Potential for baby clown barf?

If you haven't been spoiled by STR's August sock club shipment, don't scroll too far down or simply click far, far away and stalk your friendly local postal worker. ;)

Bought the last of what I thought was a cute variegated Plymouth Fantasy Naturale colorway when Creative Accents in San Leandro closed a couple months back. Then I found the cute Embossed Rib Sweater in Plymouth's Knitting for Babies & Kids book. The pattern stated that the sweater was "slightly" oversized (26" circumference for size 2), so I figured I could just add length to the body & arms for it to fit Monkey2. I brought the yarn & pattern along with me on vacation to swatch and play around with as a potential sweater project.

But sometimes cute yarn and a cute pattern doesn't always = cute project:

Unless I was just in a crabby mood on the way home from vacation when I thought about it. I need to bring this WIP (or giant swatch) in to the knitting group at work and get some feedback. Besides, that 26" circumference is looking awfully bigger than the "slightly oversized" stated in the pattern. Either that or I'm too used to the fitted silhouette in fashion (even in toddler wear) for the last couple years and I need to re-adjust my eye to the looser sihouette of this sweater.

But what's not yet a WIP (though it sounds like it'll be a quick one) is the August STR sock club shipment. Got it in my held mail on Monday. The usual opened skein shot:

And the wound yarn cake shot, both with STR Pisgah leftover from my chevron scarf:


When I first saw all the spoiler pics of Flower Power online I wanted to see why I thought it reminded me of Pisgah. I thought the light aqua was the common color, but it's really more the burnt orange. I had mis-remembered the light teal in Pisgah as a light aqua.

I think I will be knitting the yarn in the pattern though I think the pattern would be cuter in a shaded solid like Rose Quartz ('cept mine's med weight) or Coral (which I don't own...yet). The Spring Fling sample in the back of the pattern is cute, but probably 'cause it's a much lighter color than Flower Power and the other samples. (Not that I have Spring Fling which I waffle on putting on my wish list.) My other thought is to do the pattern in Grandma's Flower Garden to make it more girly.

Monkey1 likes Flower Power but not the pattern which isn't what I expected, so there's something going on that I haven't analyzed yet. So although the pattern looks like it'll be a quick knit, I won't be casting on right away.