~ My 200th Post! ~

I'm in the midst of knitting a wa-na-na-na-na-na-na-na bat shawl from the current issue of theanticraft; I've got a Halloween themed Buck n Doe to go to in 2 months, I hope to have it done by then! I just got my yarn in the mail a couple days ago, so I'm elated to get it started!
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I just finished the first bat chart though, as you can see, and have already found a very minor problem with it - I'm supposed to have 75 sts across at this point, but only have 73. I wasn't about to frog it, because I've already done it once before yesterday, and it's too tedious to undo.
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So, naturally, I adjusted the pattern slightly. For row 77, which is the row that follows the first bat pattern, I've added an extra yo + k2tog stitch over each point of the bat's wings. That way, the yo increase at each end of the shawl can still be made, and now I'm at 75 sts across w/o increasing the number of rows to the shawl.
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Since I have to pick up sts at the end to add a border, I can't risk having so many extra rows.
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Just goes to show you - once again, I can't avoid adjusting patterns. :P
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Oh, and I've had the brilliant idea of hanging a cloths pin to the end of my shawl, to weigh it down. I've noticed on a few shawl projects that, if it's worked from the bottom up, the bottom ends up curling up on me, which is frustrating while knitting. This way, it's held down w/o stretching the fabric!

My cousin and her fiance are getting married in November, and are having their Buck & Doe party the weekend before Halloween, therefore having a Halloween themed costume party for it. It's no secret that Halloween is my favourite holiday of the year, so I'm rather excited to put their Buck & Doe gift together for them.

Traditionally, wedding and Buck & Doe gifts tend to be housewares, and DH & Iwill likely gift them a gift certificate somewhere for the such (since they already live together and have pretty much everything they need, a gift certificate can help get something they want) - but I couldn't resist knitting something. And the most appropriate thing I could think of is Halloween themed dishcloths. Homely indeed, with all the fun of the spook of the season.

The 5 patterns I used were a bat (purple), ghost (white), kitty (black), jack o' lantern (orange) and skull (yellow) - a great way to eat up a lot of miscellanious dishcloth cotton I had laying around the house. I found some printable cotton-twill label paper at Wal-Mart, which is excellent for customizable labels, where I was able to print the care info, fiber content, and names for the dishcloths as well.

The great pumpkin-shaped and bat-shaped ribbon I found at Michael's; and a while ago I found a great price for gift bags at Zellers (13 for 4.95!) to which, in that collection, is yellow gift bag with a bit of an antique yellow Victorianesque print to it, which is vintage enough looking to be holiday appropriate for the gift.