The Debbie Bliss yarn came in a lot sooner than I expected. I think on Monday the LYS owner let me know that it was in and I could pick it up. So yesterday on my way home from work, I decided to swing out to the shop and pick it up, along with some yarn for the one and only Christmas knitting I will be doing. I unfortunately made the wrong decision and took the longest most traffic filled way, when I thought that it would actually be fastest. I took the highway that EVERYONE takes when trying to get to San Francisco (or the airport), so it was nice and backed up... at 2pm. Then I had to go through a tunnel, which wouldn't have been so bad, but a car fire was blocking one of the lanes and backed it up for about a mile. Whew! But I made it and my happy little perfectly matching ball of yarn was waiting for me.

This was the first time I was in The Yarn Boutique in about 2 years, and they had moved locations since I had been in there. It's a nice little place, and looks like they have more space than at the old location, and each inch of the store is certainly taken advantage of for housing yarn, books, and notions.

When I got home, I was excited to start knitting my sweater again, without having to worry about running out of yarn. I seamed up the sides and was knitting some of the collar when I got too excited and pulled it over my head. When I walked to Mr Kiwi, he popped up out of his chair and was sure to tell me how great and cute the sweater is and how much he likes it. (I think he's gotten really good at putting up a show about my knitting ;o) ) Because of the super chunky yarn, it is pretty heavy to hold, but once it is on, it feels so soft and warm. The pattern makes the sweater slightly loose and not fitted at all, but it looks nice and is very comfortable. I think this sweater will be in competition with the Placed Cable Aran as my favorite go to sweater. I've also noticed how similar they to are to each other with the cables running up the front and back.

To all of the American readers: Happy Thanksgiving, and I hope everyone gets massive food induced comas all day and all weekend, and still manage to do lots of knitting!

Sweater Knitting

I had been working on the Simply Marilyn throughout the week, and brought it to Stitch n Bitch with me on Wednesday. Before I left, I realized that I might need one extra ball of yarn. I had just finished the sleeves, and needed to attach everything and knit the collar. About 30 minutes into SnB, I ran out of yarn. So close to finishing the sweater too! I have found an LYS that found one ball of not only the color I needed, but the same dye lot too! All I have to do is wait for it to come in, and then my sweater will be finished soon after. Hooray!

While I'm waiting on that, I figured I should do some more stash busting and knit something out of the yarn I already have. I have decided to knit the Minimalist Cardigan with Alpaca with a Twist that I got on some crazy sale while visiting Booth Bay Harbor. So far, it is going very well. Because I am using such small yarn, with all the ribbing and seed stitches, this will be a pretty long project compared to my track record. But it feels so nice, so I'm really going to be enjoying this one. The alpaca is also a smaller gauge than the yarn they require, so I am simply following the directions for a larger size in order to get the size I really want.

It's Back!

After Thursday's post of not enjoying the Mustard Parallelo, I decided enough was enough. It's unfortunate that I'm not going to finish that project, but on the bright side, I now have enough yarn to knit two much more enjoyable sweaters instead of the one. I might even have a ball or two left over from one (or both!) to make a hat or scarf from. All of these are much better situations than fighting with the darned pattern that will only make me think of how frustrating the knitting was each time I wear the sweater. Not something I want to think about each time I put on one of my own projects. Instead I will have two or more that will be more exciting to knit, and more fun to wear.

Friday after getting off of work, I sat myself down to try to find a new project to work on. I decided to walk away from GGH Bel Air and Soft Kid this time, and I'll focus on frogging later. My mother in law had sent me some yarn for my birthday that I haven't done anything with yet, so I figured it would be a good idea to use that up. Plus, since it is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky, it will end up being a quick project.

..little did I know....

After a bit of searching, I found Simply Marilyn which called for the exact yarn I have, and in the exact quantity. Great! I cast on Friday evening, and now Sunday afternoon, I have finished the front and back, and am working on the sleeves. This is much more rewarding than the last sweater; it's going quickly, it's enjoyable, relaxing, and I am looking forward to when I get to wear it.

Perhaps I'll get some pictures up when Mr Kiwi is around and let's me use his camera.

Rebecca Magazine

Perhaps I got cocky. I plowed through my first two sweaters with absolutely no problems, and even modified as I went. I had too much faith in my knitting abilities. Now, I am one who rolls my eyes and mumbles "shut up!' when someone says "I am scared of [insert technique here] because it looks so haaardd and scary!" It's really annoying, and dammit, there is no reason to fear multiple circular needles, DPNs, cables, socks, etc. It's only knitting.

However, as I work on the Mustard Parallelo, with is pattern 32 from Rebecca Magazine Number 32, I find myself learning where UFO's and abandoned projects come from. These patterns have all been translated from German, and I have been having problems with it since I cast on. Nothing is described in a way that I can understand, and somethings simply don't make sense at all. Following suit with my last project (yeah, that lace scarf that no one really knows about), I feel like throwing this damn half finished sleeve in a corner and doing something else.

I know this can be a great sweater. A very comfortable sweater. But when I can't even figure out what the hell the pattern wants me to do, it makes me want to take the yarn out and make something completely different that does not come from a translated Rebecca magazine. They have very cute patterns, but dammit if I am ever going to try to knit one of them again.

Glute Rant

Okay, so what's the deal? I've been in level2 for a year and a half, and I still can't walk and squeeze my glutes at different timings. This is most basic move, the foundation of my dance, and I can't execute it. What the heck is wrong?! My butt's not working right!!

This is definitely a situation where my brain is many levels ahead of my body and it is so incredibly frustrating.

IK Winter 2007 mini review

Wow, I have not been posting as much as I used to! Why am I posting now? Well, it's turning into winter. When does winter officially start? How about when I get my Winter 2007 of Interweave Knits! I got my copy in the mail on Friday, and at least waited until I had to distract myself on the BART before cracking in and looking at everything. I must say that this time none of the patterns really jumped out at me screaming "Make me NOW!!" as some had in previous issues. And I actually found some of the articles were very good and drew me in more than the patterns (wait.. there are actual articles and not just pictures?! ;o) ). I found the alpaca information very interesting, and seeing as how I have only made two sweaters and was never told anything about sleeves, I was very interested in the Designer Secrets on Set-in Sleeves. There was a lot of good information that will definitely have me marking this page so that I can refer to it when playing with sweater patterns (which I am apparently apt to do).

Maybe it's me, and maybe I need to get myself up out of my never ending slump before I can really appreciate the patterns in this edition. Some look good, and I am impressed with the Ivy League Vest, however I have never done colorwork and I don't really wear vests. So while I can appreciate it, it's probably not something I will see myself making.

If any knitters really do subscribe or read my blog, leave me a comment and tell me what you thought of the issue. I am interested to know!

Dance Changes

I've been feeling a bit guilty about not going to my dance classes as much as I used to since July. (Does that sentence even make sense?) I decided that I would go to the one class that I have neglected since the instructors headed off on tours/expanding/self serchings. Dance movements, here I come! I was expecting Kit to be the instructor for this, but I was mistaken. It was someone who is a very experienced dancer, but not someone I recognized. The class size was pretty small; maybe 10 compared to the 20 that I had previously been used to.
The new instructor is most likely classically trained, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. More specifically, for others it may be a good thing, but for me, at age 24 with this being the first time I am trying to do any sort of jazz/ballet, it is most definitely a bad thing. The whole format of the class has changed. Where I am used to using this class to build my strength and balance, it has turned into a full on jazz and ballet class. Where I used to be able to do about 1/2 of the things with confidence and maybe 1/4 with the idea that I'm almost good enough, now I could only fumble through half of it. I flopped around in this class the way I did when I first started "the other" one, however now I have no desire to continue. I don't feel like I am getting enough time in my stretches, and that it doesn't tie in well with my goals. I don't want to learn a jazz choreography at the end of class, and I feel like the whole class is geared towards getting the students ready for the choreography. I want to build strength and balance, and if I am too busy trying to figure out what the hell the instructor just did, it's never going to happen. The classes are too expensive for me to fumble and be frustrated the whole time.
So now I get to decide what I want as my second class of the week. I can take 2 of the same bellydance classes a week, a fusion/cymbals class, or Kit's own gypsy dance class. Maybe I'll just sit in and watch some of those classes to see which I most like. I know I've been meaning to take the fusion/cymbals class for about a year. Maybe this is my change to get up and do so.

A Little Bit of Self Reflection

I've been doing a lot of finding out who I am lately. In my knitting, my dancing, and my general creativeness.

It's interesting, how I still feel like the same person creativity-wise as I was in highschool, however I feel like I was more whole as a 16 year old than I am now, as a 24 year old. Since then, I have gone to college and earned a bachelor's degree in two fields. I like them both, but that is more or less a different story. All the reader needs to know from this is that I am a "scientist". My job is to do research on complicated biology stuff than most people find "impressive", "interersting" or "challenging". People find out what I do for a living, and sudenly, that is what defines me. To them, above everything else, I am a nerdy scientist who wears goggles, a lab coat, and hides in a creepy place with my ethanol, DNA preps, cells, mice, and bunson burner. Second to this total geeked out image am I an artist to them. I am told "you think like a scientist", "you're analyzing", or "you think about things differently than artists do". Every time I hear these words, a part of me is beated down.
I view myself completely different. The exact opposite. To me above everything else, I am a sketch artist and painter who knits, and is trying to get a hang of this dancing thing. I am this creative person who is trying to support what I love doing by having a "real job" out in the big world. I still see myself as myself and my classmates saw me at 16; the weird, pierced theatre chick with big pants who was always drawing in the sketch pad in the middle of class.

Getting back in touch with old friends has somewhat woken me up. Every time I tell them what I am doing they seem stunned and shocked saying "Are you serious?! I never would have guessed you'd go into biology. I thought you were going to be an artist!" They find it hard to imagine me with a normal job, obeying a boss, and being restricted to "work" which does not lend itself well to creativity... unless you count goofing off at lunch coming up with experiments to see who can tell the difference between sugar-water and splenda-water "creative".

Earlier this week I brought my old sketch books into work to show a coworker. I hadn't looked through them since I was 19, but somehow managed to remember to cart them around with me where ever I moved to after college. It was strange. I remember exactly where I was when each picture was being drawn, when I drew it, and what I was thinking. They were all from 9 years ago. My coworker was impressed and didn't realize I had this side. It baffled me for a minute, thinking "But *everyone* KNOWS I can draw". But everyone doesn't. Nobody realizes I have these abilities, because I left everyone behind. I sold out on myself. I decided I didn't need to go to college for art because the one time I actually took an art class, I hated the instructor looking over my shoulder telling me that my picture needed more of this or that. (It's a story for another time, but my bratty teenaged self used my creativity and pictures to tell her to STFU.. which she did. and she never commented on my pictures after that) After taking that class, I decided that art instructors were stifling and limiting, killing my creativity, and dammit, I didn't need that; I was going to go to school to become a biologist.

I must have lost myself on my 18th birthday, because that is where it all changed. I stopped drawing. I stopped creating. I was stuck in books, homework, labs, and exams. And now? I feel lost. I feel like I abandoned myself somewhere between Florida and Pennsylvania, and I'm somewhat upset that it took me until THIS WEEK to realize that I'm lost. Where have I been for the past 6 years? And most importantly, how do I get myself back? How do I prove to everyone that I am more than a pipet and plasmids and really belong to my paper, pencils, and imagination?

That's the million dollar question.

Finding Myself

::looks around at my bare page::

Well, there certainly has been a lack of pictures going on here. And a lack of posting, especially compared to my old track record of almost every other day. As someone put it to me last week, I have a knitting hang over. I burnt myself out by pumping out the Gatsby Girl, Cashmere hat and scarf and 1/2 finished lace scarf, Placed Cables, baby sweater/hat combo (which I never mentioned here), and now another pullover (which I will mention shortly). All those since June. Less than 3 months of non-stop uber knitting. I need a break, and I've been taking it. I have been slowly chugging along on my Rebecca Mustard Parallelo. It also doesn't help much that I ahve to translate the German knitting language into English (American) knitting. Certainly makes it interesting! It's nice to slow down a little bit.

I also have not been dancing much since July. In part because of laziness, and in part because I was feeling overwealmed. It's hard to imagine that just over one year ago I was training my ass off drilling every day, and going to three classes a week so that I could be in shape enough to not collapse on the second day of my Level2 weeklong workshop. It became a kind of addiction. The endorphines were certainly pumping nostop, and kept me going even though I couldn't feel 8 of my toes for 1.5 weeks after the second day. This year's workshop is coming up towards the end of October. There is still a few spots left, I'm sure, but I have been doing the opposite of training. I have been slacking. Actually, I think that I am still at the same level I was when I walked out of the studio that Friday, dispite continuing to practice regularly since then. Maybe I'm not drilling hard enough or putting enough effort into it. Maybe my plataue is lasting longer than I thought; I almost had the interior squares layered on pas de bourres and chasses when the workshop ended. I still dan't do them.

I still feel like I am flailing around in class. While the other girls look like they are effortlessly dancing, I still feel like an awkward duck trying to figure out where the down beat is and which direction am I going again? Oh, and which foot are we on? I am definitely noticing the differences in the teaching styles that I have been exposed to. I have been studying Suhail Salimpour's format for almost exactly 2 years now. The workshop last year and the past 3 months are the only times I have studied dierctly under Suhaila herself, and the rest of the two years I have been taught by Kendra and Tiffany. All three have vastly different styles, and the longer I dance at the studio, the more I notice it. Since Suhaila has come back, I feel as though my Level2 class has turned into a Level2.5.

It's hard. Last week was rough and I came home asking myself what the heck I am doing and why the hell do I think I can be a belly dancer with no prior experience. Tonight's class was painful, but mostly in a good way. I felt like a flailing dancer (instead of a flailing duck), but I still felt like I was really dancing... or drilling and making it look somewhat good. I wasn't sharp; I was a bit wobbly, but it happens when your trying to do double time 3/4 interior hip circles on top of pas de bourres/ chasses/ a combo of both/ gapevines, or my favorite: doubletime singles walking doubletime. Perhaps this is what I need. To be beated down and struggling to keep up in order to actually make progress. If I can do it, it must be too easy and I must not be challenged enough. If I am struggling to make the movements and get it together, I know where I need to be and see the progress I can make; I see the next level that I must achieve.

I still think it will be at least another year before I allow myself to struggle through Level3, though. I can only imagine alternating undulations on top of hip squares ontop of singles ontop of some rediculous foot work. Layering like that comes way later.

Lime & Violet: The Daily Chum

So I know you guys have heard of Lime & Violet, right? They have an awesome shop full of sock yarns and rovings, and have a buch of cool podcasts out there. Not to mention the Daily Chum.
Well, guess who's Etsy shop was featured today on their Etsy Shop of the Day! If you guessed it was me at Jupyter Designs, you my friend, would be correct.

I'm so thrilled and excited! :o)

Losing Interest

I have been somewhat neglecting my knitting lately. I am still working on my lace scarf with a center pattern from Victorian Lace today, and it is pretty slow going. The middle section of the scarf is just faggotting stitch, which is pretty easy and nice to run throguh. However, picking up adn doing the edging is pretty painful for some reason. I have only done about 4 repeats of the edging, but I am so ready for it to be over! I'm ready to take a huge break from this project, and that idea pains me.
What's more is that the Weekend Pullover that I am working on to keep from getting repetative stress from the fine lace is not exciting me much either. It requires a lot of thought and attention, especially since I am substituting the yarn with good stitch gauge, but not so accurate row gauge. So I can't follow the rows in the pattern perfectly, and instead have to take notes on when I do what so that I can do it on the front. Yes, this one I decided to do flat.
I keep thinking of other things I want to knit and what I want to start and get going. And instead, I look at my two projects and not even touch them.
What is wrong with me!?!?!
What's the vote? Should I start some short quick things for a little while, or should i suck it up and pump these out?

Lazy Belly Dancer

I have been a tired, sad, little lazy bum for the past two or so weeks. First of all, for an entire 12 week rotation I had only been showing up to one of the two classes I take at the studio. SAD. That means my body is falling more and more out of shape (I have gained weight!!!) and when I do make it to that one class I am sluggish and.. pathetic. For the last few weeks I have been spotty on showing up to that one class I do take. Way to stay in shape, Kiwi!
Determined not to slide out of dancing completely, I decided no matter what, no excuses, I am going to class tonight. Holy crap! It was such a workout. I was soaking in sweat, and where I usually only drink half of my bottle of water in one 1hr 15 min class, I had consumed almost the entire bottle by the end of the first 45 minutes. Whew!
It's also pretty cool to walk into class and see the instructor walking on Margaret Cho's back to help loosen her up. Yeah, THAT Margaret Cho. This is not the first time I have seen her in the studio. The only other time was when I walked in at the end of a weeklong workshop that she was taking, where I was going in for my level 1 certification. I was such a belly dance "baby" that I was way too stressed out trying to do some last minute studying/freaking out before taking the test to be star struck over her. And is it funny that when she was laying face down on the floor I recognized it was her by her tattoos? heh.
She's a good dancer and blended right in to the class. And either nobody else realized who she was or they were good at keeping it to themselves since she was left alone that whole time to dance just liekt he rest of us.
I think that tops my adventures for the week.


..or month.

Lace and Such

Lately I have been putting along working on the lace scarf that I posted about last time. I have found however that if I trying working on it for too long my hands start to cramp up and it becomes quite irritating. Thus, in order to not create some long lasting and quite damaging repetative stress syndrome in my hands, I have begun knitting a second project at the same time. This way, I can knit the lace when my hands are feeling up to it, and when I can't knit on such fine yarn, I can work on my larger project to give my hands a break.

I am learning a lot from the lace project, and even though it is a really simple pattern, it is showing me exactly where my tensions change and where I need to work on perfecting it.

The second project I am working on is the Weekend Pullover from Interweave Knits Fall 2006 (interestingly, I just noticed, the same issue in which the gatsby Girl Pullover was published). I have substituted the yarn with Karabella Breeze which I have been looking forward to using for a long time. My sweater is not going to be as thick or warm as the one in the magazine, but instead it will be a light and cool sweater. I am also going to have be editing the pattern along the way since I got my stitch gauge spot on, yet my row gauge I am off by a bit. This is also certainly a pattern that I have to pay attention to. I am sure that by the time I get to the arm holes of the back I'll have it down ..for the most part.

Maybe by the time winter comes around I'll be ready to stock up my wardrobe for the summer....

Very Knitting Weekend

This weekend was full of knitting events. Saturday I visited my dad about an hour away, adn he gave me a little bit of spending money to splurge on myself with. Usually when given gift money, in the bank it will go to later be used to pay bills or collect interest or something logical and responsible like that. I decided that this time I would instantly spend some of it on yarn for me. I visited Purlescence and Commuknity in Sunnyvale and San Jose respectively. I didn't end up getting anything in the first shop (although they did have a nice lace section....) and ended up doing all my damage in Commuknity. I bought Victorian Lace Today after flipping through it and becoming overwealmingly inspired. I also bought a skein of Claudia Handpainted silk and 2 balls of Harmony lace





On Sunday I had finished knitting the hat and scarf set that a friend sent me for my birthday. It's a Karabella pattern, and it says that it calls for 3 balls of Karabella Supercashmere, and oh my it's not kidding. At the end of every knitting project, I always have scraps left over. At least a little bit, even if I can't make anything with it. With this pattern, however I used every last little bit of yarn that I had, and had exactly enough to get them done. I was holding my breath at the end of the hat, and I wasn't able to make the little nub that sticks up on the top; I was that close on yarn.



It's very comfortable, and even in the heat yesterday I was wearing the hat around the house just because I didn't want to take it off. Being the single project knitter that I am, when I cast off the hat and had it woven in, I began knitting one of the lace patterns in Victorian Lace. I believe this is the first time I have used lace *this* fine. It is a comletely different experience, and I have to get used to the slipperiness of the needles and yarn and be careful not to let the needles fall out! I took a picture just after beginning, and it has since been ripped out in favor of making the "shawl" thinner to become a lacey scarf instead. I am currently knitting with Misti Alpaca Lace.

Placed Cable Pics

You know, I should really have better timing with when I knit sweaters, and also when I decide to attempt to photograph them. For example, yesterday was not the day at 85 degrees to decide (in my air conditioning-free apartment) that it would be the perfect time to take a picture of my Placed Cable sweater.

So here it is! Be gentle, and remember that it has not yet been blocked.






At first I was not to thrilled with the sweater, since I was expecting something a little closer to what was in the magazine; the slightly oversized, big and comfy sweater, but I think this is going to turn into one of my favorite sweaters to put over top a light shirt. The feel of the yarn was a huge plus; the RYC Cashsoft Aran is so SO soft, and feels very nice.
This sweater (as you can tell by my blog posts) was a very quick knit.

PS. This is my first post as a 24 year old. Woo hoo!!

FO: Placed Cable Aran

Woohoo! I have just finished my second sweater! I bound off the sleeves last night and just had a few minutes to stitch them on to the body. The sweater needs to be blocked before I can document it (and harrass Mr Kiwi about using his camera) and posting here.
I never thought that I would be knitting sweaters so quickly so soon after knitting my first one. They're really not too bad!
Now I have to think about my next knitting project. ;o)

Almost 1/4 Century

My birthday is in 6 days. This past weekend, I was surprised by gifts from two friends, both knitting related. One gave me the very pretty Summer Shawlette that she knit from Knitting Daily. It is so soft, and for it's size, so warm and comfy! I *think* it was knit from RYC Silk Wool, so that could explain some of the wonderful qualities, along with the hands it passed through before making its way to me.
Another friend who lives all the way on the other side of the country sent me a box with a lovely hat and scarf pattern as well as the required Karabella yarn to make the set. Just in time to get it finished for fall and winter! Mr Kiwi yelled at me for opening my box early, but I am sure he is the only one who minded. ;o) That hat and scarf is an excellent excuse for me to stop the lengthy projects, take a break, and knit up smaller quicker projects. Excellent thinking, and thank you very much!
I'd post pictures, but Mr Kiwi told me my camera is inferior and to use his for picture taking, however there are so many darned buttons and settings on his brand spanking new camera that I have no idea how to take advantage of getting the good picture quality that it offers. So *hint hint* Mr Kiwi..

It might be me growing out of my kid phase and merging into being an adult, but I think this is the first birthday that I am not looking forward to simply because it means that I will officially be one year older and the digits will change. That's an interesting feeling. Maybe I can skip work and stay in my pj's and knit all that day. ..or maybe not because my experiments need to be assayed that day. Why do we celebrate birthdays anyway? Can't we just pretend that time freezes and you really don't ever get older? Of course, when it comes time for cake, I might change my mind a little.

Fun Times...

I have been working pretty hard on the Placed Cable Aran lately (for the past week) and today I got to the point where I was about to bind off the shoulders and begin the neck. Remember: thus far I am 2 for 2 in altering the pattern so that it can be knit in the round as far as possible so that there were no seams. My plan was also not to bind off around the neck where possible, so that I could just pick up the live stitches so that (again) there would be no seams from the body of the seater to the neck. I did however have to bind off 14 stitches on each side for the top of the shoulders, leaving the other 14 stitches to be picked up later for the neck. I did the three needle bind off on one shoulder and it went well. Then I did the same bind off on the other shoulder, which also went well.

..until I realized that I bound off the inside 14 stitches of the front to the outside 14 stitches of the back, instead of the outside stitches. If you can picture it, that would make a pretty... funny looking sweater. So I had to undo the bind off, and redo it correctly. Not too traumatic, but I thought it was a very silly mistake to make.

Placed Cable Aran

I have been making some good progress on my Placed Cable Aran from the Interweave Knits fall 2007 issue. The issue just came out and I received mine shortly before finishing my cabled socks (which of course I don't have a picture of). I was very excited about a number of patterns in the issue, and I realized that I have the perfect yarn substitute for the Fiber Trends Naturally Harmony 10 ply that is called for in the Placed Cable Aran Sweater. I had to play with needle sizes and knit (and frog) quite a few gauge swatches. I finally got gauge by using US10 knitting needles with my RYC Cashsoft Aran yarn that I purchased at the Stitches West in February. Perfect!
This sweater, as with the Gatsby Girl Pullover, I have edited in order to knit it in the round for not wanting to have seams on the sides. I am also planning on not binding off the neck of the body only to pick up the stitches again, so instead I will place the stitches on holders and pick them all up together. I never thought knitting sweaters could be so easy! This is only my second top, and thus far I am 2 for 2 in not following the pattern exactly and somehow modifying it to my own desires.
This sweater is going pretty quickly (especially compared to the 2x2 ribbing in the last one!) and I am already working on shaping the sleeves on the back. I started this on Wednesday, and I think before too long I'll be trying it on.

I'm Knitting, I Swear!

I know it looks like not a lot of knitting has been happening around here, but there really has.. I just haven't had time to take pictures of anything yet. Just tonight I cast off a pair of cable socks I made. This was my first pair of socks made with Claudia Hand Painted Yarns. This is also the first time I have had to use almost all the yarn from both skeins. Usually, I am able to get a pair of ankle socks from one 50g ball, but it this case I really needed to use almost all of the 50g ball for each sock. This is one reason I love knitting both at once, toe up. I can tell instantly when I am going to run out of yarn, how much I need to use, and how far I can get. These ended up being "tall" socks compared to what I usually do. I'm pretty pleased so far! Of course, I haven't yet had a chance to wear them more than tying them on.
I also cast on for Placed Cable Aran tonight. I had to play around with gauge and needle size a bit on a swatch before starting since I was not using the yarn that is specified in the pattern, and I had to make up for it being slightly different is size and weight. I'm happy though! This looks liek it will be a very fun sweater, although right now I have miles and mile of stockinette stitch to knit up! Oh well, I have some nice mindless knitting to go on after having to pay so much attention to the socks and sweater before this one :o)