couldn't help it...

I was going to take this to MSP, basically in pieces and use it for some of my demos, of seaming and doing that second pocket but as I got closer to the end, I just couldn’t stop. Rationalizing, my thought was that it would look so much nicer finished up, washed and dried and I could model it – you know how I love to show off! And let’s face it, a unshrunk cotton garment can be pretty scary…I’ll just make a couple extra swatches for the demos.

For the hood, I used the method and schematic for KW#40, Lacy in Red because the shape was suitable and I wanted the face to be framed with the rib and not have a seam on the top of the head, so the rib and lace look nice when the hood is down which will be 99.9% of the time.
Dropped by the fabric store the other day  to check out buttons and gosh-darn there was next to nothing. Had decided I wanted a one inch/25 mm button or even 1 1/8 inch/28 mm would do but slim pickings! I did find a card of 28 mm that was almost ok – I figured I could doctor the colour with nail polish or paint – there were 2 per card at $3.80 and I need five or six  buttons – I was about to purchase - did the math and came to my senses - figured I’d better check my at-home button stash! Yup, I actually had better choices already, but only 5 of the one I liked colourwise. Usually I don’t pick shiny buttons but I’ll be ok with these, I’m sure. To make a swatch of the buttonhole prior to the actual band - the rib is a 4-stitch repeat; on the main bed, three needles in work, 1 out all across, with Swing P and on the rib bed, only every fourth needle in work, opposite the needle out of work from the main bed and this stitch is tucking every other row – I did that so the single stitch on the rib bed wouldn’t disappear in the fold and the tuck adds a bit of width to the whole thing.
Back to the buttonhole, my experience tells me that I need to cast off about 5 stitches for the size of the chosen button (25mm) so the big question is where to best position the buttonhole in the rib for it to look and perform the best. Make two and then decide.
Here’s the needle arrangement:
l l . l l l . l l l . l l l . l l
. . l . . . l . . . l . . . l . . .
I made one with the rib stitches at each end and one with the rib stitch in the centre and it looked the best – the one at the top, the first one opened too wide and just looked like a big hole whereas the centred rib stitch seemed to control the depth better so I went with that one – they were both 5 stitches wide.

Got the bands made and attached; put most every thing together and darned in most ends – didn’t attach the hood in case the front bands weren’t right – not that I didn’t have confidence, just that, as you can see, the unshrunk cotton garment can be deceiving – a horizontal band is going to shrink the opposite way to the vertical length of the garment and if necessary, it will be easier to remove and replace the bands without having to take the hood off as well.
Wash and dry and whew! looks great, must have planned that! Final photos later!
Calling this one Milky Way.