"hakucho" dishcloth

I love swans and do you know what? I just finished my very first ever hand knitted item that has a swan on it! I have been collecting swans and anything with swans slowly for many many years now. Someday I may show you my collection. This swan cloth is a first (of many) for me and I love it:
The pattern can be found here. As your probably have guessed by now...my love of swan's is the reason why I named my blog "hakucho", which is the Japanese word for "swan". I picked out the name after looking through my eldest son's Japanese/English dictionary and thought it had a nice ring to it as well as it was fitting because of my love of swans. My son is very much into all things Japanese because of his great love of the art of a Japanese style of karate. Kyokushin Karate to be more specific. Guess some of the Japanese culture may have rubbed off on me as well, too! Now you know how I came up with "hakucho". :)
Another thing I had fun making the other day was this soap saver. I found the pattern on Jennifer's blog. She calls it a"soap holder wash cloth thingy". This was the first time I did the "linen" stitch and it was fun. I made this one for myself, but I think it would make a nice little gift. I'm going to use it in the shower for all those little odds and end of soap that you end up with, but really don't want to throw away. The good thing is that it's a wash cloth as well! I don't like to waste anything, so I can't wait to try it out :) ! Actually a new bar of soap fits right inside the pouch perfectly, but I'm using it for the scraps.
The pouch is small although it looks big in the picture. I think the pouch would make a good trinket or sachet or potpourri bag as well. I'm sure if I wanted to I could come up with a hundred different uses, but right now I'm not thinking too well. Here's a picture compared to the dishcloth for sizing purposes:
In addition to these new items I have been working a tiny bit on a new prayer shawl. I'm making it with some of the yarn Coats and Clark sent to our church. I'm making "Knitting a shawl the long way" by Janet Bristol. This pattern makes a shawl that will be self-fringing. I cut the yarn after every row. This is my new take-a-long project. I just have to make sure I carry a scissors with me :) The pattern I am using comes directly from Janet Bristol's prayer shawl ministry website. Guess that's about it for now. Hope I didn't ramble too much today.
Happy Knitting :)