State of the UFO

My latest active project is the Must-Have Cardigan from Patons' booklet, Street Smarts. I'm using the stated yarn, Patons Classic Merino Wool, in a gorgeous deep brown-orange, Russet.

It took me a while to 'get' the pattern, as I haven't done a lot of moss stitch, and the cables are unfamiliar. One part of the X cable was just so messed up. I ripped the middle of it down twice, then finally ripped all of the stitches of the cable down 15 rows and knit it back up. What a difference! What was before a mass of weird bumpy stuff was now orderly, pretty moss stitch in the middle. I have 7.5" done on the back; less than 5" to armhole shaping!

I've also gotten quite a ways into a Captain Underpants for my son. I did the underpants in Red Heart (man, is that some awful yarn! No flex whatsoever), and was poised to do the flesh in an off-white superwash wool I have, but was at Michael's and found Bernat Soy on sale in a very pale pink. It's lovely to knit with--the soy gives it softness and a nice sheen. I'm at the stage of needing to embroider the face before I finish off the head.

The only other active project is my Plymouth Alpaca Brush k2p2 scarf. It's almost 4' long, so it's nearly done now (I'm aiming for about 5', since it's for me). I'll have quite a bit left over, as the first ball probably produced 3.5' of it. I wonder if I can knit a basic hat with the leftovers. It's soft and so pretty and I'm knitting the scarf on 9s. I wonder if 10s could work for the hat?

After lots of self-doubt on the sweater, I feel like I'm back in the groove again. Doesn't keep me wishing all my started projects were done and I was casting on the next ones, but it is still good.