Work In Progress Wednesday

Apparently, I've started blogging right in the nick of time.  Tami, (aka hpseeker4 on Ravelry) has just started a feature called WIP (work in progress) Wednesdays, and invited all of us blogging ravelers to join in.  What a cool idea.  I'll play! 

Here's what I have in process at the moment -- first, and very nearly done (just 3 buttons and a bit of unpinning away), is the Katrina Ballerina Lace Layering Cardigan (another Ravelry link), by Nicole Feller-Johnson.  My project page is here.

This was my first top down pattern, and really fun to knit.  The yarn is a fabulous wool/soy blend which is super soft and does this really cool striping business.  I love it.  My only gripe is that this is clearly meant to have some shirt-type thing underneath it (the last button is mid-chest), but it's sized super small.  As gripes go, it's not a huge one (a good blocking seems to have done the trick), and I'm really excited to wear it once the temperature drops below 80 or so.  Should be any minute, right?

On to the next!  I must confess.  I'm knitting a sweater for my boyfriend.  As any good knitter knows, this is risky business.  The Boyfriend Curse clearly states that if you attempt to knit a sweater for your boyfriend before you're married (apparently this applies to engaged couples, too), you'll break up before you're finished with it.  To this I say, Bah!  We're incredibly happy, and have been together for more than 4 (!) years.  I predict we'll make it through.  You heard it here first.  Anywho, here's the progress so far:

I know, right?  It doesn't look like much.  The pattern is called Avast, and what you (kinda - sorry about the bad picture!) see here is the cabled band that runs around the bottom.  It's a pretty cool design which involves knitting this skinny little cabled band (14 stitches across), then turning it sideways, picking up approximately eleventy billion stitches, and knitting up from there.  Hopefully, it'll look a bit more substantial by next week.  The (currently pretty puny) project page is here.

With that, I'm off to sew a couple of buttons onto that sweater up there so I'll be all set for FO Friday.  Kidding!  I think...