Knitting on Impulse

Buttons

The weekend is going splendidly, and I have lots of cool things to tell you, but time is tight this morning, so just a quick update on the cardigan.  Which I am not wearing today.  I got as far as cutting the steek:

No stabilization, no fancy extras - just (thankfully not misplaced) faith in the stickiness of Noro Kureyon.  (I did do a test swatch first - more on that tomorrow.)

I picked up the requisite ratio of stitches, and dutifully knit three ridges of garter stitch (as per EZ).

Time to make buttonholes.  Probably a good idea to check the size against the buttons.  Buttons!  Damn.  Many months ago I picked up a few sets of buttons down in the city (for just such an eventuality), and put them in a Safe Place.  Unfortunately the locale was chosen early in the moving-in chaos, and a late night flurry of searching failed to turn up any trace of buttony objects.  I was deep in the slough of despond, when DH pointed out that our duvet cover had been steadily losing buttons, thanks to the children utilising it as a burrow, and he had stored them in an actual safe place.

Perfect!  I think I might actually need seven, so will snip the remaining two off the duvet if necessary.  But not in time to wear the darned thing today.

So... anyone have any leads on fabulous online button sources?  Preferably Canadian, but US shipping to Canada would do.  (If only someone whom I thought loved me had not GIVEN AWAY the enormous vintage button collection she inherited.....)

Steek Day

I managed to clear a space in the chaos that has reclaimed our condo (why is that battle never over?) and pulled out my sewing machine to do the deed. Better knitters than I have expounded upon hand stabilisation methods, including simply trusting the wool to grab itself; however, until I move on to authentic Shetland wool, I feel most secure with machine sewing. (Besides, if it was good enough for EZ....)

1. I got brave this time, and made a measly 4 stitch steek. (I've seen EZ use only two, but I'm not quite ready for that yet.) Below you can see the four stitch column, with pins inserted up the middle to ensure I don't lose my way on the dark gray yarn. (BTW, a couple of commenters and family members think this sweater is blue - does it look that way to anyone else? I'm wondering about my monitor.) I chose good cotton thread (no polyester sullying my wool), and the widest zigzag setting, with the centre mark of the presser foot aligned between the two stitches to be stabilised. (I haven't seen zigzag discussed as a means of stabilisation - I find it preserves the elasticity of the knit fabric, while also functioning similarly to two rows of straight sewing.)

2. I sewed down the two stitch column on each side, being careful to reverse for a short way at top and bottom to be sure to catch the edge stitches. Red denotes the cutting line, and green is the space in which stitches will picked up for the sleeve.

3. The deed is done!

See? Not so scary!