Spring Break Knit-a-thon

A spring break knitventory. Here are some of the WIP I hope to finish this week:

First, I'm nearly finished with Branching Out because, well, I underestimated the amount of yarn I'd need to make a nice long scarf. So instead I'll have a slightly shorter one. Oh well.

Next, this fingerless mitten (from One-Skein Wonders) needs a mate.

This pattern knits up really fast (the above mit took me less than a day), so no excuses for not finishing. (Yarn is Paton's denim, frogged from an earlier project that I lost interest in, knit on size 8 dpns.)

Also from O-S W is this ripple scarf (same yarn as above, knit on size 8 needles):

(Pretend you don't see all of the sock yarn hiding there under the scarf.) I seriously love this pattern. It's fast, fun, and the ridges are way cool. I might try it again, maybe as a gift, with lighter, springier yarn (like Karabella Aurora 8, maybe?). I'm fond of this Paton's yarn--plus it's way affordable--but it's just a little heavy, and I think the ripples would be ripplier (to use a technical term) with something just a bit lighter.

And last but not least, I'd like to finish some of the socks currently IP. Just a little more than the toe to go on Broadripple:

And most of the foot left on the second blue stripey sock.

Unfortunately progress has been slow--remember my earlier short row heel success? Well, after THREE attempts, I still ended up with this:

Sorry for the blurry picture--unfortunately, it's really not too blurry for you to miss that GIANT HOLE at the top of the gusset. Hey, I learned to do these heels to AVOID holes. Clearly, I'm doing something wrong. Yeesh. But I found what I thought was a dropped stitch,and picked it up. The GIANT HOLE is now smaller, but obviously the dropped stitch wasn't the only mistake. But I have no idea what else it could be. Both socks have smallish holes in the same place--and it's worse when I pick up the wraps from the knit side. And I think it's happening around the very last pick-up.