My buttons picture

The Dorset buttons. You know you want to make some. They were fun to make and quite therapeutic. I'm trying to decide whether I need to make double the buttons...As you can see in this self-taken picture (or maybe you can't), I've got a set of buttons in every other hole. I'm kinda in a quandry. On one hand, these were fun to make and it would be fun to make a bunch more. On the flip side, these buttons eat yarn, I mean devour it. And on the third side of that coin(?), maybe I should make more buttons now in case I lose a set. But but what if I lose the extra ones I made, that would be a waste. And on the 4th side of the square(?), I still have enough silk yarn to make a head band or something so if I use it all up...ahhh, dilemma.

Buttons buttons

Thanks Sarah for the suggestion about soldering the wire so that the buttons won't snag the yarn if wire is used to put the buttons together. The funny thing is that I actually own two soldering irons. And I've been thinking about soldering the joints on my markers so that the rings don't open up and catch. So of course I could just do the same with the buttons. My only concern was that short of using glass or metal beads, the buttons may melt (I'm not very proficient at soldering).

I went to the local craft/sewing stores to look at buttons, and honestly wasn't very inspired. Then I remembered reading Craftzine and seeing this . At the time, I was thinking, 'Yeah right. Make your own buttons by wrapping thread around a plastic ring. Someone has wayyy too much time.' The other thing I was thinking reading that article was 'Hey, that's what you do with those plastic rings'. Anywhoo, yep, guessed it. I made the Dorset Buttons for my Convertible. It didn't actually take that long, it just took a bunch of my leftover silk yarn. For directions on how to make these, follow my link.

And the best part? The buttons totally match without looking dorky and they aren't too heavy. I didn't want heavy buttons that would slowly stretch out the Convertible to become kimono sleeves!

I'll get z&a's dad to take a picture of me wearing it when I get a chance. Oh, the funniest thing was that when I was done, and modeling it for him, he told me he didn't get it, and why did I only make sleeves (as in, where's the rest of the sweater?!). There was also a comment about being a spider lady, but I let that one slide.

Knitty Convertible almost ready to go

Instead of working on the edging for the curved shawl, I finished convertible instead. I have been stressing about the length of the the thing...what a cliff hanger...will it or won't it be too long? will it be too wide? should I block before I'm finished to figure out the length? oh, what to do what to do?

Yeah, right. I'm going to preblock. That would just drive me batty if it still didn't turn out properly. I decided that if it didn't block out properly (either the sleeves are too wide or long), I'll just wear it as a summer shawl. And hey, I won't have to do the fiddly buttons. How many buttons do you need?

Without further ado, here's my finished convertible.

stats:
yarn: almost a cone of dk weight navy 100% smooth silk from colourmart
pattern: Convertible from Knitty (go look it up)
needles: US6
time: 3/6/2007 - 3/20/2007
finished size: 23in X 76in (a bit larger than expected, but oh, well, that's what happens when you don't block a swatch)
modifications: cast on 77 stitches and did 5 pattern repeats.

My thoughts: this yarn is steam set by colourmart and it cost $2 more than if you just ask them to wind the strands on a cone. Is it worth it? for me, it was this time. I've got some doubled silk yarn that I'd like to try and see how that goes. The only time I split the yarn was when I wasn't paying ANY attention -- and it serves me right.

So now I've got to think buttons. I was going to connect them via Knitty's suggestion using wire, but apparently, that's difficult to do and the wire sticks out and such. Instead, I'm almost thinking some sort of frog bead closure thing. a loop that a bead can toggle through. hmmm...when I have that done, I'll of course show it off. Until then, I've got a pretty darn nice summer wrap (at least it's sunny today).