Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Mystery Stole 3 Knit-A-Long!

The Mystery Stole 3 Knit-A-Long by Melanie http://pinklemontwist.blogspot.com/ was closed to new subscribers in early July. She's going to be featured in a USA Today article because almost 7,000 folks around the world have joined in. The first year's membership (the one I missed), there were about 760 members. Last year, I think there less than 2,000.

I had a couple of bumps along the way. I did my test swatch on size 4 needles, and near the end of Clue 1 decided the real thing was too loose. I frogged-it and started over on size 3's. I'll post some pictures of progress later. But this post has the yarn. Recommended colors were black or white. The stole also incorporates beads. For a while, I thought I might completely start over with different yarn -- but when I rough-blocked Clue 1, I decided it was going to be OK. This baby alpaca yarn is finer than the laceweight yarn I used last year. I do like its texture. It is soft -- and even if the finished shawl turns out small-ish, it will be nice to wear when you don't want something too, too warm. I think it will feel like wearing a (nice, not nasty) spider web. It is extremely light.


1.) The Alpaca Cloud "Midnight" baby alpaca knitweight yarn that I got from KnitPicks is black with dark blue / dark green highlights. I'm using hexagonal seed beads that are iridescent black.
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2.) I used my ball-winder to take the old-fashioned skeins and make pull-out skeins. I was afraid that, with the yarn so thin, I might break it. But I didn't. These skeins are coming apart on the outside a little too easily as I work with them -- but the pull-out skein is still easier to wind and use than a hand-rolled ball.

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