On my walk back to the train station this afternoon, I took a little detour and popped into a store that I thought might have some buttons. They had a very limited selection, but I managed to pick out a few that might work for the Republic hat, even though they aren't exactly what I had in mind. Who knew you could find a million weird novelty buttons, but no simple wooden ones.

As promised...
pic removed (to be put back later!)
One cabled sock for Kevin down, one to go (status of sock 2: 4 rows knit).

The first strip of the Circle of Friends Blanket. I stole the needle from this for the second Republic hat, but I know I have more size 6s around, so I'll probably start another strip soon. The next strip starts with the light blue and then goes into the brown.