Friday 31 December 2010

Looking forward

I don't do new year's resolutions, the last one (and only one?) that I kept was years ago when I decided I would never make another one.  I am still pleased at avoiding all that guilt!

But I do have hopes for the future.  Not necessarily just the new year, but things to do at the time when they feel right.

I have a few days off before it's back to work, - and here's what I'd love to get busy on: a couple of sewing projects.

I remembered I had the black fabric all cut out, but I'd actually forgotten about the other one!  It was a nice discovery to find that I'd already cut the fabric out.  Only problem is: I don't remember what the blouse/top is meant to look like - it'll be exciting to find out!

The black fabric is nice, it is a solid black but patterned in small squares.  I was relieved to find that I had marked the fabric before taking the paper pattern off.



Here is my mystery project:


I obviously recognise the sleeves (aha, short ones!) and I can see that there are side panels (lying on top of the other pieces) and then the centre pieces for both back and front.  It's a good thing that the paper pattern pieces have numbers on them: 2 and 4 for the side panels.  I am guessing that No 2 goes with the No 1 front centre fronts, and No 4 with the back which is No 3.

So no worries there.  The only thing that's holding me back from getting stuck in: I so very much do not enjoy marking up the fabric - tailor tacks are, I think, the easiest: stitching through both layers but leaving some excess thread between those layers, then snipping the threads apart.  That way you get your marker in the exact same place on both pieces.  That's a distinct advantage because I can be quite ham-fisted when it comes to stuff like that that I don't enjoy.

I am not really sure about the colour of this though: can you call that a taupe?  If so it should suit my colouring (dark hair, light skin) but if it's beige, it'll be a so not good colour, as in: #notagoodlook.

On the knitting front: my WIP count has grown to 18.  I know, I know, I hang my head in shame.  But I did finish a couple that I recently blogged about: the EZ cardigan and the blue summer top.

I am hoping to finish this one soon:


I just need to do a bit of blanket stitch around the lower half of the left armhole.  The sleeves are only attached to the top half.  I wanted them to be a lot more flared but that fell by the wayside.

Thursday 30 December 2010

Socks, socks, socks!

Finishing my beautiful dark red cable panel socks made me very happy.  I was very, very pleased with them!  Such a nice thing to experience this glow and sense of achievment when a project turns out well.  It pushes you onwards...

I was so enthused that I started my next project straight away.  More socks!  (The blog post title has to refer to something!)

I am calling them my Frosted Spires socks.  Skein Queen in colourway Jack Frost (isn't that such a cool name?) - 2.5mm needles.


I am very pleased with my progress:

To this:


From this:


I love knitting both socks at the same time: a little on one, then over to the other - in turn and turn around.  Disadvantage: if you make a mistake on one, you're likely to do the same thing on the other.  But that's where the advantage lies: you get to remember what the different manoeuvres are (heel, gusset, toe decreases, that sort of thing) and any difficulties with the pattern itself too.  I wouldn't want to read the same tricky chart a second time once I finally get round to the second effort.

And that's my biggest problem: I start out all enthusiastic on the first sock, I probably get it done quite quickly and I feel dead chuffed at what I achieved... and then with that sinking heart feeling... I realise that I've got to do it all over again!  And it's just not as exciting the second time round, oh no it ain't.

When knitting a bit on one and the same bit on the other, you don't really notice how much work goes into it - it's all still part of the journey of discovery about a new pattern: all fresh and exciting and new!

The best thing: when you complete one, the second one is not far behind at all!  It just seems to all go so very quickly!  I love doing socks this way.

It's just a bit hard on your wallet coz you need two sets of needles.


I saw a gorgeous pattern called Rosebud Socks on the blog by Ignorant Bliss.  They are out of this world gorgeous!  The more often I looked at her wonderful photo the more I envied her the pattern.

I gave in and ordered the book (I just hope it's the right one!) - Socks from the Top Up.


While I was at it I had a look at my saved wishlist and also ordered the Traditional Fair Isle Knitting book.  I reckon it's worth it just for the pattern on the cover!

Loop in Camden Passage, London, have Jamieson's in lots of different colours (could even be a round 100? Must check) - I quite fancy trying some of them out soon!

Monday 27 December 2010

My pink Elizabeth Zimmermann Cardigan

An end to a long labour.


This project is finally finished. Which is a minor miracle, seeing how long it took me.


YarnMirasol Qina

Needles5 mm
PatternElizabeth Zimmermann's Green Sweater
fromSchoolhouse Press

 
I just looked back at previous blog posts about this cardigan and I am flabbergasted to find that it is the project I mentioned the most: in a massive five posts!

Not that you would want to look at them but just to show that I'm not exaggerating:

My first steeks!
Steek update
An inspirational pattern (all about The Green Sweater story!)
Something has to be done
My crafty state of play

I learned a lot from this project (also see my Ravelry project page).  I was aware that this incorporates quite a few things that were new to me like steeking, gauntlet cuffs, dolman sleeve shaping or the square neckline band. Oh, and phony seams!

It was huge fun to do these things, one at a time.

I learned that it's a good idea to do the phony seams before turning the hem up: ladder the rows of your "seam" stitch right back down to the bottom stitch (careful to keep the bottom stitch or it gets very fiddly!) and hook them back up with a crochet hook: pull through the two strands from the bottom two rows, then one strand from the third, and carry on like this (2, 1, 2, 1...).  It gives a very nicely defined pseudo seam up the sides!

If you do the hem first you may find that you sewed up the stitch you're meant to be laddering, which is precisly what I did. Ahem.

Steeks are not scary.  Amazing as it is: as long as you machine stitch at least a couple of lines either side of where you'll cut, you're not going to run into any problems of cut ends unravelling.  I have not tried crocheting instead of machine stitching.

What hasn't turned out so well:

The body of this cardigan is way too short.  It looks a bit ridiculous on me to be honest.  An unhappy discovery.  I suppose I could try to lengthen this but there is another problem: I disovered only now after the jacket had been hanging up for some time that the yarn is too heavy for this pattern.  What used to be quite a reticent square neckline to start with is getting bigger and bigger.  The shoulders threaten so slip off the hanger and I will definitely store this folded instead.

The applied i-cord (are you meant to do the button loops this way? I couldn't quite figure it out from the pattern) is a bit bulky although it stabilises the centre front edge very well.  Unfortunately it does not hide the gaping gaps in said centre opening because I think that I didn't get the measurement across my boobs right.

If I wear this cardigan unbottoned then that won't show up.

The sleeves turned out a little long (I thought I'd tried it on and determined the right length? But this could be down to the 'getting longer' in the shoulders problem that I mentioned above).  That's just about okay.

I may have to think of sewing in a staying band under the shoulders, that might improve things a touch.  So grafting the shoulders may not be such a good idea: seams would have made this more rigid.

In summary: I loved the techniques involved, I really enjoyed making this (even though it took so long), I may wear this every so often (I hope) but all in all I am thinking of making this again to incorporate what I learned.  Next time in a yarn that won't be too heavy to sit and drape lots better, and I would lengthen the body by about 2-3 inches.

The pattern mentions a variation of slimmer sleeves: that sounds very intriguing and I think I would go with that.

I am thinking of Jamieson's Shetland wool: there is a 2 ply which is called a jumper weight, there are some really lovely colours!  Keeping my stash in mind, I won't be buying any more wool any time soon though...

.

Icy blue summer cotton top


This was meant to be a quick project to take to knit evenings with me and motor through the stocking stitch.  I also wanted to use up my stash of only 300 grams of this - bought a couple of months ago because I liked the colour.  Never mind that it won't be the season to wear this for a long while yet!

I am very aware that I need to reduce my yarn stash, it has taken on ridiculous proportions, completely out of whack with anything that would be reasonable.  I decided on a 'late year "new year's" resolution' (becauce I never keep the true "new year's" resolutions!) - I want to start a new project by looking for a yarn I fancy using and then finding a project to go with it.  Not the other way round!  That way madness lies because it usually involved me buying new yarn.  This may just be the reason why my stash has grown so excessively.  No more!

This project worked along those 'new intentions' guidelines:  I looked at the yarn and didn't even have to think what sort of project I wanted to do, - the small quantity dictated a smallish project. A sleeveless summer top was just the answer:  I have most of the last ball left so I must have used about 260 grams of this DK cotton.




YarnSchachenmayr nomotta Catania
Needles4 mm
Patternmade up as I went along

For once I did not knit this in the round but did a separate front and back piece because I wanted the stability from side seams to keep this to a better shape.

I used a little bit of a tapered waist, more on the front than the back because I cast on a few stitches less for the back (unintentionally, no idea how that happened).  The only issue I have with this top is that I should have done a couple of short rows across the tummy: the front unfortunately rides up a bit which isn't hugely attractive.

I started with a Purl 2, Knit 1 ribbing but then felt that the reverse side looked better, so before the first stocking stitch row, I turned it over to show the K2, P1 side.  In this cotton DK this type of ribbing makes the purl stitch retreat in the background and leaves the two knit stitches as a very smooth looking surface.  In contrast to stocking stitch this ribbing does not curl up which is exactly what you need for the bottom of a top.  I may use this again, I really like the way this looks!

I wasn't very happy with the raw edges of the neckline and armholes so I attached an applied i-cord made from three stitches.  As per a very handy YouTube clip that I saw, I knit the first stitch of these through the back loop and used a SSK to attach the third stitch to the live stitches I picked up around the edges.

An interesting technical bit is that because I did not pick up enough stitches around the edges, I used my working thread to pick up another stitch every 4-5 stitches.  This means that my working thread loops around the raw edge on the inside and in the process stabilises this raw edge by binding it closer to the i-cord.  I thought that was a very useful, even if completely unintentional, side effect of what started life out as a mistake!  Again, I may use this again - probably more with quite inelastic yarns like cotton and bamboo than with wool.

I like the effect that the applied i-cord has on the edges: it neatens them up no end, and stabilises them very well.  Again this is a technique I will use in future - I may experiment with how 2 stitch or 4 stitch i-cords look.

Sunday 26 December 2010

Christmas gifts

I decided not to make any Christmas gifts this year after making one each for my family last year and getting rather stressed out over finishing in time.  I have no idea what happened next because I ended up making not just one or two, but five to last year's six.  I definitely surprised myself there by being a lot more altruistic when I'd made my mind up to be selfish! How odd...

Here they are:

A quilt for my mother (showing the front on the left and the back on the right):

 

A neckwarmer/scarf combo for my dad:

 

The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief in red and green (vey Christmassy! Quite unintended) on top for my friend Hanne (the only photo that wasn't blurry, my own in black is at the bottom just to show what it looks like):


Socks for my sister (yes, in black! That's what she asked for). I made up the design myself:

 

I made the scarf on the right for my friend Anne last year, this year I gave her the the bag on the left (same pattern, but yarn held singly this time). The knitted 'flap' is attached to one side only and folds over:

  


The trouble with presents is that you can't blog about them when you finish them. Because "people might see"!  A bunch of Crimbo presents is worst: there's a whole lot of them!  (Particularly when you don't follow through on the selfish crafting intention... Just how did that happen?)

So there you have it.  But next year, - I am definitely not making any at all! Definitely...

Friday 24 December 2010

Semi solid red socks with cable panel

My dark red socks are done!  I'm so pleased:




The colour in the third photo is lots closer to reality.  Very much more red than purple!



YarnSweet Clement - Beloved
Needles2.75 mm
PatternMeander
SourceFree pattern by Lisa Stichweh on Ravelry


This is the first project in a while that incorporates cables.  A fact I only realised once I'd set my heart on the pattern and started the top ribbing!  Cables are the one thing I tried to avoid because I don't enjoy them.  I found them less tedious than I remembered, thankfully, - and the pattern looks extremely gorgeous!

At first I couldn't make head or tail of the cable pattern: there are groups of either two or three stitches involved, some of these get purled, others are knit.  The knit stitches are all knit through the back loop, fine, I can do that.  But which way do you switch the stitches and how many where?

It became easier when I realised that all purl stitches went to the back and never crossed over at the front. Okay-dokey.  Then I could see the meander take shape: there are two stitches of the big meander line on top, and one to the thinner line that runs underneath.  Right!

Once I could see what the pattern is meant to look like, I had no further problems.  I do believe though that one of the symbols early on the left wasn't the right one.  Never mind, I managed to suss it out.

They fit beautifully (the heel might be a touch big but not disastreously so) and the yarn feels so wonderful on my feet!
I am so very much looking forward to knitting up the other two skeins of the same yarn.  I bought one in a dark green and the other one is pink.  I'll have socks in every colour of the rainbow!
Seriously yummy.

I will buy more of this yarn when mine is finished.  Sweet Clement's Etsy shop will be up and running at some point soon.  Pippa suggests to follow her Twitter feed for updates (Sorry, I can only access the feed via the 'mobile.twitter.com' site, you get the idea) and she also has a blog.  And I think that's all the info you would ever want!  You can tell that I am seriously impressed by her beautiful yarn!

Enjoy!

Yarn obsession

I went completely doolally, you can't call it anything else.  On Monday evening I went along to the Bothered Owl's event: a Christmas Yarn Party.

I knew I shouldn't take along a lot of cash because I'd get tempted.  Well, I did, and I indulged more than I meant to (yes, there was another visit to the cashpoint, but at least only one... does that count?).

There were a number of independent yarn vendors: Skein Queen, Yarns to Knit, Sweet Clement, Fyberspates, and others.

I went absolutely bonkers: there was so much wonderful yarn that I couldn't leave behind!  My excuse is that it literally jumped into my hands, - you know: right off the table, as if by itself...

Here are some of the photos of my newest stash additions:

This Skein Queen yarn has the wonderful colourway name of Shepherds' Warning:

More of my Sweet Clement yarn, most are the BFL sock yarn, here in cerise:


Turquoise:
 
 
Electric Blue:
 

And teal. This is my second high twist Beloved yarn (I also bought this in the dark red, see my latest socks):



Now the only question is: what do I want to make with these?


Sitting and knitting with my friends was great, being able to have a glass of wine with that: very civilised! And the two ladies of The Bothered Owl had put on a very rich feast of a buffet. I was only expecting a few bowls of peanuts and olives and perhaps a couple of other types of nibbles!

What wasn't so great about sitting there was that the yarn on the Sweet Clement stand kept (I swear!) smiling at me from right across the room.  A smile of yarny scrumptiousness so brazenly bold that I had to go and get more...

Sunday 28 November 2010

Quilted Things: blue & purple container

I just realised that I never blogged about my second quilting project (not counting the pot-holders) from last year.

Here it is:



A view of the inside:


And the whole thing laid flat (I inserted a zipper across the diagonal in the bottom layer):



Here are a few views of the assembly process:

I since discovered that I am not using the correct techniques because I am basically self-taught.  I had tried to find classes before I started but didn't find any in or easily reachable from central London, or they took place at the wrong time of day.  There were some really nice ones I found: a whole weekend thing with accommodation which sounds really wonderful, however, way beyond my financial means.

I then tried my favourite method of learning something: self teaching from books.  I found a good book which does cover basics - but unfortunately at several points I just didn't follow the explanations.  I was left bewildered and confused!  And I like to think of myself as someone who does pick things up easily.  But quilting is very much something that you learn easily when someone shows you, but it is not at all easy to describe.  Even diagrams or photos don't necessarily help.

I also kept going onto the Internet (sites like about.quilting.com) and did find quite a bit of information that I could follow - like chain-piecing, or how to do the inside pattern.  The one thing I didn't think to try YouTube!  Would have been too easy I suppose.  That's the place I finally learnt how to attach the binding that goes round the edge, something I hadn't figured out yet with this project (but I have since!).

I don't think that it mattered too much with this project that I didn't have a clue what I was doing.  I think my idea for putting a zip into the bottom (to lie the whole thing flat when not in use) is, not to put too fine a point on it, rather fabulous.  Imminently practical anyway...

The idea was to make a container you can put into the boot of your car: any of those loose items that keep rolling about in there (you know: loaf of bread, a couple of water bottles, bunch of bananas, that sort of thing: the stuff you end up putting down separately because you've run out of space in your grocery bags or collapsible boot boxes) - you can just chuck them into that, fold the top over a bit, and Bob's your uncle!

It was a present (Christmas last year) and my Mum was delighted.  I have the sneaking suspicion that she likes everything I make for her, but I also feel that she was really taken with this...

So much so that she declared it was much too nice for putting into her car!  She would, at times, use it unzippered, as a quilt, in the house too.  That's fine, I'm very pleased that she is finding more uses for this than intended, but it was meant to live in the car!

I guess the best thing to do would be for me to make her a proper quilt, wouldn't it?  Sounds like a really good idea... {update to follow}

Tuesday 9 November 2010

As requested... Madelinetosh Vintage kerchief

Fridica wondered what I would do with my new Madelinetosh Vintage yarn.  Here it is: my Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief.  I think the Thunderstorm colourway is perfect for this!


YarnMadelinetosh Vintage (worsted)
Needles4.5mm
PatternThe Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief


I made the same kerchief as a present for a friend before:


YarnColinette Jitterbug in Raspberry
Needles4 mm


With one project off the needles, I started a new one (as you do):


I am calling this my Chrysanthemum shawl.  You can't see the flower shapes that well just yet, the inner pattern looks a bit like something woven, the flower shapes then follow on - but I am still within the first repeat, so not that much to show just yet.

The pattern is Sanne Kalkman's Percy Shawl pattern on Ravelry, - I am thinking of leaving the edge pattern out and instead continuing the Chart B flower pattern for most of the shawl and just binding off in a straight edge.

Saturday 6 November 2010

My crafty state of play

Part II.  It's November and I still have as many works in progress projects as I did in June.  Some of them still the same ones, some of them are new.

My aqua Malabrigo shawl is finished as is my heathered blue Niebling shawl.  The Alpaca shawl in dark red is also done - do I detect a pattern here that I managed to finish the three shawls out of these five projects and left the two garments incompleted?  I'm not even wearing any of these three shawls very often - and I would get more use out of these:

My EZ 'Green' Sweater

The Debbie Bliss Prima halterneck summer top
The Dolman Sleeve cardigan (otherwise knows as the Elizabeth Zimmermann Green Sweater) just needs some buttons and button loops adding, and the Halterneck Summer Top needs straps.

It might help if I picked out some buttons, maybe that would motivate me?  For the Summer Top I need an idea of what pattern I want to use to make nice broad straps.  They should hide the bra straps and could be in quite a fancy pattern, I'd love something like a square with four leaves in the round, and adding as many squares as are needed to get the length of the straps.

Some of my other 'almost there' projects are these:

Also Debbie Bliss Prima

Trachtentuch B by Engeln
 
Bamboo summer top

The green Prima top has wing sleeves, they are not attached all the way round.  I need to neaten up the raw edges of the arm scye, they look awful just now.

The Trachtentuch needs to be cast off and then I want to dye this.  It is undyed sock yarn from Violet Green - I haven't made my mind up yet what colour I want this to be.  I am toying with either a rosé (a muted pink) or a brown that's in between a rich chocolatey to a dark cocoa bean brown?

And the Bamboo summer top needs some flower petals adding to the stalks (my gauge was out by so much that I didn't want to insert bobbles only to find later that I didn't like their placement) and then I want to dye this as well.  The chalky blue colour doesn't do anything for my complexion (I look a bit ill in it) so I'd like this to be a darker blue.

And these are just some of my items that are close to completion but languishing in WIP hell for now!

Wollmeise Arrived at Loop!


It's not fair!  I had such good intentions to rein in my out-of-control yarn stash buying and Loop goes and gets Wollmeise!  As of today, Sat 6 November.

So of course I had to go and check it out, I'd have kicked myself if I hadn't and then come across other people's reports on what I missed out on...  I think I may have become a yarn 'collector' {cough} even if that's blantantly such a very lame excuse...

So here we go.  I splurged on Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash (superwash! Great!) in a lovely bright mid pink called Tutu Dark.  The skein is a generous 150g and cost £22 (making it £7 something for 50g).  The needle size given is 2.0-2.5 mm.

I'm thinking Christmas present (pss!) and shawl, and therefore in at least 3.25 mm... my fingers are starting to itch to start this...

Then I bought the Wollmeise Lacegarn as well (Garn is German for yarn) - the price for this seems a bit high at £36.50 but it is 300g (making it £6 for 50g) and a whooping 1722 yards.  It was the colour as well as the name of the colour that pushed me into buying this.



I love the way Wollmeise names her yarns: this one is called 'Ein klein wenig verrucht'.  Now I do know German but I was a bit stumped at the time, I was thinking of 'verraucht' which would mean 'smokey' - but it is 'verrucht' instead.  That means disreputable, profligate or wicked.  It makes me think of 1920s Berlin nightclubs, Liza Minelli in Cabaret, that sort of thing.  Which is where we're back to smokey again... Oh well.

I love the idea of having a 'disreputable' yarn!  Now I just need an idea of what to make with it... Inspiration will undoubtedly strike.

While I was there I couldn't resist looking around in case anything else wanted to jump off the shelves and into my hands.  Of course there was something:



Madelinetosh Vintage - in colourway: Thunderstorm. It is quite black and grey but there are undertones of blue in there too.  Gorgeous!  I couldn't leave that behind.  Plus I got another notch on my loyalty card.  I'm such a sucker for that...  They must have invented that with me in mind.

This says 4.25-4.5 mm and is also superwash merino (I like that a lot!)

I'm in yarn heaven!

Thursday 4 November 2010

Trachtentuch A by Erich Engeln


This pattern is for an old-fashioned shawlette that used to be worn with a Dirndl (the folk dress of women in the Tyrol or in Bavaria) - I suspect that those ends would get tucked into the generously cut neckline of the Dirndl top, whichwould explain why they extend quite so far diagonally across.  Or perhaps into a belt?

I loved knitting this.  It was fun and quick.

The edges make this a bit of an odd shape - every two rows you increase by six stitches: one each side of the centre stitch, as well as another two stitches at each edge.  It makes the ends of this shawlette dangle down and start to twist in a spiral.

I used:
YarnFour Seasons Hot Socks Spectra
Needles3.25mm circular
PatternTrachtentuch A by Erich Engeln


I bought the yarn from a stall at an annual fair in Germany.  I had never heard of the company Gründl and thought it was something like Noro or Lana Grossa instead.  Isn't it nice when you discover a new yarn kind of by accident!

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Finally finished!


I am very happy: my black Brioche stitch neckwarmer is -finally- finished!

I need to go back a bit to explain the 'finally' part of it.  I started knitting about 30 or so years ago, give or take.  Then about a good dozen years ago, I stopped.  I know why: I got stuck when I knit my first self-designed (literally off the top of my head) top-down garment: the Black and White "Piano Key" top because I didn't know how to do the underarm area.  (I later learnt that you need to cast on about two inches of new stitches, knit into the sleeves on one side of it, and into the body on the other)

My hiatus from knitting found an end with this project: a simple scarf.  At the time I had aimlessly searched for the word 'spiral' on Google images.  Up came this photo on Red Threads blog, well eventually.  I really liked those buttons and then I looked at the neckwarmer too: nice!

For some reason that was enough to inspire me.  I had seen the yarn shop All the Fun of the Fair on the Internet and thought the name was fun.  Now I had a reason to go check it out.

I got some Patons Smoothie DK yarn in black.  It is gorgeous and glossy, I love black (I know: a very un-knitterly thing), it wasn't too expensive so I thought: I might as well.

That's how I began to knit again after that long time.  I just didn't understand the instructions for Brioche stitch in the pattern.  Not being used to reading pattern instructions in English (it is not my mother tongue) I got stuck at 'slip a stitch'.  Hunh?  How does that work?  Slip a stitch, in what direction? From what needle, and where to?  Surely it can't mean to slip a stitch off the needle and drop it, can it?

Back onto the Internet, trying to find a clever site that would tell me.  Un-unh, nothing doing.  But I found the website for a London-based knitting group that teaches.  Aha! Sounds like a good idea.  So off I went to my first knitting group meeting at Leon's with Stitch London (still called Stitch & Bitch at the time) - back in September 2009.

I found out that there was no dropping of stitches of the needle involved, slipping meant just that: slip off the left needle onto the right needle, without knitting the stitch.  Oh!  Is that all?
Brioche further involves a yarnover laid actually over that slipped stitch.  Same thing if you just purl it off and, in the next row, knit into the row below.  I prefer placing the yarn as if to purl (resulting in the yarnover) and slipping the stitch off.  That just makes more sense to me.

In January 2010 I finally attached the loops for the buttons.  Only I stuck them onto the wrong bit of the scarf, silly me.  I picked the project back up, finally (see what I mean?) in October.  ...and managed to pull a thread about two inches from the end across the entire width of the scarf because I couldn't find the loose end I'd already woven in.  Oh, woe me!

I had to unravel those two inches and re-knit them (that really pissed me off, this project was beginning to grate!).  Then I -finally- attached the button loops in the right place (yay!) and as of the Sunday just gone I -only- had to find some suitable buttons and actually sew them on.  Then I would be done. Phew...

But my mother's eldest daughter ain't dim (err, some of the time...) - that fiasco with the wrong loop placement has taught me a thing or two (give someone enough time and they actually learn!) - I wasn't about to sew those buttons on in the wrong place.  But I had a feeling that the scarf might win again... so I didn't.  Sew them on I mean.

Instead, and here's where the clever bit comes in: instead, I sewed a smaller button under the button itself, but not too close: connected by a bit of thread.  Do you call this connecting link thing a shank?  I'm not sure.  (PS: crikey, I think shank is even right!)

Here's what it looks like:

  

Neat, eh?

Advantage: I can slip those smaller buttons into the scarf fabric anywhere I like.  If the first placement doesn't suit, then I can move it.  Success!