Round and Round We Go

It still appears to be winter, despite what the calendar might say, so my current projects still seem quite relevant. I started the first sleeve on my Zephyr last night and got about 8 inches done before I put it down for the night, which is a pretty good start.

The total sleeve length is something like 19.5 inches (which does seem like a lot, but that includes a fold-up cuff). I have four more decrease rounds to do, so the knitting is going to speed up a bit as I have fewer stitches on the needles. I think another evening or two of knitting should see the first sleeve done, and my hope is still to finish the sweater by Monday -- not that there's any real reason it has to be done by then; it'd just be nice to finish it by the end of the month. The great thing about this sweater is that the only finishing I have to do is weave in some ends, make a couple of loops, and sew on some toggles or buttons (which I have yet to find). The front bands are worked along with the sweater, so when I'm done with the sleeves, I'm done with the knitting.

I already know what the next sweater on the needles will be thanks to a bit of an impulse purchase at my LYS this weekend. I so enjoyed knitting with the Yarn Hollow Tor DK in Rainbow's Little Oak that I bought a sweater's lot for me. I'd had my eye on this particular color for a while, but there was never enough to make a sweater. When I saw that they'd just gotten a shipment in, I jumped at the chance and snatched up every skein they had.

This color is called Winter Lake, and I bought it specifically for Sople. This sweater will be another fun adventure in construction -- top-down set-in sleeves using short rows! I've done them once before, but somewhat unsuccessfully.

I'm also approaching the toe on my first STR Kalish sock, which has been my lunchtime knitting for the past week and a half or so:

As patterns go, this one isn't that exciting, but I do like how the knit/purl pattern breaks up the colors a bit, and they have a little more visual interest than a plain stockinette sock. I'm going on a quick road trip this weekend for a bridal shower, so these might make for good car knitting -- as always, the hardest part of figuring out what to pack is deciding what knitting to bring!