More about the autumn cardigan

Garment ideas continued: I noticed someone on Ravelry had done a combination of stranded work with twisted stitches--it wasn't finished then, but it is now, so you should check out prairiespinner's ithilien brocade jacket.

Hers is a more complex interweaving of technique, and her reverse bands are norwegian knots. But as I pondered the project, I was also exploring more Bavarian twisted stitches, even completing a pair of Bayerishes socks, though they made my hands ache (getting gauge with the wool, which I didn't like anyway, required constant and severe tension on top of twisted stitches.
Of course, I'm not entirely happy with the other idea--expanding on Ruth's original hidden button band to create the illusion of an under sweater and a jacket. I went back and forth on the neck band of this, in fact ripping it out several times. I ended up with the straight neck mostly by default--I was running out of the orange-red and didn't want to fade into red-red. I think my ideal remake actually has a curved neck for the red-orange part, that way the green line at the top could echo the curves of the vines at the front.

More on the making of this monster:
Today, I'm just writing about the debates of the button band (there were debates on other parts as well.
Problems with a button band that is twisted stitch on top of stockinette, which is the look I prefer--it rolls to an absurd degree. You've just combined two forces of rolling. So it's going to need a hem of some sort--wide at least and perhaps full lining.
And then, you have the problem of color migration in the kauni yarn. I had decided to go with the orange-to-red against the dark teal, and of course, that's one of the shortest migrations in the yarn.
I did the i-cord first, because I was already obsessed with this and it gave me more time to think (though that ended up being a mistake for the sleeves, oh well).
One option I considered was making each band separately, either back and forth, or, seriously, in the round (a full hem achieved just by steaming, and no seaming, rah). I wondered how I put do pick ups to attach the band to the sweater while knitting in the round, but I figured I'd figure it out. I also considered double knitting each one separately, but the misery of doing twisted stitches in double knitting put that one out of my head.
As you see from the picture, I chose the path that seemed to offer the least resistance. That is, picking up on both sides every row, knitting back and forth, and including a large steek that would become two hems. It seemed to offer more hope for color symmetry than knitting each band separately, and while doing twisted stitches on the back side of the fabric isn't my favorite task, I have done so many picked up bands that at least it wouldn't bother me.
More notes on the technical excitements this ended up posing next time.