A little of this, little of that

First, let's talk about an FO.

My Knitting Storage Center
click to enlarge
Matt is basically done with our new built in bookcase. With a little help from Keith. There's a couple more pictures over on Matt's blog.

Okay, so Matt got one of his projects done... how am I doing you might ask...

Well, the body of Mermaid is done, and I did cast on the first sleeve. However, I've been thinking out the sleeve length and I think I'm going to start over so that they're a little shorter. I'll follow the cast on for the size small, but make the medium width.

I do have a baby sweater about halfway done and Matt's Christmas sweater (Ike) is sort of stalled. However, I'm swatching for Roam (as I'm going to do this as a KAL on Ravelry).

After a lot of looking at yarn choices (as there's no way I'm spending $275 to make it in the original yarn), I ended up ordering some Sailor from Elann. It came yesterday, so I'm swatching it:

Roam
click to enlarge

I was shocked at how thin the Sailor was when it arrived (it's listed as a DK weight yarn, but I have to I would put it in a sport/fingering weight catagory). Saying that, it's working perfectly (so far) for Roam. I think the style of the jacket really needs a drapey fabric (especially since I'm using a 100% cotton yarn instead of a silk blend yarn as per the original). The colors don't seem to be pooling on me so far, so I'm pretty happy with how it's looking. Oh, and yes, that is the width of the back... how can I swatch to see if the color is going to pool too badly unless I make my swatch the size of my sweater, right? (like I need a justification to cast on a project).