Sahara takes shape!

Hi there,I have been going on Sahara for a week now and thought it time to post progress pics. Here she is:

I've just placed the markers for the waist shaping, not quite to joining the fronts. The puddle of colours you see on the right front are the beads I'm going to use (close-up below).

I've decided to prestring moukaite (Australian Jasper) gemstone chips on to perle 8 cotton (lower right corner) as a carry-along. These are my favourite semi-precious gemstones. They have a gorgeous colour range of pink-purple, burgundy, cream, mustard and browns. And it's appropriate as I'm an Aussie, don't you think? ;-)

I'm using Rowan Summer Tweed in Summer Berry and it is knitting up beautifully. Nice even stitches and not at all hard on my wrists. I love the richness of the colour. I measured as about a 32" bust and so I'm doing the XS. I am going to try it on once I've joined the fronts. This has gone really fast and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I did end up ripping it back to the shoulder markers (all 5.5 inches!!) as I thought the clip-on stitch marker was wearing through the yarn. I had the shoulders re-knit by the end of Good Friday though.

Point to note: The instructions for increasing at the front armhole shaping I found confusing. Where it says 'CO 1 stitch (etc) at start of next 2 rows. Cast on 2 stitches (etc) at start of following 2 rows' I interpreted a row as both fronts. After ending up with too many stitches, I finally figured it out each front counted for a row. So it was more ripping out. Probably obvious, I know. I also overthink 'finish on/with a right side row'. Does that mean do the right side row and finish or stop at the end of the preceding wrong side? >:- I'm going with the former.

Sorry if I've waffled. Hope you're all enjoying you're selected projects too!
Karen