sweaters

I've finished a little over half of my right sweater front, which is exciting. I've made 7 buttonholes (of 10) and I am about midway through the bust increases.

I've been putting a lot more of my thought and energy into this sweater in the past couple weeks and I think it is paying off. Hopefully I will have a completed sweater by sometime in February, which would give me 3 more months of weather cool enough to wear it in, yay!

I think the thing that slowed me down the most with this project was altering the pattern. I've been so nervous about it that I've hesitated a lot, checking and re-checking my math.

I've been looking for a reliable book of sweater patterns, something I can use for years, with lots of designs and instructions for customizing. In the bookstore yesterday I found Custom Knits, which I fell in love with immediately. It's mostly top-down patterns, which is nice. I'm not sure I can say I have a preference, having made only 1 top-down and half of 1 seamed sweater, but I did like the top-down one. Since I'm a cheapskate, I ordered this online to save $10, so I won't be able to give it a thorough read for a little while. That's probably best, though, as I don't need to get too distracted from my current projects!

Anyway, I won't get a chance to start a new sweater for myself until late summer anyway, because I want to start one for my HB. I'm planning to use Cascade Eco Wool and a top-down pullover pattern.  Actually, my man and I plan to make this a joint project; I will set up the shaping and the fiddly bits, and he will do a lot of the plain knitting.  He's made 2 hats so far, is confident in the knit stitch, can increase and decrease, but for some reason hates purling.  I hope our gauges aren't so different that the sweater looks funny, but if it does, oh well.  It has plenty of ease and I think men's handknits can be lumpy and still attractive.