Knitting Progress and Dish Rag Tag Sign Up

I've been making great progress on my Flamingo Stripe socks that I'm knitting in my two at a time toe up sock class. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to miss the last class, so I read ahead in the book and was able to turn the heels by myself so that I'll be set up to learn the crochet bind off that will be covered when I'm not there.
I expected knitting two socks at a time to be fiddly, and it hasn't disappointed in that aspect, but just like motherhood, it is turning out to be funner than I anticipated. I don't know if every pair of socks I knit in the future will be done two at a time, but I will be using this technique more than I thought I would.

I'm doing a bit of test knitting too (you can go ahead and laugh).
This little green object will grow up to be a sweater someday.
I've been asked to knit the sweater with Louet MerLin, which is 60% linen and 40% merino wool. It's very slippery. The pattern called for size 4 needles, but I had to go down to size 1 to get gauge. Am I destined to knit with tiny skinny needles from now on? I hope not. Isn't it purdy so far?

Finally, sign ups for Dish Rag Tag start today. There are only 300 spots available this year, so if you want to have some fun, go now!
If you sign up, let me know what team you get assigned to so that I can root for you. See you there!