Sweater Knitting in Slow Motion

I have a new knitting goal, to finish Cargo, a pattern by Kim Hargreaves for Rowan, which I started about 2 years ago. (I had to go back to earlier posts and look that up. I thought it had been even longer than 2 years!) I still like the sweater, but the knitting is just kind of boring. Lots of stockinette, and now that I'm working on the collar, lots of 2x2 ribbing. Plus, you have to knit everything longer than you normally would because the yarn, Rowan Denim, shrinks up lengthwise when you wash it. The advantage of this is that you can just machine wash and dry the sweater with regular clothes.

So, just last week I got the buttons for it, thinking that this would inspire me to dig old Cargo out and get knitting. I liked the Rowan buttons from the pattern, but at over $4 per button, they are expensive, especially since you need 18 of them. I would be spending more on buttons than on the yarn, which just doesn't seem right to me. Fortunately, I found similar buttons here, for much much less. Go Internets!

Cargo is actually a good project for nasty hot weather since I'm knitting with cotton on cool metal needles. Yesterday I seamed the shoulders together and started the collar:



The buttons are on there just for show. There's still some knitting (all those fiddly pocket flaps and epaulettes) and seaming to be done. I hope this thing turns out all right!