Progress and no progress

I'm enjoying working on my 2 sticks aran and I'm definately making progress. I had started it in the beginning of January and now I've finished the Left front to the armhole bottem and that's holding on a string. I've picked up and started the Right front now. This aran is knit all in one piece from the collar and saddles down. First it's worked seperately L front, R front and Back. Then it's joined below the armhole and worked to the bottem ribbing. Then you go back and work the sleeves right onto the body. This avoids any seaming, which can be a real bugger in arans trying to match patterns and keep from stretching things out of shape.
The FLAK aran is being done in a similar way, but they're not starting with the collar just the saddles. I'm a little behind on my FLAK. I did work the swatch for the filler and then I worked the saddles. But I'm still not satisfied with any of the yarns that I've used. The best fabric that I got was using a plain old acrylic....OH HORRORS! the knitting police will be knocking on my door! That old Red Heart worked the best for me! I really like 3 of the colors that I have too, a baby blue and a cornflower yellow and a carrot orange.....now I just have to decide if I want to go buy more yarn or actually do the aran in Red Heart. RH has good and bad points. It's washable and dryable and wears like steel wool...otoh....it can get pilly and floppy if it's not knit tight. I'm hesitating because I know the time involved in an aran and don't want to work on it for a month or more and not like the finished product. I think I need to do more swatching.;(
I also finished a couple of simple Garter stitch scarves. One for my DD2 in a pink ribbon called NoBo from WalMart. I hadn't seen this ribbon yarn before there. It has little flags of different pinks. I used it with a white yarn to show the contrast. Caiti being a teen...thinks it makes a great headband for her hair, and a good belt....anything but a scarf around the neck!
The other that I finished is a blue wool with a ribbon yarn that I got from an exchange buddy a long time ago. It's aqua/ purple/ blue. Thanks Marja! I actually wear it around my neck!
Oh, and my EZ workshop book finally came...lots of techniques that I want to try. I especially like the one baby blanket that is knit from the center and then around the edges. I still need one more gift for church babies, so maybe that should be on the list of TO Do's.
Back to the swatching and 2 sticks.
Knit on thru all crisises.