dollar and a quarter? cardigan ready for seaming

The bad language has subsided, I’ve taken the requisited number of deep breaths, and I visited my LYS (Mad About Ewe in Nanaimo) for another opinion. Here is my Dollar-and-a-Half Cardigan all laid out prior to seaming. The problem I discovered was an unforeseen result of a minor (I thought) error I’d made earlier. In the original pattern, one of the front sections, the one with the cable running vertically, does not have the bands (of alternating lacework and reverse stocking stitch) but is all lacework. I know how this oversight happened: there was so much online discussion of difficulties with decreases (which I didn’t have, having worked sweaters in lace before) and with the magazine discrepancy between illustration and pattern in terms of which was Right Front and which was Left, that I didn’t focus enough on the actual pattern. As well, the model pictured is in dark brown and unless you look carefully, it’s easy not to notice the difference.

At any rate, once I realized the error, I thought about it and decided I could live with banding instead of the plain background and carried on. I think my inadvertent modification may have been the reason I ran out of yarn and had to order more — stocking stitch uses more than lacework. Minor problem. Even the additional yarn left me very short and I knit less rows for the buttonband. Still, it was working.
But as soon as I tried it on (just laying it over my shoulders) and looked in the mirror, I realized the problem I’d created: The original pattern had no need, when setting out buttonholes, to ensure that the bands matched, because there were no bands on one side. Plus the one side was so vertically-oriented that the horizontal stripes, so often a danger, were minimized. That’s when I panicked and began the swearing. But chatting with Lynette yesterday, I’m reassured that blocking will ensure that the bands match up neatly, even with the buttons on, and also confident that the cable will provide a strong enough vertical line to overcome the effect of the banding. As well, we took care with button choice in order to provide another strong vertical line. After trying out ten or more, these ones made the cut. I wasn’t sure at first, thinking they might be too strong a design, drawing attention away from the sweater, but Lynette swayed me, and I’m liking them more and more.
Here’s a closer look at the button pattern.
And here’s a temptation I couldn’t resist — well, I’ve actually resisted it on several different occasions but couldn’t leave this Handmaiden Seasilk lace yarn in the shop yesterday.
To me, there are reflections in this yarn of the bleached driftwood I see on the beach. The resemblance is not as clear in the photo. You’d need to sit with me in the sun to really get it, but here’s the yarn again, closer up
and here’s a closer look at the driftwood — especially the colours up in the left top corner. I’m off to Vancouver now — we’re getting all 1980s for a Surprise 50th for my sister-in-law tomorrow night (I got a dress at Value Village — that 80s cobalt blue, shoulders out to the heavens, embellishment on one side of the yoke, as polyester as you could want!) and then on Sunday, my girls are taking me out for a Mothers’ Day Tea. Hope you have a good weekend as well.