A day late, but certainly not short

I had such good intentions of posting last night. I had taken progress pics of my three active projects when I got home on Friday evening and I was all excited to show you how far I had gotten on Hallett's Ledge.

Pretty impressive, no? But then I sat down on Sunday, we put a football game on, and I knit. And knit. And knit. And ended up with this:

(the color is far more accurate in the first shot above)

That's a finished left front, a partially finished back, and an unfinished right front. Not bad. This is a very quick pattern knit up in Cascade 220 on size 8 needles. I had forgotten how quickly knitting flies at that gauge.

Rachel had asked me how well I think this pattern works in Cascade 220 since she - like many of us - has a sweater's worth of that yarn sitting in the stash. The short answer is: pretty well (and for way less expense - not to mention fewer ends to weave in - than the pattern yarn). I was a bit hesitant when working the ribbing since the fabric is a bit more open and less dense than I usually like my ribbing. However, washing this in warmer water (i.e., fulling the yarn ever so slightly) may help. In any event, I think the Cascade holds up beautifully in the cable pattern.

Speaking of the yarn, you may recognize this as the green yarn that I rescued from my failed attempt at Forecast. As you would expect, I have long ago lost the yarn labels that had important information about things like dye lots. Naturally, I am paranoid about running out of yarn on this one. I scrounged around the apartment and found three small extra balls of the Cascade and now am keeping my fingers crossed that I have enough yarn to finish the project (or that my LYS happens to only carry this particular color in the dye lot that DH picked up for me as a Christmas present last year). Wish me luck!

Since I had mentioned other projects, it seems only fair to give you a sneak peek at what else has been growing around here.

First up, I really am going to finish that pair of Marlene socks.

That's sock #2, cast on during the drive to the apple orchard a week or so ago. I started this one just in time, too. One of my favorite socks wore a hole in the heel today and two other pairs have heels that are dangerously close to wearing out. 

Finally, I've made some real progress on N's birthday pillows.

These are really fun and I'm almost at the end of the first pillow. Very exciting! Can you stand to see another shot?

I thought so. Now I've got a date with Hallett's Ledge and some apple pie (although probably not in that order).