Tuesday, November 2, 2010

R and R


We had a chance to get away for a few days to our favorite fall location. We've been going to Snowbird Mountain Lodge in North Carolina many years now and it is always wonderful. It's a special, very relaxed atmosphere where the food is fabulous and the scenery breathtakingly beautiful. It's the one place I go where I can do absolutely nothing (guilt-free) for several days in a row! Mike got out and hiked everyday, but I only went on one hike and spent the rest of my days knitting and reading by the fire.

Just before we left, I finished my garter yoke cardigan and I really like it! It was an easy knit and relatively fast, but, as is often my habit, I got distracted somewhere along the way and it took longer than it should have to finish up the last little bit of the sleeves and then to sew on all those many buttons. I think this sweater is going to be a workhorse in my limited wardrobe. It's comfortable enough to slip on anytime and looks nice enough to wear with just about everything casual. Though I tried it on many times while in the process of knitting, it was not until I wore it for a full day that I discovered the sleeves were several inches too long. Now that I'm home again, I'll snip a stitch on the sleeves, pull out the bottom several inches and knit the cuff back on. I would love to make one out of handspun in a natural color and may plan on doing that....after the Christmas knitting is over. The one thing I might change would be to eliminate some buttons. Maybe just have buttons on the yoke part. I'll never wear this sweater all buttoned up, so why go through finding and sewing on ten buttons? We'll see.

Speaking of Christmas knitting......the time has come to get on with it! Are you knitting gifts this year? Have you started yet?

6 comments:

  1. I hate sewing on buttons, in part because I haven't yet found a proven stay-on method. And I need one, because I've already knitted two cowls that button on and plan to knit some more for Christmas prezzies! So please share if you have a good method....

    P.S. I miss the title of your blog at the top!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the reminder to change that! I've not liked it either.
    As for buttons-I use a closely matching thread, sew the button, then wrap the thread around and around under the buttons to make a shank (if the button doesn't have one). Sometimes I cover the thread with a single strand of the yarn. You can sew through a small piece of felt to reinforce the stitching from the back if needed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, I like the felt idea! Do you leave the thread tails long and weave them in like yarn tails?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your newest banner photo is one of my favorites so far! Thanks for linking to Snowbird, I really want to go there sometime- glad you had another relaxing time there and hopefully you haven't paid for it upon return! I really want to make that sweater (after I finish the 2-3 others I have in progress....)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I was just thinking about the whole Christmas knitting thing yesterday. YIKES!!! Great sweater!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Enjoy your pictures and the knitting is wonderful...hope one day to visit your part of the country, enjoy the Fall.

    ReplyDelete