Placemats, cables for needles

I finished the first placemat, using the pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting. This pattern works better with higher contrasting yarns, but the blue in the walls brings out the blue in the yarn a little. I don't know if I will be motivated to make more, but I've got those huge balls of yarn...





I worked on those while waiting on my needles to arrive to replace the ones I lost on the bus. It was a very small order from Knitpicks, under $20 with shipping. I ordered the 47 inch cables for the needles thinking I might need them someday and a set of 24 inch to replace the one I lost. Anyway, they sent my order twice! I called them to tell them about it and the woman gasped and said "oh no." When she looked up my order and saw how small it was, she said just keep it. Yay!! But my original plan to not have too many cables to help me not have too many projects at once is history. Instead, the original 4 cables (plus the smaller needles that are not interchangeable) has suddenly turned into 11 plus the others. Uh-oh. Currently I am working on the sleeves for the baby sweater again. I've already knit 3 for this thing (ripped 2, lost 1) so now I'm working on 4 and 5. This project was started to use up stash - I had 3 balls - I have had to buy 3 more balls to finish this :)