Almost classified as an UFO

At beginning of spring season, I started to knit Gardenia, do you still remember it? And because I had plenty of the creamy yarn, I had planned for a matching cardi. At the starting point, there was some good determination in finishing it before summer as I had in mind to take it to US to show to my mother and sis... Soon my target was vanished as I had other projects that I could not wait to knit. And the inevitable happened. The cardi was left in my wip's basket and often I managed to hide it in the bottom, covered by other wips. And frquently a small view of this cardi would be revealed bringing me feelings of guiltiness. I tried to ignored it as I didn't want to deal with the sewing part. Last week, I finally decided to work on this project again since the basket was getting too full of unfinished projects. It wasn't a pleasant task to sew the crochet patch to the knitted front. I used a crochet needle for this job instead of a regular needle. The small chains formed looks much neater in this case. I use this same method to attach my sleeves in general as the backstitch doesn't work well for me.
For a complete job, I even went to the craft district to find pearly buttons couple days ago. I was able to find some Japanese half shaped pearls buttons. Though I wished they were a bit smaller and darker in tone, those are the best ones I could find in terms of colour and quality. I have to tell you that matching buttons is not an easy task at all. There were so many kinds of buttons and yet just a few that would match. I spent at least three full hours in the area searching for buttons and ribbons. I have to admit that I had a good time browsing through the tiny streets with stores selling a variety of notions and trims. I wish that I lived closer to this area, the driving journey was about 2h 40 min for a round trip. The guys at home were amazed that I left early in the morning and came back late afternoon with a small bag of buttons.
I bought ribbons for my Rambling Rose, shell buttons in gray for a future project, brown tones for Pine Cones , bronze looking ones for a future jacket and mauve colored ones for Mauve Arrows, my newest project. Though I tried very hard not start anything new before Pine Cones and Rambling Rose were finished. I was so enthusiastic about knitting this lace cardi that I finished the back in three days. ;) I like the interesting design formed by the ribbing stairs at the bottom. The same format follows for the front and sleeves section.

This shall be my last cotton knit for the season as I am ready to move for my wooly ones. Yeah, finally the weather is cooling down over here. I have so many winter designs in my list that I can predict tough decisions ahead... See you next time, now I need to knit faster and finish soon these wips, my wooly gems are waiting for me! :D