leafy asymmetrical cardigan

here's a swatch (okay, well, an almost complete left front) of the asymmetrical cardigan in norah gaughan's knitting nature.

the pattern calls for a bulky cashmere (how i wish!) yarn, 13sts = 4", and my swatch is in knitpicks sierra in leaf i think the yarn is quite suitable for the project, and i will need to use needles 9 / 10 (instead of 9 / 10.5 as shown here), but the colour is just not doing it for me. i think this sweater would look dowdy (horrors) in anything other than a lightcoloured or neutral shade. the icy blue in the book looks amazing because of the model's eyes and the beach situation. oh, how i wish for a beach situation.

i'm debating colour because i have some leaf-coloured sierra already in my stash, but somehow this dark green all-over texture just screams oldskool christmas. (and am i the only one who sees hundreds of stars of david in this stitch pattern?) or perhaps can i spin it as vintage or add nice big tortoiseshell buttons? what do you think?

Tags: Aysmmetrical Cardigan_