Vest complete, Dorset buttons next

The cozy vest is now done, and my inner stitcher comes into play, because I now need ten Dorset buttons. Both front and back of the vest are buttoned. Shown here not yet blocked and pressed, but the iron is two floors up, and the makings of the buttons right to hand.

That's what all the little threads are about, marking both buttonholes and buttons. The holes vanish into the fabric as soon as you make them, so it seemed advisable to mark them. Keeps the volume of cursing down to a dull roar.

The ball of yarn is crochet cotton, which I dyed with blue, variegating as I went. It's proved useful, what with knitting budgies and tiny doll clothes, and now it will be good for the buttons, able to stand up to buttoning and unb. Without fraying. At least, usual disclaimer, that's the plan.

Photographer's note: the vest is a sapphire blue, not with the purply cast shown, and the crochet thread is sapphire to white mix. The rings for the buttons, since I don't have any sheep horn handy, are from a fellow stitcher's grandmother.


The pattern designer airily says hardly any finishing, just the shoulders. Which is true if you don't count stitching ten buttons, and in my case, making them first, as finishing. I did enjoy the design though, just a minor quibble. Pattern is from Sally Melville's The Knit Stitch.

I'm halfway through another, in cotton thread, for a different season. As you see, the stitch definition is pretty good in both the wool and the cotton.

Whether it gets Dorset buttons depends on how the current ones work. Oh, and credit where it's due, the idea of the buttons came from Mary Anne of Magpie's Mumblings. This is all your doing, MA!