Avast! Beware ye knitters arrrrr

(photos will be added when I can whip my camera into shape)

This is what I'm working on between other projects: It is a boyfriend sweater! Not really a sweater's a zippered cardigan), and not THE Boyfriend Sweater, but definitely for my boyfriend, who shall one day be my husband (but that's another blog post!)

The yarn is Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted, in Loden Leaf. I've gone on a bit of an ebay/Brown Sheep binge lately but this yarn is from about 2001. Bought about 14 skeins from Juniper Fibreworks in Bend, Oregon. The colour is a dark sage green, or army green. It really reminds me of our first (only) Kombi van which we travelled across the Nullarbor in, my biological family, when I was about 6 or so.

The yarn had to be frogged from a 1/4 finished jumper with kangaroo pocket in double moss stitch, a Dale design knit in the round that I never finished. That sweater was destined for my ex but of course has just sat unfinished, with remaining skeins used up or given away, after we broke up.

So I frogged it all and ended up with a 479g ball o' yarn, wound on my new Jumbo ball winder. Love it! Also love knitting from such a huge ball.

I had a turn around point when I knit about four rows after picking up from the cabled band, then decided that I didn't like the picking up job. Uggh! So I frogged back and re-did the picking up. For some reason the first time around I had just the right number of stitches (221), but the second time around I could only manage to pick up 150 stitches. So frog back again and added some increases. The increases makes me think it was really a waste of time to frog back, as it still looks a bit poorly.

This cardigan is a bit like Roy and mine's relationship: born of previous luggage, with the hard and complex part at the beginning. Now it is smooth sailing for a while. I was afraid that this would instead be bored to tears but I'm really enjoying the knit and can't wait to pick up while I should be finishing other things. And the picking up bit just didn't reflect how our relationship is travelling at the moment, so I had to re-do it. Make no mistake, it's not a perfect piece of work but a work in progress! I'm planning on lengthening it as Roy has a long torso.

I'm hoping to have this ready as a Christmas present, and yes I'm going to make him model it in the December heat!! I need to clear some room in my knitting plate, for our trip to Victoria this summer. I'm quite nervous about more picking up and putting in a zipper, something I haven't done for knitwear before.

I figure if I can finish this man-size project then I can finish other grown-up knits. So goes the theory,...

Postscript: Ooops! I forgot to detail the pattern I am using. It is the Avast zip-up cardigan with a cabled band, by Jesse Loesberg, and can be found on Knitty. Roy chose it out of quite a few Knitty sweater choices I presented him with. I was surprised but pleased at his choice, I thought he would choose a simple ribbed pullover.