Spring Knitting

Although only last week I added a sweater-worth of pure wool yarn to my stash for a new cardigan, I don't feel like knitting winter sweaters or accessories any more.
I want spring, I feel like knitting cotton and bamboo and linen in lightweight lace clothes.
So - I resumed my blue cotton cardigan, which I cast on almost a year ago in June. The pattern is a free Japanese design by Pierrot. When I started this project there was only a Japanese version, but now Ravelry has a link to an English translation of the pattern too.
Because I seem to be the first person on Ravelry knitting this pattern, I decided to provide a detailed description of my modifications:
1) The pattern is a beautifully structured combination of lace and cables. However, I found that a purl stitch between the k3tog lace columns gives better structure and look to the knitting. So I've inserted a purl stitch where the red line is:

2) I also added a picot edging to my cast on stitches. It follows the basic principle of picot edging: cast on 5 sts, cast off 2, cast on 5 st, etc. Only, instead of cable cast on, which produces nice even triangle picots (which to me are kind of old-fashioned), I improvised a different cast on method, resulting in these little irregular knots. Just a peculiarity of mine, I have a thing for asymmetry and irregularity :)

3) I made the cardigan seamless, knitting together the two fronts, the back and the 6 sts button bands. And I also added some waist shaping in the side cables:

4) I left the back neckline stitches live instead of cast them off and then pick up stitches. However, to account for the different width of the cables, every 6 sts cable is treated as four stitches:

5) The front neckline is raised (about an inch or an inch and a half). The buttonholes are single stitch holes every 20 rows:

6) The sleeves are 3/4 in length and completely different from the description in the pattern.
I measured the desired width, increase and length and in stitches and rows it translated as follows:
cast on 67 sts, knit the garter stitch picot edging, begin pattern and increase 1 st on every side every 14th row to get 79 sts and 100 rows.
The sleeve cap is long 46 rows and the decreases are as follows:
BO 4 sts
2-2-1
2-1-4 (This reads "Decrease every 2nd row 1 stitch 4 times")
4-1-3
6-1-2
4-1-1
2-1-2
1-1-3
BO 27 sts.
Remember to treat 6-sts-cables as 4 sts - this means that when decreases are made within cables twice two sts are decreased and are treated as only one stitch decreased.

My yarn is Madame Tricot Camilla 100% mercerized Egyptian cotton (100 g = 250 m) and I'm knitting it on 3 mm (US 2 1/2) needles. I find ropy silk-shiny mercerized cotton just the perfect yarn for such heavily textured summer cardigans, so far I'm very pleased with my process. I'm aiming at an xs size for my daughter, with a total of 210 stitches cast on  for the body (11 cables).
As of now I've finished the body and one sleeve, so expect a FO photo session next week :)