Now entering the zone of frou-frou colors

For some reason, both of my current projects are using yarns in these pretty pastel colors. Sometimes I think I'm too ancient mature to be wearing these girly-girl colors, but then again, why not. They will cheer me up when the weather is dreary.

The first sweater is the garter yoke cardi from Knit.1 Fall/Winter 2008 (ravelry link). The yarn is an LYS house brand that is the same as South West Trading Company Optimum merino yarn. I wanted to knit this because I like the way the yoke clings to the shoulders, sort of like a mini-stole. Originally, I thought of just converting it to a pullover to avoid the button band gaposis issue because the garter stitch is just not sturdy enough a button band for me. Then I decided to think up a different button band as part of my quest to build a repertoire of non-gaposis button bands. I ended up using this band that consists of 2-stitch twists, which gives it a diagonal pattern and is dense and non-stretchy. I decided to also intersperse 2-stitch twists in the body instead of just plain stockinette. While doing the yoke, I could not get my increase garter stitch rows to look just right, so I gave up hiding the increases and just used yarn-overs. The holes give a nice effect, so I'm happy with that.

My button bands are 7 stitches wide. Here's the stitch pattern:
RT = knit the 2nd stitch on LHN from the front, then the 1st stitch on the LHN and
slip both to the RHN
Row 1: Slip 1 as if to K, RT 3 times, do body, RT 3 times, K1 tbl
Row 2: Slip 1 as if to P, P 6 stitches, do body, P 7 stitches
Row 3: Slip 1 as if to K, K1, RT 2 times, K1, do body, K1, RT 2 times, K1, K1 tbl
Row 4: same as row 2
I did the button holes on the WS as follows: Slip 1 as if to P, P 1, P2tog, YO, P3
The holes aren't visible in the photo, but they are there on the right band.
The row gauge is a little bigger than garter stitche rows on the yoke, but the yoke tends to stretch when worn, so I think it will be fine.


My second WIP is the climbing vines pullover from Interweave Knits Winter 2008 (ravelry link). The yarn is di.Ve' Zenith. I'm doing my own sizing since the gauge is finer than the pattern's gauge. I also decided to move the pattern to the middle because I don't want the armhole edge to get too close to it since I may be narrowing the shoulders a bit. Finally, I decided to omit the emerging leaf at the bottom of the sweater.