Monday 21 October 2019

On Leaving Sleeve Island

After sleeve island, the logical thing is to knit button bands.  So I did.  And then I steeked it. 


 It is possible that the smarter choice would have been to block it first but... oh well. And so a sweater is done.  Completely done.

There is always a bit of a lull when I complete a big project, but this one still needs blocking and buttons.  I am looking forward to both jobs.

I had the button box out from looking for buttons for dad's vest, so it was handy and I pulled out several interesting choices.


The buttons that I would have chosen in a heartbeat, had there been enough of them, are the five reddish buttons nearest the large button.  The red was a bang on match to the rust in the sweater,  but if you look closely, there are two different kinds of buttons: three have two holes, and the others, four.  I would have used the large button at the neck.  Had all the plain buttons had been the same, I would have but this way it felt like too many differences.  The other choices on the tray were okay but didn't really excite me.

Digging just little deeper, I came up with these


which are better than the average nice.  I would consider them my first choice bar none, had I not seen the way the wood buttons looked with the sweater.

The sweater is soaking now, and I am so looking forward to blocking and wearing this lovely thing.  It's been such a joy to knit it.  Ravelry may tell me that I've been working on this sweater since 2015 when I first pulled the yarn out and knit a swatch, but it hasn't taken very long at all. 

The first try was pulled out because I had forgotten a set of increases.  Then it sat because I moved, sold one property, sold the house, and moved again.  And then it sat...well, because knitting. And finally,  August of 2018 and last winter, when I determined that I really still wanted this sweater, I set down to knit.  It knit fast because of its striped nature.  The last colourwork section took more than another day, but each of the other stripes took an easy day of knitting. The two sleeves each took a very easy day, and all I did Sunday to finish up was knit two button bands.  I could have easily completed those on Saturday but I did have to visit the button box and then being evening, it just didn't seem like a good idea to start a part (buttonholes) that needed concentration and math.  It may look like it took four years, but really, it was a speedy knit.

And now, I have a problem.  For the past four years, the Lopi has had its own large storage container with all the knitting tucked there as well.  Since I started the sweater again, it lived in the WIP bins, where yarn and garment took up one whole bin.  The problem is the leftovers. 


Plenty for a second sweater of some sort, with sleeves, if I manage it right.  They need a home.  I am going to need to do a stash dive to find enough room or make enough room in one of my current containers for an unexpected sweaters worth of yarn.  I knew there would be leftovers.  Obviously so, considering I started with fifteen balls of green, but I thought I would use much more of it than I did.  I was expecting a vest worth of leftovers.  This is not unhappy.  Not at all.  I am kind of thrilled.  Knowing I get one more Lopi sweater out of this is wonderful!

It's a nice kind of problem to have.  

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