Is it the man or is it the sweater?

The first-ever husband sweater is done! I actually finished knitting it up last week, but didn't get around to buying the buttons for it until today. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of anywhere better to buy buttons than Jo-Ann, and the pickings were a little on the slim side (or maybe I just was being picky).

I don't even remember the last time I last went shopping for buttons. This is because I inherited a huge button stash from my grandmother. So, I usually like to put all those buttons into (and sometimes back into) good use. I had planned on at least looking through the old button stash for Morris' finishing touches, but it turns out that the drawer on my nightstand where said buttons reside is jammed. Crazy jammed... it seems that something in there has lodged itself in such a way that it is no longer humanly possible to open the drawer. My husband, brother, and I have tried everything to get it open, but it's stuck. We even tried to take off the back portion entirely, but apparently the nails were just reinforcement for the glue. Ugh!

Anyway, eventually, I gave up and went to Jo-Ann and took what I think to be the best they had to offer.

Here are the specs:

Pattern: Morris from Rowan 34.

Yarn: KnitPicks Sierra in Coal. 11 skeins with none leftover for Mens' size medium.

Adjustments: Obviously, subbed in a different yarn. Also had to go down two needle sizes.

Comments: There were several times when I was knitting this that I thought that I hated it. I'm thinking heavy wool sweater + summer knitting was not a good combo. Toward the end though, I could see that it was going to work out, so I got a little excited and sped up. Then, of course, I slowed a bit on the finishing. Does anyone like doing button-bands and collars? Not me! Why does such a small amount of knitting take so long? I'm really bad at picking up and knitting stitches... I guess that's a big part of it.

So far, I'm happy with the yarn subbing, but when I originally bought the yarn, I thought that it would be dark grey. I'm happy that it turned out to be black, but uh, it really looks grey in that Knitpicks photo. I guess that means I'm going to have to be a little more diligent about buying color cards!

Anyway, the Husband loves it almost as much as I do. He had the day off today and wore it and plans on wearing it to work tomorrow too. That's love. Or laziness. I'll assume it's love.

Oh, and it turns out that the male-cardigan is in fashion. See this NY Times article.


Bonus closeups of the cabledy goodness: