Year of the Pig?!?!?!?!

I was going through some of my crafty pics and came across this:

This is a cake that I made for one of my friends (who happens to practice Islam) who said when I asked what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday, "Any kind is fine, as long as it is not pork." Of course I took that for a challange...so I came up with PIG CAKE! I baked a boxed red velvet (in deference to Steel Magnolias gotta love the armadillo groom's cake!) in a 9" cake pan, in a tempered glass bowl and a ramekin. I added red food coloring to white canned frosting to make the pretty pig pink color. The ears I made out of paper, taped toothpicks to and attached to the head. The tail is curly ribbon, curled, of course! And the feet are Ho Ho's. She LOVED it!

So, in celebration of the year of the pig, I give you a Pig Cake. I am still working on knitting, too, but work has been crazy, so nothing really new to share. Hopefully I will make some progress this weekend and post some progress pictures soon.

A Sweater, a shawl and socks

Here it is! My first sweater. It is the Jawbreaker Cardigan from Interweave Knits Winter 2006. It was a VERY fast knit (size 11 needles!). In my last post, Lynn asked if I thought the collar felt like too many stitches. I have to admit...I am kind of a geek...so I actually sorta did the math and calculated at which stitches I could increase by two so that I would have the correct number of stitches needed for the collar without bunching. So that was the hard part. I had no problems w/mattress stitching up the seams. I love this sweater!

Finally! I finished, washed and blocked my Icarus:

Here is a close up of the edge:

And I also have a picture of a pair of socks that I finished last December, Conwy from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road:

I also started the Nantucket Jacket (also from Interweave Knits Winter 2006). I LOVE the stitch pattern and the berrocco pure merino wool! So soft! I will post some progress pics soon.

I also got the books Knit 2 Together by Tracy Ullman and Mel Clark and Sarah Dallas Knitting. I really like both these books and want to make almost everything from both books! I already made the baby cape in Knit 2 Together, which brings me to a question...the cape called for size 6 needles, 4 mm. But my size 6 clover needles are 4.25 mm. I didn't check the diameter when I first started, but as I went along (and needed way more yarn than I thought!) I checked the size. I had to use 1 whole more hank of cascade 220 than the pattern called for! But I made it work. Once I get buttons I will post a pic. But why is there a difference between what the book calls for and what size my needles actually are?

Anyway, I am having a blast knitting...when I can get away from the needles, I will post!