Next up in the series of sweaters that I meant to complete by last fall is James's sweet cardigan.

I began his first of the three and I had actually finished knitting it in plenty of time for my self-imposed November deadline. But it had a lot of seaming (in my lazy opinion) and so many ends to weave in (a minimum of 30-35), so it was wadded up in the bottom of my knitting basket for a full 6 months!

Then one day, a series of (un)fortunate events conspired to get me to finish it:

Fiona took it out of my knitting basket and put it on the couch. And Lucy (our beagle, for those of you who don't know) threw up on it. So, I had to wash it. And block it. And after that, seaming and weaving in ends seemed the next natural step. ;)

James picked out these buttons himself at our local yarn store. Despite their being expensive, and large (pretty difficult to squeeze through the yarn-over buttonholes), and the fact that I had already selected some more modestly sized (and priced) wooden buttons, he was very insistent that these were the buttons for his sweater.

I sewed them on at the pool on Monday morning, and when I showed it to him after his swimming lesson, all buttoned up and complete, he exclaimed, in the sweetest (breathless, almost reverent) voice, "Oh! Mama! You are the best mama ever!"

He loves his sweater.

(Pattern: Sirdar Cardigan with Collar or Hood. Yarn: Malabrigo Silky Merino, which we love. Ravelry link to this project.)

uncommon grace