number ten...

And eleven! Yeah, I’ve been knitting away, kind of ignoring you and just getting on with my lace projects, feeling bad for leaving you hanging! Been meaning to give you my run-down on the front bands, buttons and holes – how, how many and stuff like that, so here goes.

On that last bunch, the three Bonita cotton ones, https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2022/02/my-hole-theory.html I really paid close attention to the spacing of the buttons and my conclusion: 8 - 19 mm buttons, spaced 8 cm apart (from centre of button) works best for the length of this garment – the front band is about 65-68 cm\25.5-27 inches in length, 21mm\7/8 inch wide. On the blue one, I had 6 - 23cm buttons, spaced 11 cm between and there’s a little bit of stretching, gaping between when buttoned which can be sort of unattractive – trying to avoid that! On the red mesh, used 8 – 19mm buttons and it’s perfect (did the rose one the same but the buttons were slightly larger, not a big deal but optimally if you had all the right options available, go with the 19mm size.

Tip: When making the buttonhole band, instead of having to count needles to the next hole, use the straight side of the needle selector and measure 7 cm (to get 8 cm centred) between first and last needles of prospective buttonhole – see photo at right. Start the top buttonhole needles from neck end of band, 4 needles for hole, 7 cm to start of next hole,  4 ns, etc down and leave any excess/extra at bottom end, eliminating the need to have evenly spaced holes right to the bottom.

Just finishing up another laced, button-front hoodie in ‘thistle’, Forsell’s Pure New 4 ply wool for sister Janet – her birthday last week and she really does love that gold one I sent her last fall, so I’m happy to make another for her. The stitch pattern is from Gossamer, from Serial Stuff 3, and the hem is from Tumbleweed, KW No 53.

Number 11, in the light blue Bonita cotton, is for my next-door neighbour, Susan, just because she’s a great girl, hope she likes the colour! The stitch pattern is from Lacy Twin, way back, cover of KW No.20 https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2011/07/cross-knitting.html  – I had remade the twinset for myself in black WCD – totally classic! https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2020/03/schemeing-vees.html

My year of lace carriage is just about complete…in my mind anyway - never really started out to spend the whole year on this but it kind of became a bit of an obsession - you know how I get…and it’s not like I really have to stop lace carriaging, like, you’re not the boss of me! I can do what I want and truly, I still love that thing. In fact, I have been toying with the idea of a lace, button-front hoodie in wool crepe deluxe (be still my heart! – am I ready for it?) and I still have that green Cannelé cotton…