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The Bells are Ringing

Well that is an overstatement, a bell is ringing.  The making of tiny ornaments has taken over my knitting and there is so much satisfaction in putting the proper yarn color and weight with the right project.  I´ve been using up those silly bits of yarn that have been stored away for years and there is the happiness that comes when within a few hours a project is complete!  And the best part is no new yarn is needed since it is all stored right here at home.

My version of the bell uses Tuula Maaria´s Knitted Bell Christmas Tree Decoration pattern (are those adjectives in the wrong order or is it just me).  Since this bell is being made for little girls, a pinkish red color of yarn seemed appropriate, even though I cannot ever remember seeing a red bell in my life.  As you will see there was more than just a girly color that motivated my selection of this particular color.

Here´s a look at the finished bell:

The bow is supposed to make it more Xmas-like
The clapper or dinger as I refer to it is the precious part of this object.  Earlier this year Mom and I decided to look at not only her button collection, but also the collection of my maternal grandmother´s.  These buttons were almost exclusively taken from old clothing.  (Do any of us remove buttons to save anymore?  I think not.)  The time we spent sorting through all the buttons allowed for a good deal of reminiscing as Mom remembered many of the clothing pieces the buttons came from in the first place and where and when the piece was worn.

There were some stunning buttons in Grandma´s collection, antiques if you will, many approaching 60-100 years old.  There were buttons from underwear (don´t know if I knew back in the day buttons were used for this clothing item) and some made of substances one just doesn´t find in notions departments today.  Case in point:

You can still see the original thread connected to a couple of these buttons
These are small red glass orbs with what looks like brass at the top.  It isn´t brass because on some buttons the coating has worn off.  I immediately fell in love with them among others and asked Mom if she minded giving them up, she said sure, so I now own a small bag of very special buttons.  These particular buttons came from a sweater that Mom once wore to high school.

Of course, there were no plans for any of the buttons, but I remembered them when I found the bell pattern the other day.  One of those buttons made a perfect clapper for my advent ornament.

The clapper thanks to one of my grandmothers
So now my grand daughters will have an item once owned and used by my Grandmother, meaning they will have something from their great, great grandmother.  How wonderful is that? 

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