A Blast From the Past

 

Do you remember this cardigan?  I knit it in April, but didn't have buttons so I just tucked it away, dangling ends and all, until I could find some.  It's been sitting patiently in a bag since then while I have searched up and down for the right buttons for it.  I usually use shell or metal buttons, but both of those options were really taking over the sweater.  I think that even though it's a red sweater, there are so many shades of red there, it was distracting to have a contrasting button.  Once I figured this out, I started looking for red buttons.  The problem is this is a blue red, that might have wanted to lean pink when it grew up, but then it got dark.  It didn't go to Burgundy or Wine or Maroon, it stayed red, but it's definitely not a Fire Engine, Candy Apple, Chinese Red or any of the "standard" reds that the button manufacturers make.  I looked at custom buttons, but the type I liked would have been almost as much as the yarn I used to knit the sweater.  I looked at Etsy.  I looked at vintage buttons.  Nothing was quite right.

Finally, this month as I was flipping through the new Twist Collective, I saw an ad for Textile Garden.  I checked it out and found some buttons that looked perfect!  I found another set of buttons that also looked like they would work, but they were a little smaller.  I decided to order both because if the photos were off, one of them would work and worst case scenario, I would have to reknit the button hole band with smaller button holes.  This wasn't really a big problem since I hadn't woven in the ends yet!  (Laziness sometimes pays off.)  I went to pay and realized the buttons were in England.  (I would have noticed that the prices were in pounds, not dollars if I wasn't solely focused on the buttons.)  Since these were the only buttons I'd found that looked like they would work, I decided to go for it.  Shipping was super fast and I got them Wednesday afternoon.  Both sets of buttons I ordered worked with this cardigan, but one set was big enough for the button holes already there.  I started weaving in ends, sewed down the pocket linings and had it blocking Wednesday night before bedtime.  Yesterday I added the buttons and here is my sweater now:

The pattern is Heathered.  The yarn is Fable Fibers Biography in Ruby.  The buttons are Burgundy Shell Leaves from Textile Garden.  After blocking I wasn't happy with top edges of the pockets.  (You can see in the first picture how floppy they looked.)  I decided to add a row of single crochet along that top edge to firm things up.  It would have been easier to do this before I sewed down the pocket linings, but it wasn't too hard to do it after everything else was finished.  I'm really glad I added that little edge.  You can see the difference it made.

I suppose you'd like to see the buttons that finally allowed me to finish this cardigan, wouldn't you?  Here's what they look like.  They are a dyed shell (so I got to use shell after all) in a leaf shape.  I'm so happy to finally have this sweater finished and ready to wear once the temperatures drop around here!

Have a great weekend!