After-thought button-holes

It's almost October.

Our summer at home has gone by so fast. We've been busy and packed a lot into the 3 months that we've been home.  I've enjoyed meeting weekly with my knitting group and have been knitting, so I thought I'd try to update this blog a bit.

I finished these socks this week. I started them about 18 months ago, but didn't work on them that much, because I thought the angora in the yarn was causing me to be congested.  Now I'm not sure that is true, but here they are and now that they are done I'll wear them. They are warm and fuzzy.

And yesterday I finished this cardigan.  It is made of some silk yarn I got for half-price. It is 100% silk, but feels a lot like cotton.  I haven't worn it yet, so can't really comment on what it is like to wear.

I made "afterthought buttonholes" in the right band.  The directions called for working the right band first and making buttonholes every 12 rows or something like that, but I always do the left band first and then plan where I want the buttonholes.  so I did the left band and front.  The band is worked with the front. (See my Ravelry project page for more information on the pattern, yarn, etc.) Then I got started on the right side and was half-way up before I realized I had completely forgotten to work any buttonholes.  I'm sure I'm the first one to ever have done this.  :-)  Instead of ripping it all back, I decided to try dropping down in the buttonhole row to where I wanted the first buttonhole.  Then I put a piece of yarn through that stitch and using a crochet hook picked up the ones above it until I reached the location for the next buttonhole.  I repeated the process for two more buttonholes and then kept knitting up past each buttonhole location.  I would go 2 or 3 rows beyond, then drop down and make the buttonhole in the same way I made the others, so they all match.  I think they look fine.  The only downside is you do have to weave in 2 ends for each buttonhole.

Here's a close-up of the button-hole band.

 

 

And here's the inside of the band.  It's not pretty, but this is silk.  I think in wool it would look nicer.

We've had fabulous weather here--well unless you are a plant.  The plants would like more rain.

The trees are turning, so I thought I'd post a few pictures, but decided not to take too long at that part, so I just stepped out my front door.  These photos are all taken from my front and back yard.

From my front door.

Looking down the street.

Shrubs I planted in 2004, which were tiny then.

Two kinds of Parsley, the only herb that grows really well here.

Petunias still going strong in spite of the drought. I haven't watered them.

Do you know what this is?  I usually cut these off, but this is the seed cluster of a Clematis.

This one I took about a block away a couple weeks ago. I thought it was so cute.

So that's my update. We're off to Finland on October 5, so look for photos on my other blog after Oct 18th.

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