A Buttonbox & A Backward Loop

On Sunday afternoon, I cast on “Buttonbox”. I’ve never thought of myself as a vest person but I found this pattern suddenly irresistible. Despite the fact that I’d looked at it about a million times, it occurred to me that this little extra scrap of warmth would be lovely over a t-shirt in New Orleans during the ‘tween’ days of February and March when almost anything can happen weather wise. I can wear it here at home over a long-sleeved T with a pretty neckline all through winter and spring. Anyway, wanting to wear it was right up there on the priority list along side wanting to knit the oddly pretty knit-and-purl button motif.

I’ve chosen to work it in Quince & Co. ‘Lark’ in the color “Fjord”. This is one of the Quince line I hadn’t tried. It didn’t appeal to me immediately compared to the delicately plump ‘Chickadee’ and the thick, spongey ‘Osprey’. Having knit a few skeins, I find I absolutely love it.

Working through these several Elizabeth McCarten patterns has sparked my interest in the classic teachings of Elizabeth Zimmermann whose beautiful, pure, seminal ideas about knitting remain fresh, even with the many new and brilliant ideas emerging in the craft today. I’ve had “Knitting Workshop” on my shelf for a couple of years, but I find myself referring to it consistently now for her brilliant technical tidbits. For example, “Buttonbox” calls for an increase (M1) that uses the backward loop method. Of course, I’d used backward loop as a cast-on but had never thought of it as a means of increasing. What a revelation! It is simple, nearly invisible, and creates subtle directional increases that pair beautifully. Here’s a great tutorial for the backward loop increase. 

You can see how beautifull EZ’s M1 works in this case, framing the stitch motif with gentle directional increases.

Isn’t this a pretty and interesting texture? I love the little ‘buttons’ nestled into their boxes 🙂 I’ve just separated to work the fronts and back. Now that I look at it, I think I’ll rip back and add a couple more pattern repeats before working the underarm decreases to account for my devilishly long waist. That oughta keep me out of mischeif!