My favorite WIP, and some others

Stop the presses, I am going to talk about KNITTING. There will even be photos of knitting! It appears that I last spoke about knitting on March 11th, and all I was really showing off was a sock I had recently completed. Not a pair, mind you, just a lone sock in need of a mate. Before you get your hopes up, I haven't yet completed this pair, but I have been working on the second sock:This was my car knitting for the trip to Silver Star, and I'd say I knit about 3 inches or so. Yes, it was almost 8 hours each way. No, I am not an exceedingly slow knitter. What I am is prone to carsickness, so I could really only knit on the straight bits of I-5 between Seattle and Bellingham, so the sock didn't really come out of the bag much. I had intended to knit more in the evenings at Silver Star but skiing is exhausting and my eyes were tired from the white snow so I went to bed early and no knitting was accomplished. This sock is Austermann Step, which is great yarn to work with, if a bit splitty. I received it in a swap package from The Woolen Rabbit, and I've really enjoyed it so far. My socks will be fraternal, and I think I'm okay with that. I did decide to make this one a few stitches (4) smaller in hopes of a better fit, but most likely I won't bother ripping the other one out to match (sorry Rachel).

Last night I made serious progress on a project I just cast-on on Tuesday:As you can see, all I'm missing is a thumb! This is a great pattern (Peekaboo) from Magknits, written by Megan at Pensive Frog. I actually know Megan - she was one of the founders of the graduate student knitting club I organize. Sadly I have to admit I didn't realize this was the same Megan until Anne-Marie pointed it out! She blogs a fair bit about cooking, but she did recently post a nice discussion of how she designed the finger slit in these mittens, which was pretty cool. These are being made for someone with slightly larger hands than mine, so I'm really hoping they'll fit. They're just a wee bit large for me, so I think it'll work out. Oh, the yarn is Lamb's Pride Worsted, which I love more everytime I use it.

And now for my favorite WIP, the Asymetrical Tank from Loop-d-Loop. I posted that I was almost done with this here, on February 28th. Well, that wasn't a lie, I was almost done, and I finished the knitting that weekend as promised, and then came the crochet edging. Anne-Marie was very helpful with this at knitting club last week, but I need to rip out what I had done because I think I was a) crocheting twice into the stiches, and b) using too small a hook. So, I've produced a tight, puckering, waving edge that I'm not really happy with.

You can probably just see the wavy edge of the right (left in photo) armhole, if you squint. While this isn't the best photo, I thought I would post it because I haven't posted any photos of the progress on this item. Not that I haven't taken any photos, but they all turned out awful. It was knit in the round so it was always bunched on the needles, and the light blue is a tough color to get a good picture of in our low-lit apartment. The yarn is Rowan Polar, which is sadly discontinued. I love working with this yarn. Bulky yarn = instant gratification! This is my favorite of my current WIPs mostly because it's for me, which is a rare thing most of the time, and because it's very unique. The cable is off-center, and the back has a panel of seed stitch running up one side, and I also love the way the cable splits for the neck. The pattern was very well-written, although I found the decreases on the back neck a bit confusing so you'll not be seeing a close-up of that region. I figure I have long hair and I can cover up the mistakes!
Both the socks and the vest were my Project Spectrum February/March items (color theme: blue, white, grey), so I'd really like to finish one or both of them by the end of March. We'll see...The colors for April and May are green, yellow, and pink, which might be a bit tough for me. I have some green yarn in the stash, and also some green/yellow socks on the needles (definitely in UFO, as opposed to WIP, status). Hum...
Oh, I get to pick up my skis tonight - I'm super excited! Now to find someone to go skiing with this weekend. Anyone, anyone?