The Button Band? Didn't they sing "Who's Got the Button?"

Although I haven't mentioned Moni in awhile, I haven't forgotten about her. But I have been busy these last few weeks--mostly playing the attentive and inoffensive wife for Peter during social functions. This summer he is clerking at law firms, attempting to land a few job offers for after he graduates from law school. Apparently, part of getting these offers involves schmoozing with the partners and associates in the firms. I'm not a good schmoozer. But I'm doing my best.

But I digress. Moni. I finished the sleeves on Tuesday night at the spanking-new Pearland-Area SnB. I'm so happy that I managed to get this SnB organized. It's five minutes from my house--can't beat that. As soon as I got home (five minutes later), I started knitting the button band.

The last time I mentioned the button bands, I was debating whether I should block the front panels before or after I sewed on the bands. Several people responded with advice (thank you), and I finally decided that the button bands should be knitted and sewn on before blocking. So, without further delay, I present "Button band with cat."



I'm so pleased. It looks much better without the safety pins on it. Nice and flat, no ripples, invisible seam. (The safety pins are marking the approximate locations of the buttons.) The reason why I decided to do the button bands before blocking is because my swatch shrunk length-wise when I blocked it. I was afraid that, if I blocked the fronts without the bands, the bands and fronts would shrink in different ratios after washing the completed sweater.

The comments I received about the button bands also indicated that some people didn't understand what I'm doing. (And why should you, you're not reading my pattern!) So here's a photo of the buttonhole band in progress.



You can see that the band is knitted onto the ribbing at the bottom of the sweater, but is not knitted onto the front edge of the sweater. I'm knitting a long strip of ribbing and then mattress stitching it to the front edge. It is a pain in the patootie, but the finished result looks much better than a button band that is picked up and knit sideways.