WIP Wednesday: Hitchhiker, nemesis socks, and a cowl for my MiL

I have more projects than usual on the needles right now, and I'll share the main three today.

I've been really digging the Hitchhiker pattern, but was stressed about the fact that I don't have 500+ yards of any one sock yarn...it only means I'll have a shorter piece, so I eventually bit the bullet and cast on. I'm using the 'Whale Watching' yarn that I got in Juneau that's been burning a whole in my stash for 2 months. Love. It. Love the way it's knitting up, love the flecks of silver, love the pointy points in the pattern. Overall, huge success. My pal Mel is also knitting this right now (in a gorgeous deep green), and she has nicknamed hers "dragon tail". Not to be outdone, I've named mine "stegosaurus tail".  I love dinosaurs, the points look like plates...why not? (Also, pretty sure a dinosaur would destroy a dragon in a street fight).

My nemesis socks. Seriously. I rue the day that I picked up this yarn and couldn't put it down. Because that's how it was - ask anybody that was there. I was all torn about it, like 'oh, I don't want to spend the money' but also all like 'gosh, I've always wanted a nice pair of pink striped socks'...so I bought it. And I hate it. It's not the color, I really do love the color. It's the fact that it's not plied. And this is my first attempt at 2-at-a-time socks, and the two strands just keep trying to grab each other and hold on. Ensue tangling, swearing, and throwing of project. I had intended to rip it out, but then I realized I was already halfway through the heel flap, so I really need to just finish. But for the record: hate.

And my MiL's cowl. This is surprisingly fun to knit. I say surprisingly because I traditionally like patterns that I can knit while not paying attention. This one requires a moderate amount of attentiveness, but I've got it under control. She picked out the yarn and approved the pattern...I really hope the finished product is perfect!

stripe study: complete

I actually *have* been knitting, just not blogging much. Major props to the creative folks who do both on a regular basis.

The stripe study was my Alaska/Seattle travel project, and it shows. There are some minor bobbles here and there where you can tell I was knitting while toasting the bubbly, or trying to knit on a bumpy flight. Ultimately, I'd rather spend my time knitting and not un-knitting, so I left it as-is.

My only other complaint is that I ran out of red yarn and couldn't include the last stripe. That's partially my fault...while I had more than enough yardage, I did go up a needle size since I'm a tight knitter. So I bought 440 yards of the gray and 440 yards of the red - ran out of red, had a whole extra skein (220) of gray. Snap. I'll definitely knit it again, with different colors next time. I'm thinking gray and a bold raspberry or maybe gray and a deep purple. Or maybe I'll go outside of my color comfort zone and do something really different (riiiiight...we'll see!).

More FOs and UFOs to come...