Crochet adventure - Baby hoodie progress - Week 1

Selecting yarn was a no-brainer.  I still had giant spools of chenille leftover from an out-of-control ebay adventure.

I don't have high hopes for the chenille, though, because it's quite a bit thicker than the recommended.  I have a history of botching my first craft iteration anyways.  This green sport-weight yarn is waiting for that second iteration =)

This is the gauge swatch thing.  I've never done this before because I didn't understand why it was necessary, but I guess for clothes it's kind of important =)  My swatch was 1/2" bigger than suggested, so I'm going to use the smaller E hook instead for the real thing.

Here I go with the back piece!

After 10 or so rows, I find that it's not looking very rectangular and keeps getting bigger.  I guess my efforts to make this thicker yarn play small aren't going so well.  I decide to drop 2 stitches.  I don't know if that's kosher, but time is limited and I think it'll look okay.

The finished product for week 1!