Sweater directions instruct one to knit buttonband and sew it in place on sweater as you knit.
Any suggestions for how to do this?
It would be from the bottom of the sweater up to the neckline for both the buttonband and the buttonhold band.
Thank you.
You can sew buttonbands on with a mattress stitch. I went to a finishing class by Chris Bylsma and she didn’t like a sewn on buttonband. She said she always did them by picking up stitches and knitting the bands. I mentioned that some sweaters tell you to make the bands and sew them on, and she said, “But why would you want to?” She recommended that when it said that just don’t do it but pick up stitches and knit the band on. When she said that I thought, “Well, sometimes the style may demand vertical bands.” But she may be right, at least in most cases.
But if you want to do it that way, I’ve used mattress stitch and had good success.
It isn’t telling you to knit the band on as you make it?
Is there a place where we can see a picture of the sweater you are doing? I don’t know why there would be any particular reason you couldn’t make the whole band and then sew it on, or do as I said before and pick up stitches and knit it on, but seeing a picture may tell me there is a reason.
Well the only way I’ve ever done button bands is to [U]pick up and knit[/U] the stitches along the edges .This gives you live stitches now perpedicular to your knitting. Usually the pattern will specify how many stitches to pick up along each segment (ie. pick up and knit 50 sts on right front, p&k 30 sts along back of neck, and p&k 50 sts down left front). And then pattern several rows of this, with yarn overs creating the holes, and then binding off.
Here’s an article with great pictures about “picking up stitches” http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/FEATwin04TT.html
I’m sure you could find some videos on youtube if you aren’t familiar with the technique.
Depending on what type of band you’re doing (if you’re doing a ribbed band, you must use the pick up and knit technique. But if you’re doing a garter or seed stitch band, and you haven’t already knit all your pieces, then you just add the desired amount of stitches to the beginning of your knitting, and keep doing the pattern on those few stitches of every row, adding in yo’s to create holes for your buttons, hopefully your pattern has this in it already.
Hope that helps!