Deco Progress

The short row shoulder is complete on sleeve one and I've been heading down through the decreases towards the the first cuff.

Initially it was nice to just knit in the round with the short row business behind me but honestly I cannot stand working sleeves top down. The serpentine choke hold of the yarn around the whole rest of the knit as I twirl the sleeve around is so tiresome. I keep thinking that mattress stitching between cuff and elbow would have taken maybe 15 minutes to do and I would have been able to knit on something flat and relatively small to create the sleeve itself.

That, however,  is not the way with Deco and I must remind myself that's one of the reasons I chose to make this cardi way back when.  I wanted the experience of working the sleeve this way so better sit down, shut up and get on with it!

That said, at the end of the decreases I'm putting sleeve one on hold and moving over to the button bands. 'Quite substantial at 27 rows deep. Ditto the collar.  I want to see how the addition of those elements affects how I feel about sleeve length.  There are very cute versions of this on Ravelry where knitters have chosen 3/4 sleeves and I'm thinking maybe that's the way I'll go too.

I am also now in possession of the buttons I needed for this...

I love them!  'Totally unlike what I'd usually select but I think they work really well with the sweater...

...the little "v"'s radiating out from the centre echo the slipped stitches as well as the deep "v" of slipped stitch columns down the front.

On this short, boxy little piece big buttons are maybe unexpected but I stole the idea from Kate Davie's choice of buttons on the original so it must be something that'll work.

They 're mother of pearl - nice to have a natural material beside the wooliness of the Tove - and I think the depth of their appearance adds nice dimension.

In short, where this started out as a "Process" piece I'm choosing right now to focus more on the features I can look forward to on the "Product". Whatever gets the job done right?

Thanks for dropping by!