Tonight!

I think I will be nearly done tonight, last night I decided to finish the waste yarn button holes. It was night and not good phot conditions, but I can show you how they looked when done. This is the right side, after removing the waste yarn, I picked up the live and freed stitches and promptly cast them off, passing one over the other until only one stitch remained.

That left me with one live loop, I used a needle and a short length of yarn to secure that one stitch, weaving the ends in as invisibly as I could. If you look close you just might spot the slightly thicker rib where the end was woven in on the wrong side. I almost like the wrong side of the band more than the right side, the i-cord bind off seems an almost perfect match for the slipped stitch edge that sits just inside the picked up stitches.

So now all I have is two inches of cuff ... and sewing the buttons on and I can wear it, or block it, or both. Steam blocking will mean I can wear it sooner .... dont-cha think?

Take care, hope your projects are making similar progress.

Na Stella

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Button holes

Button holes, yes I have made a decision, buttons chosen, but not photographed - sorry, photos next time. I found some beautiful metal silver gilt white and soft blue vintage ones in my button collection. The positions have been determined, and the button holes commenced.

The method I went with was the one given in two of my favorite technique books, The big book of knitting, and Knitting school. Simply put the method involves marking the button hole with waste yarn, and once the garment is knit, removing the waste yarn, putting the released live stitches on needles and working a straight forward cast off. There are also options to oversee the buttonhole edge to further stabilize and reinforce it. The method also sounds like a bit of a fiddle on 2 mm needles. I liked the idea that the edge was the same top and bottom, and that the bind off would reduce stretching. I've only ever worked one and two row button holes before so this is a bit of a leap into the unknown but I trust those authors.

The corners are coming along nicely, metered increases every second round in single rib. I was a little worried about the width of the bands, but given the buttons are about 1.2 cm the band has to be 2.5cm, and the neck band will stretch and thin when worn. I am heading towards a 3 stitch icord bind off as the edge, worked on larger needles to make it soft, round squishy, and stretch enough. Either that or a sewn bind off but that would required many ends sewn in as I doubt I could bind off all around with one section of thread.

Corners

To guide me I used advice given to me way back when I was a undergraduate student, that women's button holes are on the right when worn, because women are always right. On that provocative feminist note I'd best leave and go back to my knitting, still round and round.

Na Stella

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