I've Been Workin' on the Wallaby, All the Live Long Day...

Well, time to update everyone on the Wallaby as well as offer suggestions and comments to those of you knitting or thinking of knitting this one. I am thoroughly enjoying this pattern. It's easy enough to go fast and it's hard enough to keep my interest.

So, yesterday Shrek openned and DH took DS and DD to see it. The Wallaby looked like this when they left in the morning:

You can see it if you look closely, I ran a little dark pink sock yarn through "THE ROW" to pick up the pouch sts. Then, I continued on to work the body. This picking up sts for the pouch sounds easier than it is. With careful planning, you can do it! Then, I marked the beg of rnd and the halfway point on the working row. I ticked off 10 sts at a time and I decided to pick up 10, check the alignment of each one, pick up the next 10, etc. I pulled the yarn through the left side and pulled the yarn through the right side and then proceeded to go blind pickin gup the stitches. I got through it. My suggestion is don't knit for 6" (or more, as I did because it was late and straight stockinette was my fancy at that time) before doing it. Knit a few rows, then pick them up. I used an afghan hook, got the sts all onto the needle, then turned the whole piece upside down and slipped them onto the knitting needle.

I also used pins to ensure that I got the sts on the needles aligned with the sts on the afghan hook as I worked across the row. Then, I knit the pouch, put the sts on the stitch holder and got back work on the body.

I went to bed last night when it looked like this. More progress was made today and I will show you that soon. Tonight: Pouch Fusing and the Sopranos! This is supposed to work up to a 44" chest and I am right on when it come to gauge. It will not fit Tony Soprano. It looks small to me but we'll see how it turns out. If it's snug, it'll probably fit me and, aw shucks, I'll have to make a bigger one for the hubby.

I leave you for today with the Shrek kids: