WIP: New Sweater on the Needles

There's never a free moment when I am not A) working for the Zibeline Knits Etsy Shop, B) doing household chores, C) being the activities director/Girl Scout leader, or D) KNITTING!  Of course, I prefer the latter, and most evenings and all car trips you will find me knitting.  That means that I usually have about 27 projects going at the same time.  In the midst of Christmas knitting and my needing to fill custom orders for cowls, gloves, and mittens right now, Honey asked me to knit a shawl-collared sweater for him.  Hmmm.  I was a little daunted by the task and had to frog the front piece three times; but after I realized that European men are significantly smaller than my 6'2" Honey, and that I was just going to have to adapt the Drops pattern that I wanted to use to fit an American man, the knitting has progressed very nicely.  Right now, I'm just two inches from the underarms and the bottom of the collar.  I'm not too keen on having to knit 5 separate pieces and sew them together, as I hate seaming (really HATE seaming!) and go to great lengths to avoid patterns that call for it; however, there are not too many shawl collar patterns out there to choose from folks.  Here's how it's looking:

The yarn is a worsted weight merino that I hand painted in olive, spruce, and rust.  It's knitting up in a nice jewel tone.  Very manly colors.  The purpose of this sweater is not to hide my Honey in the woods while he shoots unsuspecting animals; rather, it's for cold-weather camping and hiking across mountain tops with Boy Scouts.  Those annual December and January camp-outs in below-freezing temps are fast approaching; so I hope to have this done by Honey's birthday in mid-December.  Here's what the finished product should look like: