theraineysisters knitting and so much more

February 3, 2013

From Sally — Pinning My Hopes on Buttons (again)

Filed under: Iolanthe — surly @ 1:58 pm

Well, my beautiful glass buttons didn’t work out for my Burr Cardigan.  But I never learn, so now I am again trying to pair some beautiful buttons I found with some yarn.  This time, I am fairly confident.  (Of course, I was confident before, but let’s just ignore history.)

The sweater: Iolanthe designed by Mary Annarella.

The yarn: Madelinetosh Merino Light in Well Water.

The buttons: a set of seven vintage buttons purchased last year at Yarnover.

This is a top down cardigan. The lace collar is knitted (it’s really a miniature shawl) and sewn on later. I haven’t gotten very far yet, but I thought I’d post a first photo with a couple of the buttons pinned on. I think they’ll work in part because the buttons are tonal with a little color variegation as is the yarn.

Here is a photo of the back with a few more buttons randomly pinned on to look at the color. There are one or two buttons that are darker than the rest (I swear it’s just like buying skeins of these hand-dyed yarns). But one of the great things about this pattern is that you choose how many buttons you want, and you can do it at the last minute because the buttonholes are already there as part of the edging pattern. I love this kind of flexibility. There are several sleeve options for the pattern; I plan on making full length sleeves.

10 Comments »

  1. The yarn and buttons are stunning together. I hope they’re equally well-suited as to weight and buttonhole fit, because they look made for each other.

    Comment by stashdragon — February 3, 2013 @ 2:46 pm

  2. Your combination looks wonderful on my monitor and is probably even much better in person!

    Comment by Nancy — February 3, 2013 @ 9:44 pm

  3. It’s going to be very pretty. I made a sweater with similar looking yarn, but I did not have button-finding karma, and hence the sweater is a little wanting. Actually, very wanting. But I like the yarn so I wear it anyway.

    Comment by Joanna — February 4, 2013 @ 1:21 am

  4. I think you’ve found a match! I really like this sweater pattern. Very pretty!

    Comment by Pam — February 4, 2013 @ 2:32 am

  5. It looks a really great match, and with a flavour of Art Deco about them. Apart from the colour being perfect their geometric shape is interesting without competing with the lace colour. Fingers crossed they aren’t too heavy.

    Comment by Carie — February 4, 2013 @ 4:57 am

  6. Sorry, i am off top, but i like to say how amazing your mannequin is!
    Is it made for you personally?

    Comment by Tanja — February 4, 2013 @ 6:15 am

  7. The buttons are lovely, and I can’t imagine anything that would go better with the sweater. I really hope they work out.

    Comment by Astrid — February 4, 2013 @ 10:21 am

  8. I love how the shiny buttons play off the matte texture of the beautiful yarn.

    Comment by Chloe — February 4, 2013 @ 8:36 pm

  9. That’s a lovely pattern, and the buttons look wonderful with the yarn.

    Comment by Cheryl S. — February 5, 2013 @ 11:54 am

  10. Love the buttons, and the project. I didn’t buy any yarn at Yarnover last year (gasp!), but sure did nicely on buttons. Must remember to buy yarn this year, not just linger at the button place.

    Comment by Susan — February 7, 2013 @ 8:14 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

Powered by WordPress