On the needles and a neat trick...

As you might have noticed, there was a small bit of finishing going on recently - not only did I get my first holiday gift done (no photo just in case the recipient is a reader ;) ), but I finished and published the Wooly Morning Glory Pillow and a Clapotis inspired scarf...

Well, with all that going on, I had to go and cast on for some new socks - I originally planned on some plain stockinette toe-up anklets using what's left of my black purl yarn, but after seeing this cute pattern from Kirsten at Through the Loops, I decided to rip back the toes and cast on, flirting with fate, for these cuff down anklets. Think I'll have enough yarn?

I've also decided to test my lace knitting prowess by casting on for Kiri in a mohair yarn - all the lace I've knitted to date has involved yarn that isn't halo'd. It's going to be an interesting adventure - lets hope I don't have to clear space in the freezer for the project.

As for neat tricks, I've had to resort to using an unbent paperclip as a stitch holder since I didn't read the sock pattern properly and I didn't feel like waiting to work on it more until I got back to my collection of needles - turns out I had to move a stitch from one needle to another after doing the first few pattern repeats, and since I knit my socks a pair at a time on one long circular, it set me up for quite the challenge. I'm about to put the stitches all back on the needle - the interim stitch holder worked great and I didn't lose a single stitch (I bent the ends back up after all the stitches were on the paperclip to prevent them from falling off :D )

Other neat tricks:
apparently Google has an SMS service now - apparently you can use it to find restaurants, get driving directions, movie times, local weather, get language translations and a whole host of other things. Since I don't have a cell phone, I had to settle for "pretending" while playing on the Google SMS site.