New Booze, New Cardigan, Old Mud

First the booze. You may need it before you see all the mud and it may make you more likely to appreciate the new cardigan that much more. You think? Vodka does tend to work that way.

This here is vanilla vodka and it may be my new favorite thing. I read about a drink where they mix vanilla vodka with Dr Pepper and black cherries and rim the glass with something that seems like a creamsicle. It's from a bar in Cambridge, so I cut the article out of the magazine in the hopes I get myself over there and try one.

Then, on Friday, some of my friends were going to that exact bar but I couldn't join them. :-( Instead I told them about the drink via email. in case they wanted to give it shot. (Hey guys -- did anyone try it??) And then, saddened but undeterred, I went to the store to try and create it at home. But I totally forgot the Dr Pepper and I couldn't do the creamsicle rim at all, and the cherries seemed like a big pain in the ass, so here's where I ended up.

Not a bad spot to end up. It totally rocks. Like lime-y cream soda.

2 oz vanilla vodka
soda water
shot of lime juice
sliced lime - squeezed
over ice.

I'm not sure vanilla vodka isn't a chick drink, but it's pretty good anyways. (On the blue drink front, we're getting someplace, but we still have work to do. )

So that's the new drink.
Below, eeeeew. The Old Mud.

Old Mud, but newly wettened. This would be my yard. Even in dry weather it's not so pretty, and often muddy, but now? It's just nasty. Things are afraid to grow here on a good day, with all the kids running around in the vast un-landscaped space we call home. (Vast by Arlington standards.) After 3 days of rain, it's a muck pond. We're lucky though. The water is all in the yard, where I don't have to do anything about it. Lots of our poor neighbors are spending the day playing basement games with sump pumps and buckets.

And me? My ugly yard leaves me free to sit here and work on my cool new neckline.
In yarn distinctly LESS colorful than my last post.

I'm still not sure I like how I'm working the angles on the neckline and I may reknit it for a some more distinct mitered corners, but overall I think I've figured out a basic design with the proportions and look I was going for.

I'm also unsure about how I want to fasten this baby, or if I want to fasten it at all. My goal was to have a cropped short sleeved sweater to throw over a loose tank in summer. One of those pleat-y, float-y cotton tanks that go pretty long over your jeans. So it would be long and the cardigan would be extra short. Or I can wear it over a sundress with a high waist. So maybe I don't need any buttons... But maybe I want them anyhow?

Here's the back. Same lace detail as the front, but wider panels. So, just a little blocking, some short sleeves and a couple of decisions left. Lucky for me, I've also begun my green scarf so I can cruise along on that while I make up my mind.

What do you guys think - buttons? fastening? or no?