WIP Wednesday (5)

Thanks to Tami's Amis for hosting WIP Wednesdays

It's been a (long) while since we posted about our WIPs and FOs.  It's more because of a lack of time (and maybe laziness in my case *wink*) than for lack of projects. Since the last post we (Susi, her BF and I) started and/or finished a lot of projects (Cardis, sweater, shawls, Afgan....) Hopefully we will post about those in a FO post soon.
But for now let's take a lot at what's on our needles ;)

Caro: 
While I have started many projects (too many probably) I'm focusing on 2 of them at the moment. The first one is the Mystery Shawl KAL : Rockafeller  by Stephen West. So far I've knitted the first 3 clues. I'm waiting for the last one on Friday.  It's starting to look pretty cool. I admit I wasn't sold 'till clue #3 (the outside border)

My other projects is a big challenge for me. I'm hoping to knit the Little Birds cardigan by Ysolda Teague. This is a HUGE gamble for me because I've never done steeking. And I admit that cutting into my work is worrying me. Also I can't try it on (on mom actually since it's for her) as I knit to make sure of the sizing so it might come out totally wrong. Right now I'm pretty sure it's too big. I've read a lots of notes from other Ravelers, very helpful to understand this confusing pattern.  The pattern only called for 3 colors but I wanted something more colorful. Of course now I'm scared that it's TOO colorful for mom. We'll see. *deep breath*  I'm adding a row of birds before the underarm because otherwise it might be too short. I've had to change the rate at which I'm decreasing though to end up with the same number of stitches at the underarm.

So far the only problem I had was with how to deal with the floats. At some points I end up with  6 stitches long floats and well that's too long (It's not a sticky yarn). So at first I did the weaving method. I weaved the yarn unused every 3 stitches (Pink bird repeat) but  since it's a high contrast between the white and the pink, the pink is visible on the right side where I weaved it. <== not happy.
So on the next bird repeat I didn't weave. I let the long floats free. It does look neater. BUT I think my tension is not right and the birds are 'fatter'. I'm always too worried that my floats will be too short and the birds will pucker. But now I might have the opposite problem.  *shrug*.  I plan on adding a bird repeat to the sleeves too. I just don't know how to proceed though. Should I cast on less stitches? Or should i keep the same number and knit straight for 1 bird repeat? I have NO idea.
So as you can see I have plenty on my plate ;)

That's it for this week. =)