Sweatpants and planning for October

After a very busy week at work, like most 1st weeks of school are, I've been trying to work on the cream colored sweat pants I'm knitting my youngest son using an adaptation from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Nether Garments. I will most likely dye them to a darker color as my son requested after I finish them. I've been able to join the two legs and knit the crotch. I am increasing stitches in the front center and center back to the hip size and now I am starting on the decreases on the sides for the waist size. I have been debating whether to insert some elastic in the waist or make an I-cord drawstring to allow him room to grow. Stay tuned for the result.....

October's project in EZ's Knitters Almanac is an Open Collar Pullover. My adult middle son, who is a teacher, seems interested in the style. Knowing how my son does laundry, I wanted to choose a yarn that was easy to care for and practically indistructable. I obtained some worsted Bare Superwash wool from Knit Picks and knitted up a swatch in Size 6, 7 , 8, and 9s to see which gauge would be better. This is a yarn that I believe is Swish in colors.

First of all, I was amazed at how soft this yarn was and how easy it knitted up. I just couldn't believe it wouldn't shrink and felt in the washer. To test it, I put my swatch in the washing machine with jeans and dried it in the dryer at normal temperature. To my amazement there was no felting. The stitch definition was intact and it shrunk less than 1/4 in. After washing, it was even softer than before. I'm in love with this yarn. My mind started to go crazy with thoughts of future knitting projects to come with this yarn. Below are pictures of before washing (left picture)and drying and then after (right picture). Sorry about the formatting. I haven't figured out how to line them up.