Currently
Castle: The Complete Fourth Season
By Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic, Jon Huertas, Seamus Dever, Tamala Jones
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Love, love, love the Fall daylight savings time change!  I got so much accomplished even though most of it was only in my mind.  I kept looking at the clock and saying to myself, "whoa, it's only ___ o'clock and I've got plenty of daylight left to finish.

I think Chef Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares returns to TV this week.  Yay! Finally, something entertaining to watch again.

During the extra hour of daylight I was sitting in one of my favorite places and started crocheting an Elise Shawl. I think this pattern is going to become a favorite of mine because it is so easy, fast and lacy.  I'm using the last skein of Magic Stripes #3009. 

I also started knitting a Knitting Pure & Simple  Summer Open Cardigan #294.   I'm making this one in wool and hopefully, it'll be perfect for cooler weather.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this will be my next class project.  I was able to make this white paper bag Thanksgiving tree with no problems. I paper punched the leaves and wrote one word on each leaf about things that I am thankful for including: family, church, God, crochet, knit, home, parents, brothers, sister, cars, clothes, books, crafts, friends and food.  Of course, there are lots more leaves to add to the tree but this is just an example.

Currently
Castle: The Complete Fourth Season
By Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic, Jon Huertas, Seamus Dever, Tamala Jones
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I love it when projects go according to plan. 

This crocheted shawl is a version of Doris Chan's Cocobay without the border.  I used a J hook and crocheted the main body portion until I ran out of yarn. Ignore the dead unkempt lawn, it's proof positive that we desperately need rain.

I love the curved shape of this design and there will be more of these soon. 

When I received the Patternworks catalog I was so excited to see the Arches Cowl by Mary Beth Temple. I immediately knew that I wanted to make a copycat one from leftover Noro Silk Garden #37.

I pulled out my stitch dictionaries and found a very similar stitch design from Leisure Arts 280 Crochet Shell Patterns by Darla Sims #25 Simple Arch. I had to do a couple of simple modifications to make the design in the round as the stitch pattern is written for a flat piece.

My patio workspace was perfect for the task. 

I chained 112 stitches, joined to work in the round and single crocheted one round before starting the Arch design.  The original pattern is for a moebius cowl and is much wider in circumference than the one I made.

I love the way it turned out and now I'm ready for some cooler temps.

Currently
Marvel's The Avengers
By Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson
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Yay! This is the 5th black speckled shawl I've made but this one uses the Open Mesh crochet pattern.  (Size J hook)  There is still enough black speckled yarn left to make one more shawl and I have yet to decide whether or not to knit, crochet or weave. 

While I contemplate what the last of the black speckled yarn will be, I promptly started working on a version of Doris Chan's Cocobay Shawl with another unlabeled cone yarn in gold.

I love the pie shaped wedges and the way this drapes.

Yikes! Christmas is around the corner and I haven't made anything for Christmas. 

Currently
Cars
By Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry The Cable Guy, Cheech Marin
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Last year I dressed in costume for Halloween at work and only one  other person did too so this year I'm not going to bother.  No treats from or for me.  If there is a scrooge for Halloween, I guess it'll be me this year.

I'm finishing the last few rows on another black speckled shawl.  Seems like I'll be able to make one more shawl from the original cone of yarn.  I don't have any yardage information available but I've been able to make 5 shawls from one cone of yarn.  Four of the shawls are knitted and pictured below, I'm crocheting the 5th one and haven't taken a picture of it yet.

Currently
Hard Eight (Stephanie Plum, No. 8) (Stephanie Plum Novels)
By Janet Evanovich
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These are the plain empty boxes that are waiting to be decorated.  I'm hoping that inspiration will hit and I'm just going to let creativity rule regarding how-to decorate them.  I'm going to provide a wide variety of items that can be used, for example: foam letters, magazines to cut-up, glitter glue, regular white glue, crayons, markers, stencils, etc.

Can't believe that it's the end of October already.  I only managed to put up a Halloween banner outside and that's the extent of it for this Halloween.

Currently
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
By Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush, Ian McShane, Kevin R. McNally
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This is very similar to the old gas meter.

This is what the new gas meter looks like with an additional dial.

We are having picture perfect weather but I can empathize with the stormy east coast because I was born and raised on the east coast. I am taking advantage of our warm temperatures and getting my daily dose of vitamin D outside on my patio.  

My knit/crochet project bag is very close at hand at all times. I overstuffed it as much as possible as I was determined to make a dent in the donated yarn stash that I received over a year ago. There are still several unlabeled cones of yarn that I'm working through and trying to match up.

I only had enough of this thick and thin lime yarn to make a lap blanket. This is a difficult color to match with any other yarn so I had to work with what I had available. Once again I used the Open Mesh crochet design and chained 60 stitches and half double crocheted each row until the yarn ended.  

Currently
The Elizabeth Gaskell Collection (Wives and Daughters / Cranford / North and South)
By Daniela Denby-Ashe, Richard Armitage, Tim Pigott-Smith, Sinéad Cusack, Lesley Manville
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The day started out normal (ha, ha) with a loud banging noise at the side of the house. I looked out of the window and saw a man in a blue uniform bending over the gas meter. I opened the window and asked him what he was doing and noticed that he was from the gas company. He stated that he was changing our gas meter.  I asked him if it was leaking and if it was the new digital kind that could be read electronically instead of having to come onto the property.  He said no it was just a new meter and the old one wasn't leaking.  Then I asked him if this was going to cost me more money in fees and he said that no, it would just read more accurately.

Huh? Does that mean that they think I wasn't using enough gas and not paying enough so they needed to replace the meter.  I'm suspicious because I have really low utility bills because I conserve and use as little energy (gas, electric, water) as possible.  In fact, according to my water bill, I use 83% less water than my neighbors.  I don't even turn on my gas furnace until mid November if possible and it's turned off by February.  I don't use my gas stove/oven as much as other people because I don't cook.   I have low flow showers and I don't water my lawn. 

The electric company replaced my meters twice!  I really think that they think the meters are broken because the readings are too low for a household of our size.  It's just inconceivable to them that one person actually conserves. 

I'm also miffed that I once received a letter stating that the Gas company couldn't read my neighbor's meter from my property so could I please make it possible for them to get easier access.  WHAT?!

Yes, please reread that last sentence carefully.  They couldn't read my neighbor's meter because they had a dog and as a good neighbor policy they've always read the meter from our property.  Well, excuse me...send the letter to my neighbor and ask them to chain up their dog on meter reading days. 

I enjoyed going to the shawl workshop yesterday because I came home with more free yarn and an incomplete project to finish for someone. One of the ladies has lung cancer and couldn't finish her shawl so she asked me to do it for her.  It is heartwarming to all of us that as participants in the shawl workshop many of us have also been recipients of the shawls ourselves.  We had a long prayer list yesterday and once again some tears were shed. 

This shawl is a combination of stockinette stitch with an alternate row of purl ridges.  It's made with a size 13 needle and Lion Brand Homespun in Wild Fire.

Our pumpkins for this year. The larger one is from the university that my son goes to and the smaller one was from my parents.  Good thing for freebies because I really wasn't planning on buying any pumpkins.

I've already started working on another Open Mesh crocheted project but I'm not sure I'll have enough for a full size shawl.

I also used the Michael's 25% off reg. price total purchase coupon for the next class project. They want to decorate boxes.  I tried to save up boxes around here but apparently I don't use enough things that come in boxes and I couldn't accumulate enough of the same type or size.  Do you realize how hard it is to save small boxes?

So all-in-all it was a normal widowed Saturday for me.  Arise with the sun, haggle with a utility company, knit/crochet with friends, shop for the next week, lay down at midnight.  Repeat.  

Currently
50/50
By Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen
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Hope you weren't expecting something else here.  About ten minutes ago I finished this Open Mesh Shawl, took the picture and uploaded it to Flickr, Ravelry and the Blog.  Another shawl workshop is today and I'm bringing eleven shawls.  According to my Ravelry notebook, I have completed 147 shawls for the ministry so far.  It's not a competition but I figure that I don't have anyone else to give my stuff to so I'll just keep on making shawls until I am incapacitated.

This is the Open Mesh Shawl from Leisure Arts #4622 - an unlabeled thick, thin yarn in off white/cream, size J hook.

Currently
Seven Up (Stephanie Plum, No. 7) (Stephanie Plum Novels)
By Janet Evanovich
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This was my updated version of the painted can.  I just noticed that I had some paint drips and the design isn't as random as I thought while I was painting.

I tried to be extra careful that there were no sharp edges where the can lid was taken off.  The pop off soup cans leave a little sharp rim so I only used cans where the lids were taken off with a can opener.  It's a cleaner closer cut around and leaves no rim.  I used a regular paper hole punch to make the side holes.  Obviously, the paper hole punch wasn't sharp enough to punch all the way through the can but it leave enough of an outline for me to use small pliers to bend the hole out. The handles are made from a cut wire hanger.  I already had pieces of cut wire hanger so I don't remember what was used to cut the hanger.  I'm sure I probably have a tool that cuts wire hangers somewhere around here.

Acrylic paints and regular brushes.  I haven't decided if I'll seal the can with Mod Podge or spray acrylic sealer.  The original painted can that my daughter made years ago is not faded nor has paint chipping/scratching off so I think that my version doesn't need a sealer.

It was easy and once again...what can possibly go wrong?

Currently
Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3)
By Suzanne Collins
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Finished reading Mockingjay (Book 3) and I'm surprised that I liked the trilogy.  It is a Young Adult fiction so apparently that is my reading level because I also enjoyed reading Twilight and Harry Potter.