WsIP and a Flashy Visit to the Farm

I'm finally getting around to sharing photos of my current works-in-progress, but you'll have to forgive the bad photography. It's difficult to capture the true color of yarn sometimes (with flash? without flash? I don't always feel like getting the white laundry basket and special photo lights out!) and nothing is blocked so it all looks wonky. But, these will give you the general idea:

Amelia's Baby Blanket
Here are 12 of the 30 squares...plugging right along! Each square has a different design though you can't really see them in this photo (except the blue one which is just Stockinette). There are different size hearts and stars so far; each has a seed stitch border. They've been knitting up really fast and are super sweet.
Amelia's "Amelie" Dress
This is the wonkiest photo since it's all Stockinette and is curling up on the edges like nobody's business; it's not really this skinny! This is the back - the front is started too and they will join up with cute little 1-inch straps at the top. The dress is to be festooned with flowers (knit after and stitched on) and while I'm normally not a pinky girl, I've secured a skein of shockingly adorable pink yarn for the occasion. I think I can handle it in small doses. (This is Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool and it's SO soft...super nice yarn.)
Jackson's Drive-Thru Sweater
I was inspired to knit this sweater ("Drive-Thru, a.k.a. 'The Quicko-Cheapo'") for Jackson after seeing it completed on Shizzknit's blog a while back. I decided to finally buy the pattern and the yarn and get it in the queue for knitting soon. Who knows how much time I'll have for knitting winter sweaters (for NEXT winter) after Amelia comes?! I love these colors, though the camera didn't do them justice. The main color is a rusty orange-red and the three accent colors will be the yoke design (the super simple "faux Fair Isle" yoke design, that is). Don't hold your breath to see this one finished soon, but I'm glad to have the yarn ready to go for it.
Next up, a few photos of my fashion-challenged son. He insists on wearing his fun-fur German scarf everywhere AND his stripey knit pants AND his rain boots. He was the most unique-looking kid at the Zoo yesterday, to say the least. :)
But he did have a lot of fun at the opening of the farm season at the Zoo and is definitely starting to overcome his fear of animals up close. He squealed at the baby lambs that were frolicking about (1 day old!), marveled at the piglets as they nursed from their mama, was a little unsure of the ginormous mama cows almost ready to give birth and adored hand-feeding the goats. Maybe this year's Shepherd's Harvest festival will include some animal-barn time after all!Lastly, Happy Birthday E-Dawg! Thanks for inviting us to the Zoo to celebrate your 2nd birthday! We had a lot of fun and can't wait to play again soon.