Mystery Stole 3 starts!

The first clue was posted on Friday for Mystery Stole 3. Melanie said a neutral color would be more in keeping with the stole's theme. I don't care; I'm not a neutral color person. I thrive on COLOR!

I had my 8/0 beads and a tiny crochet hook to add them to stitches in the stole. I still hadn't decided which yarn to use. Melanie widened my options when she revised her yarn estimate down from an initial 1200 yards to the actual 780 yards she used to knit the sample. I had planned on using one of the skeins of Skacel merino laceweight (1,375 yards) I had overdyed with Easter Egg color several weeks ago. Now, I was hestitant to use it. I only needed about 800 yards. It seemed wasteful to use it and have so much leftover. I'd rather save it for a larger project and use something closer in yardage for this project.

I went stash diving to see what my choices were. Trouble is, none of them called to me. What did keep telling me it wanted to be this stole is the peach pink Corriedale/tencel I spun some time back. At only 716 yards, it's a little shy of 780 yards. Oh well, my stole will be a little smaller. Melanie is giving directions on how to shorten it. Last year's stole was way too long for me at about 80" long.

I printed out the pattern sheets, taped them together, and gridded it in 10 stitch increments (starting from the center stitch of the chart) before casting on with a US size 6 circular. I started out adding the beads but didn't like how it looked with my yarn. It's a little variegated in color plus it's plyed with a shiny rayon. The beads were too much for it. So rip out and begin again.

I had forgotten how much I like knitting with my handspun. Cruising along, I added markers to my needles to match my gridded chart. This helps me keep my place and catch any mistakes before I get too far. I do not use lifelines, though they are helpful for some lace knitters.

Clue 1 was almost done Friday night before bedtime. I finished last night. This is a nice design! Here's a pic of what it looks like pinned out so you can see the pattern.

If you haven't joined the Yahoo group yet, don't delay. It will close to new members on July 6. Click here to go to the MS3 site.