Autumnal Knitting: Rocky Coast Cardigan

The rain held off for morning soccer (#2 made his first goal, yay!), but now it's coming down in buckets. So just in time for the wet weather, I have a knitting finish to share!

This is my version of the Rocky Coast Cardigan. Looking through my Ravelry page, I figure it took me almost two years to knit this thing!! My last finished sweater was in September 2011. As the primary incentive for finishing a project is to start something new, I'm pretty sure I started this one fairly soon after I finished my Leaflet Cardi.

For the longest time (yes, months!) this sweater sat with just one cuff to be knitted. For some reason, I could not force myself to do it. There's something about an un-blocked, mushy bunch of knitting, with all those loose threads hanging about, that is immensely unappealing to me. I finally picked it up the other day, and it took me all of a few minutes to knit the few rows required, and maybe 20 more minutes to weave in all the loose ends.

Now I'm happy. I like having a new sweater. My 6-year-old wonders why I always make cardigans with no buttons (what's the use in that, he says). He asks next time, will I just make the buttons, please. I say yes, but I know that I won't, because I hate making buttonholes and sewing buttons.

So this, the Blank Canvas, is going to be next project.  Or maybe Shift of Focus? I like them both.  What do you think?

The yarn, by the way, is Malabrigo Worsted, in Emerald (although it looks teal to me).  It's a lovely yarn to work with, and I previously made a hat out of the same yarn for Mr. Elvy.  With wear, the yarn tends to felt up a bit, which gives it a little more strength, IMHO.

Spring Ribbed Cardigan by Knitbot

I love this cardigan and am glad I was able to finish it in time for the early fall.  Ironically, we are having our first heatwave of the summer here in Portland with multiple 90-plus degree days in a row. 

The pattern is by Knitbot and is called Spring Ribbed Cardigan.  I used a Jo Sharp alpaca, dk weight yarn frogged from an ill-fated project started way back when.  The pattern is super easy, but I had to make some modifications because I was running out of yarn (shortened sleeve and shallower front band).  I might try to make this cardigan again in a less textured yarn without any modifications so that the rib pattern shows up more too.

I like how the ribbed pattern echos through the sleeves.