Saturday, August 19, 2017

New sweater time

Because I found such great buttons yesterday, I decided to go ahead and start the Augusta Cardigan. I swatched for it last night. I don't wash and block my swatches even though I knew some recommend it; I figure if you can get gauge with a plain old wool yarn, blocking won't change that, and you can even play a little with the blocking to stretch or squash a little.

The yarn I'm using is an old (long discontinued) K1C2 yarn called Camelino. I suspect it's *slightly* crisper than the recommended yarn, but I think that will actually be good for the stitch definition of the cables.

sweater start

You can see the color there. It's sort of a dark honey color, or maybe a golden brown. I think it will be a good color. It's hard to see the buttons I bought so I tried a close up.

They're glass! Made in the Czech Republic, and a lot of the really old-school glass buttons were made in Czechoslovakia (I have some from an antique store, and one of my sweaters boasts a set). I wonder if maybe some of the same factories/equipment are used. (These are buttons by Blumenthal/La Mode).

buttons

Yeah, I love having fancy buttons for my knitwear. I figure, I'm taking umpteen hours to knit a sweater, so I think spending maybe $5 more to get "just the right buttons" instead of going with the cheapest option makes sense. And good buttons are almost like jewelry.

My plan for today is to finish up my piano practice and then maybe put a movie on (I have a copy of "The King's Speech" and I never watched it through) and start in on this. (The back is all plain stockinette; I can't decide whether to start that first or to do the fronts - which have cabling - first).

I'm making a bigger size (44"). I'm reasonably sure the 41" size would fit me, but the more generously-cut one will be good for OVER things, and also, sometimes you just want a cardigan a little bit baggy. 

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