Washed and dried the back of Core this morning. I felt I had to do that before I went on with any of the other pieces, because I wanted to see what kind of shrinkage I would get from my substitute denim yarn compared to the Rowan Denim the pattern was written for. I had actually made a big swatch and shrunk it before I started, and I tried to use it to calculate what changes I might need to make to the pattern to account for the different row gauges I seemed to have, but it made me feel Tired All Over. I decided to put myself in the Hands of Fate and just work the pattern with Denim directions and see what happened.

Happy Day! I'm only about 1/4 inch off. I figured if I had a really overlong piece, I would rip back (half the sweater) and refinish it with the Rowan Cotton (unshrunk) directions, then Use What I Had Learned to do the remaining pieces. So happy it won't be necessary. And so pleased with my progress, although the back of Core isn't nearly as pretty as the front. I’m going to do the sleeves next -- get all that stockinette out of the way.

I’m also almost done with the first half of the Camel Bag. My stranded sections ARE actually a slightly tighter gauge than the stockinette sections, in addition to the loop rows being a little bigger. I still like the finished effect just fine, but I think if I were to make this bag again, or one similar, I would work the stranded sections with a size larger needle.

This morning I watched the E! True Hollywood Story: Rock Star Daughters. Diva Zappa showed off her knitting and crochet creations, including an openwork crochet poncho in a variety of different yarns and a hat that was a band around the head with a half dozen triangles poking out around the top, Jughead-style, with the ends dangling down. I liked the poncho.