Plotting The Boyfriend Sweater

A while back, when WEBS was having one of their big sales, I sat the Boyfriend down and discussed sweaters.  What kind of sweater he'd like, what style would be best for him, and then made him pick out what yarn he wanted.

Yes, you heard right.  I am about to embark on the dangerous journey of knitting my boyfriend a sweater.

For those of you unfamiliar, there's something known in the knitting world as The Sweater Curse.  It goes something like this.

Amourous Knitter pours all of her love and devotion and months of work into a sweater for her One True Love.  OTL then winds up breaking things off and leaves, with sweater in tow.  Amourous Knitter weeps of a broken heart - in part due to the loss of the sweater.

The Ravelry forums are full of stories along these lines, and the fear of the knitter joining those ranks.

While I don't see wedding bells in our immediate future, I think I'll make sure that my name is on our morguage before I hand over this sweater.  Heh.

Anywho, last time out, I made up a rather large swatch using the yarn he'd picked, Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Lichen Mix.  I also wanted to test out the stitch pattern on the arm of the pattern he'd picked out, one Sunshine on My Shoulders by Annalisa Dione.  It's a lovely and simple cardigan with a zip front and a love cable and moss stitch pattern on the saddle shoulders and down the arm.  Except my Boyfriend, who loves all sorts of details and textures, declared it a bit boring and asked for something with more...omph.

I know I know, I'm lucky to have a partner who doesn't want boring knits, but yeash!  The stitch pattern is lovely!  Come on, Boyfriend!

So I experimented.  I knitted up a swatch that included the original stitch pattern, along with two others I thought he might like.

This is the original pattern.  It's a moss stitch surrounded by a nice little cable on both sides.  "Too quiet", he says.

This is a pretty weave pattern that I adore and WILL USE SOMEDAY, but not today because he went 'eh, it sort of just blends in'.  ARGH. 

The last stitch I was willing to try is actually one of my favourite types of cabled braids.  Luckily for him he loved it and declared it perfect, because if I had to do another swatch to find something else that Mr. Picky liked, I think he would've learned to fear my knitting needles! 

I'd hoped to start the sweater this time in camp, but I've caught the Camp Plague (aka the flu), and can barely concentrate on one of my cheesy romance novels, nevermind the maths I need to do to start this sweater.  But I have a 3 week rotation coming up in October, and I think that'll be a great time to start plugging away on this sweater!

Because honestly?  I haven't knit a stitch for the Boyfriend, despite his numerous requests, and he was so taken by the swatch I made, admiring it and cuddling it a bit when he thought I couldn't see him, how can I not.  And no, I couldn't have stabbed him with a needle, even if I'd had to make another swatch.  Damn him and his cuteness.