Zipper advice

I've always been freaked out by putting a zipper on something I've knitted. Zippers don't stretch, sweaters do. I don't ever sew with jersey knits for the same reason.

So I "finished" my Urban Aran yesterday:
Before we get all giddy that a piece of very warm knit wear actually was completed in the season in which it can be worn, let's take a closer look at that collar.

Uh oh. Wonky collar-zipper shape.

So it isn't "finished" after all. I've got to re-do the neck since it is both too baggy and warped.

I'd like it to look more like this. Or this.

Here's what I think I need to do:
1. Get a different zipper. Plastic. The inside of the metal zipper scratches my chin when it is zipped all the way up. Ouch.
2. Rip out the collar. Re-knit it a bit smaller by picking up fewer stitches. And don't continue the cable pattern into the collar because it makes it flex funny, especially with the zipper.

I noticed that the other people who have made this have used 2-way zippers. I don't think I need to do this because I don't really plan to unzip from the bottom. And I'd have to mail order the zipper.

Any advice from experienced zipper installers before I embark on my knitting revisions? Is there anything else that I should change that I haven't thought of yet?

Not dead (yet)

When you start getting calls from friends far away and e-mails from folks across town wondering if the blog-silence means you are dead or in some serious crisis, then I guess it is a sign that you've been neglecting your blog.

So what happened to me? January. And February.

I was so crazed in January that I didn't notice it had become February. I only figured it out when the small critter, whose birthday is at the end of February, started her daily "how many days until my birthday" request and the number I would respond with indicated that, by golly, January must have ended a little while ago.

The good thing about all that chaotic energy that was expended is that I made it through one of my hardest months without really noticing it. Time really did zoom by while I scurried from one demand to another and I hardly noticed the hostility of the climate.

So hopefully, now that things have quieted down a bit, I'll have some posts coming--I read some great books in the past month, have been plugging away at the writing with mostly positive results and need some knitting advice from more experienced knitters (if there still are any out there who read this blog). Cooking? Eh, not so much. A crazed schedule did not lead to culinary marvels.