Stuck in scarf hell

The boys have asked for scarves. I made Skye an atrociously-striped one out of stashed woolease. He loves it, since he picked the colors. Am now making Cael an OU scarf out of stashed Woolease. Boring! I want to start my Shaped Pullover by Natalie Wilson (see pic at left). I bought Plymouth Jeannee in white for it at Gourmet Yarn last week and I am DYING to start it! Sigh.

Zipper Installation - Central Park Hoodie

Step 1. - Whipstitch a grograin ribbon as backing to give the zipper something firm to rest on. It helps stabilize the edge so that your zipper doesn't rip out and ruin your knitting. (2-3 hours).

Step 2. - Pin the zipper in place to the ribbon, check/admire alignment, then whipstitch the edge of the zipper to the ribbon. (1-1/2 hours) Woo hoo!

Central Park Hoodie -- 99.9% Finished

The Central Park Hoodie is knitted and sewn up. All that's left now, is, well, er, um....THE ZIPPER. I have never sewn in a zipper before and I'm afraid. Very afraid. In fact, a year or so ago I actually knit Samus on knitty.com and quit during the I-cord finishing because I knew the zipper was coming up next and I was unhappy with the way my picked-up stitches looked along the Saxon braid at the bottom AND I didn't care for the yarn (so many excuses...) so I just chucked the whole thing. If this zipper messes up three weeks worth of knitting so help me I'll....Anyway, pics below. The pics turned out really purple, for some reason, so I had to adjust the color back to barn red. So no, I DON'T have lime green shag carpet, it's just my feeble attempt at color correction.

WIP - Central Park Hoodie

I started the Central Park Hoodie during a soccer tournament in Kansas City. I'm using the recommended yarn, Takhi Donegal Tweed in Barn Red. I really like it, and I'm not much of a tweed person. Anyway, back to the tournament: 5 hours in the car up and back plus KIPing in the lobby after supper (we lost, by the way, but my son still managed to score 3 goals, yay Cael!). I managed to knit almost all of the back on that long weekend. I have since finished all pieces and am now following the alternate directions (pick up and knit all around both fronts and hood, rather than each side separately) for the front ribbing. Progress on the ribbing is SLOW....

Bought the zipper, some grosgrain ribbon and thread today. I've never sewn in a zipper before, we'll see whether I do it or someone else does (grin). I plan to use these two helpful links:
sewing in zippers from the Knitlist, and Chicknit's zipper tutorial. Wish me luck!