Happiness is....

You can see I'm knitting the swatch on the same needles I'm knitting a shawl on.  Pattern is the free Swallowtail Shawl, Yarn is 1 skein Madeline Tosh (profiled on this Stash Appreciation post by Cory)

This yarn was very similar to the discontinued King Tut cotton, but it was thinner.  Here I'm using a size 5 needle.

Sometimes happiness is a yarn tasting party sponsored by Smith's Knitshop where you get a few yards of free yarn to make a swatch.  I usually don't buy cotton or linen yarns because I don't know what to do with them.  Now I've had a chance to play with them, I have a better idea of guage/feel/drape.  Not that I'll be knitting with them anytime soon, but I won't be so quick to dismiss the yarns when brainstorming future projects.