the rainbow sweater

Too much  ;-) ?!* 

 I had the sweetest sweater request: a rainbow sweater. Specifically a cardigan, with traditional V neck men's styling and button band, lower hip length. 
It had to have most of the rainbow colors but especially pink. And pink buttons.
We found the Go Buffalo pattern met all the requirements. Except, of course, colors.

A lot of decision making went into this one. Zoe loves wool, but only super soft wool. I love color...but not candy colored rainbow or primary stripes.  I found a fabulous Frabjous Fibers Wonderland Yarn sport weight Compass Shawl kit that had just the right combo to get me started, with a two shades of blue, a green and a perfect raspberry pink.  Lovely yarn!

The red is some Louet Gems sport left over from Sleight of Hand mittens, and my LYS had the perfect not-too-sad golden yellow- they call it curry-  from Swans Island yarn.

I hit up Dusty's Vintage Buttons at TNNA--she is at a lot of festivals and is irresistible--and brought home some egg yolk yellow buttons for the cardi. Which were passed over in favor of irridescent light pink buttons I'd also brought home, just for fun.  What was I thinking?!

The stripes are six rows wide, and although Zoe is on the average/small  for her age, we lengthened the body and arms a couple of inches from the pattern's sizing for her.

This was my main knitting project in July and August , other than a couple of ongoing mindless pieces I keep around for...umm, knitting mindlessly. Which is my default mode, so this was often put aside. It was easily worth all the color switching and end weaving in to have a finished piece so appreciated by this sweetie.

 

 It's been to school, worn over a wet bathing suit, it was even worn before I could get the buttons sewn on. Who could resist such handknit enthusiasm. Not me. I am now on task to knit a rainbow hat with the leftovers.   Above, hanging around the bus stop.

Clearly, Zoe knows what she wants in style. Always has. I hope she doesn't cave in to conformity any time soon.

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* A little excess in the photoshop department, eh? I just updated my Photoshop CC to 2017 (from 2015). There's an amazingly responsive new Select and Mask sub menu and I decided to play around a little (ummm, procrastinate  skillbuilding much?). I don't think you're going to be seeing too much more of this. But...it was kinda fun....