Sunday, February 17, 2008

You're not going to believe this, but...

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

.....we're getting more snow! We started the morning with freezing rain, lots of standing water on the icy roads, and now it's snowing, with expected accumulations of 8 inches or so... They are telling everybody to stay home, the malls are closed (so you know it *must* be bad), and I'm just hoping that things clear up enough by tomorrow so that my kids will have school.

So what's a gal to do?

Chicken soup, the cure for whatever ails you...Also, knitting...Two finished objects (sorry, didn't mean to catch you off guard like that)... Both of these are on my "mission possible" list, so two down, ten to go...
Okay, now I could use some suggestions... I knit the button band onto the front of my Tangled Yoke Cardigan, and dare I say, it is a bit wimpy. (It's very difficult to see in this photo, too, though I promise if the snow ever subsides for five minutes, I'll take a run outside and take advantage of the better lighting conditions. The cabled yoke really does show up nicely in real life, but I can't get my camera to capture it properly with our indoor lighting.) The neckband is a double layer of ribbing, the front bands are single layers. I was thinking I'd sew a pretty contrasting grossgrain ribbon to the back of the button band. However, I can't really do that on the buttonhole band to give it more body. Any thoughts? Would it be okay to have the grossgrain ribbon on the button band only, and leave it off of the buttonhole band? Are there better ways to beef up the front bands a little bit?

Tuesday is election day here in Wisconsin, we we've been having some big shot visitors. Obama was here this past week, and spoke in the Kohl Center, which is the auditorium on campus (UW-Madison) in which the Badgers play basketball and hockey. Bill Clinton was also here this week, though he spoke at the Stock Pavilion (dirt floor and you can imagine what else is in that building that gives it a certain, ahem, "scent"). Poor Bill. You can imagine that there were some people who made certain comments about BS and proper venues for BS, etc. Anyway, I also had a phone message from John McCain, and another one from former Governor Tommy Thompson who called on behalf of his "good friend, John McCain"..... Very exciting, no?

So, I'd better run. I'm expecting a call from Hillary and Obama yet....

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)

5 comments:

Debi said...

Laura- You can sew the buttonholes closed with a duplicate stitch (Or if you can, you can re-knit that band without buttonholes)and then sew grosgrain on the back and take the sweater to a professional seamstress/tailor to sew professional buttonholes.

I used to do that when I was in college and worked in an LYS...putting in professional buttonholes was a service the LYS offered.

Elizabeth said...

My suggestion is finicky, but might work. Machine sew buttonholes into just the ribbon at the correct intervals and then sew to the band. Buttonhole stitch by hand around the openings to secure the two layers together.

There's nothing like a camera flash to totally make cables vanish.

Love the blanket and red socks.

Cindy G said...

I got my call from Obabma, somehow Tommy Thompson seems to have left me off his list.

Two out of twelve already - good work!

gail said...

I've done buttonhole bands with grosgrain ribbon and the ribbon really makes the edging stiff. I wouldn't recommend ribbon on one side but not the other. I like debi's idea. I am typically dissatisfied with ribbed borders. I tend to use hems and I-cord edgings. You can do two rounds of applied I-cord, making the buttonholes when you apply the second round. I think that provides a more finished look. Elizabeth Zimmerman and Meg Swansen describe how to do this in their books. Your sweater is beautiful!!

allisonmariecat said...

Oh, lovely! Really, a beautiful sweater. And lovely socks, too.