Well, I’ve got an FO finally :)  I finished the bag last night.  After I bound off the knitting, I switched over to crochet and did a round of double-crochets interspersed with chain ones for the ties to go through and topped that with two rounds of shells, the second being slightly larger than the first so as to create a ruffle kind of effect.

It still needs to be lined although, for the very light duty this is going to get, I’m not really sure that’s necessary.  I am really happy with the way this came out, the way the moss stitch balances the cables and bobbles and the look of the whole thing.  I even like the way the crocheted shells suggest a kind of flower at the top when the bag is closed (peony?).

And I started a little, narrow, moss stitch scarf to go with it.

The yarn for the scarf is ever-so-slightly lighter than the yarn for the bag.  I’m using Classic Elite Flash and what I got came in two dye lots.  The dye lot of the bag yarn is a bit more intense, a bit brighter.  I’m hoping that because the dye lots are for two different items (as opposed to, say, using both dye lots in a single item), the slight difference in appearance won’t be jarring.

The shawl is coming along too, a bit at a time.  I must confess, contrary to my expectations (expectations of myself, you understand) it’s coming out very nicely and every time I spread it out to have another look at the whole thing, I get a little more excited :)

The shawl picture isn’t very good.  I have the suspicion that the mohair kind of dissolves in the image making things look a bit fuzzy.  And, of course, there’s nothing to give you any idea of size.  Currently it’s about 20” across and about 12” deep.  I don’t know yet whether I’m going to do the lace edge or not; the idea of picking up all those stitches makes me feel faint.  I do know that I want a fairly sizeable shawl so if that means sacrificing edging for overall size, so be it.  I’ve got 1400 yards of this yarn and I’ve gone through about 150 yards.  We’ll see how far this gets me :)

I find it interesting that I get into the rhythm of the lace patterning and the right-side rows absolutely zoom by.  So it’s amusing to notice also that the wrong side rows, which are all simple purling, seem to take longer :)

And Myria made her Magical, Mystical Meatloaf last night with potatoes, carrots, onions and mushrooms - aaaaaahhhhh!!!  So yesterday was, all in all, quite wonderful :)