Disasters in transit - moving right along

I am sad to report that my cap shawl has had an unfortunate frogging incident.

A few days ago I was taking it with me to my partners store where I intended to work on it while I kept him company for the day. I was moderately devastated upon arrival to discover that about 20 stitches had slipped off the needle and at least 9 rows of knitting had unravelled while in transit. With the pattern being so lacy it was impossible to pick up the unravelled rows (and believe me, I tried my hardest) so I decided to frog it and start it again on smaller needles at some later date. I did dry block it and take a photo of it to show how much I had done (you can see the damage in the lower mid to right corner of the pic). Here 'tis...

I have started knitting a new project (just cast on last night) its the lady's circular cape (Ravelry link) from VLT which I'm knitting from a divine baby alpaca 2ply (laceweight) in black for my closest friend as a birthday gift. The pattern calls for a 4.5mm needle but I'm using a 3.25mm instead to compensate for my super loose knitting tension and the fact that the yarn has very little halo. Fingers are crossed that it will turn out as pretty as the pic in the book...

Here is the pic from the book
Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby

I have also been asked to knit a baby blanket for a friends sister who is due to deliver in about 10 weeks. I know the lovely lady in question from Derby. The reason I mention this is because she had asked me to design a motif that included cats and quad skates. So I designed a cutesy little kitten curled up sleeping next to a roller skate and am going to knit the image using the intarsia knitting technique. Stay posted as I intend to put the charted image up here for download once its finished. Maybe.