had a busy weekend – Sasha home for Spring Break, Sonja’s affianced, Jordan, being baptized at the Easter Vigil mass at our church Saturday night (his family came up from Oregon for the occasion and we had a celebratory dinner that evening), the usual egg dyeing. Not a lot of knitting time as Zero Hour drew close (i.e., the 11:00 am brunch reservation).

I finished the Fair Isle button band Saturday afternoon in the car (Sasha drove) while we did the last minute errands. Sarah (who has more nerve than I) began binding off the button band in church while we waited for mass to begin. It was a long service and none of us got home until nearly midnight. Sarah took the sweater with her and stayed up til 2:00 am finishing the bind-off and sewing on the second sleeve. When she, her husband, Jeff, and Max showed up at our house Easter morning, she handed the sweater off to me and I began sewing down the button band while the family hunted for Easter eggs. In the car on the way to brunch (my husband, George, drove), I finished the binding and wove in the more obvious yarn ends – arriving rather woozy but triumphant.

It is a mystery to me how we manage to get these things done in the absolute “Ta-Da!” knick of time. It completely boggles my mind how often it comes down to the final minutes. As if any kind of normal mind could unconsciously calculate how many minutes it will take the family to locate 59 Easter eggs and how that number might relate to the time it takes to sew down a button band. This project was begun weeks ago – moving in mystical inexorableness to the moment the car pulled into the restaurant parking lot Easter morning.

I did complete the sweater this week: buttons, button loops, button band edging, woven-in ends, blocking. Text book.

Now, I have to start the matching pants and socks– so Max can wear the entire outfit at Sonja’s wedding. So, the chances of the mother-of-the-bride kitchnering in the back of the church while the guests arrive…?