It's finished this time, I mean it, mostly.

I bought the yarn for the Printed Silk Cardigan as a birthday gift last year. It was almost finished for a long time, the hang up has been the neckband. It was too big and drooped and sagged badly.

My birthday is coming up again (like, every year), so I decided that I wanted to finish this to wear on that day. Last night I sat down while dinner was cooking and CUT into the button band. It's been so long since I last did it, I forgot how I ended it. After chasing down a few dropped stitches and almost destroying a buttonhole, I was able to pick up the stitches again.

This time, I followed the instructions. Amazing how that makes it work out so much better! I went down to a size 3 needle and was very careful to pick up just the right amount of stitches. I even did the sewn off binding thing.

Voila!

It's not a perfect fit, but it'll do nicely for my second finished sweater. The shoulders drop a little and the neckline seems to gape open when I bend forward. I may change the buttons out to something a little lighter to help with the gaping and potential drooping as the cardi wears.

But as I like to say, it's better done than perfect!