Odds 'n Ends

I recently had a new little garment to wash out and block, and while I was at it, I blocked the scarf below, which I knitted months ago, and tucked away, without weaving in the ends or adding the buttons.

 I still need to weave in the ends and add buttons.
In that same post, I talked about trying to learn to knit in the Continental style, although I have always knit in the English style.  In my recent projects for Marie Rose, I knit up a swatch to check my gauge, English style, and then for comparison, Continental style.  After blocking:

 This is the English style.

 And here's the Continental.  You can see that it is definitely looser, and a whole lot less regular.  I concluded that I'll stick with English style and only carry yarn in my left hand to make Fair Isle knitting easier.

 Here they are together.  Same number of stitches and rows.  Vastly different results.  I used sz 2US ndls, and the yarn, as far as I can tell is no longer available.  It is Bernat Baby, which is a fingering weight.  A few years ago, I bought this yarn in white, ivory, pink, blue, yellow, lavender and green.  I have 1-2 skeins of each, and I don't think I'll be able to get more.  Bernat has many baby yarns, but not fingering weight.  I like the fingering weight, because it gives me such fine, delicate results.  The recommended needle on the label is a sz 3, but I like a little tighter fabric,  think it gives firmer, finer feel to garments.

Here is a swatch of Caron Simply Soft.  I love the color and took this picture as I think it would make a darling little girl's cardigan sweater to go with dresses made from the above two fabrics, n'est-ce pas?