Zippered Cardigan for My Hub

I've been knitting seriously for maybe seven years. I've offered to knit my husband scarves and house slippers, but he's always said, "Thanks but that's okay." So I was completely elated when he agreed to my making him a sweater. Wow! Really?

I got a couple of skeins of wool that I thought he'd like out of my collection, lamb's wool and a merino; and asked him to 'wear' them against his wrist for awhile to see how they felt. Even the lamb's wool was too itchy, so merino it is.

It's called Atwood from Knitpicks. I'm going to install a zipper so it'll be more like his favorite polar fleece jacket than a cardigan. Here's my progress on the back.

The pattern stitch is called rick-rack. It's a 2 x 2 pattern that's soft and stretch, as is the merino. But it requires working the second stitch first and the first stitch second and a lot of digging to get the stitch on the needle as a result. I just keep at it. The goal is worth the effort.

ETA: I was making good progress until I developed repetitive motion pain in my index finger from this project. I'm taking a long break and doing physical therapy daily for my finger. What's done for fun in life shouldn't be painful.