Meltintalle's Closet

Because I wanted to enter my sweater in the county fair I sat down and finished it. (Safety pins are a perfectly acceptable button substitute if you're just so happy you're actually done knitting you want to wear it and not fuss with fiddly bits! :p ) Coordinating buttons proved to be hard to find, so I made some from leftover yarn using the magic loop to start this

http://mrsmicawber.blogspot.com/2011/08/simple-crochet-button.html

I'm stingy and used only a 2" to 3" tail; also the center is 9 single crochet. Makes a smaller button, you see.

I put grosgrain ribbon on the button band. It's turquoise because I couldn't find copper and didn't want to go chasing all over the cities looking for something that might not exist.



My sweater and my French braid fingerless gloves ended up entered in two county fairs. The results are... interesting. The gloves got a red both times, which is actually better than I expected because they're a little meh-looking and the yarn has pulled out of shape in a few places. But the sweater got a white at the first fair, which is also better than I expected because of all the flaws I know are in the sweater. And the second time it got a blue because it looks great and the fit is lovely and with the addition of the ribbon on the button band it hangs fabulously in front. So! Sweater judging seems much more subjective than accessory judging.

 

Lo, I have finally procured photo documentation of my sweater (and its lovely 'buttons'). It was snowing to beat the band, and I think the photos are some of my favourites of any project so far. :D

I finished the back without too much trouble and moved on to the front. Well, first I somehow forgot to cast on about 20 stitches and didn't notice until I got to the increase row. Then, last night I realized that I've been working the right front as opposed to the left front, which means I was supposed to put in buttonholes... Hopefully I can just rip the lines of stitches down and add them in instead of redoing the whole thing.