Mystery Stole keeps creeping along in Clue 6.

I only did 2 rows last night. I think I'm up to 170 active stitches, with about 12 unworked stitches left from Clue 4. I'm much slower per row that I'd have thought. I could do about 2 rows of 99 stitches in 15-20 minutes before. Now it seems to take me 1-2 hours (with distractions) to do 2-3 rows.

And it's been repetitious throughout all of Clues 5 and 6 -- so while it's looking nice, it's been pretty boring. It's hard to stay motivated.

But I only have something like 24 more rows to do. If I do 2 rows a night -- more ore less -- I'll be done in less than 2 weeks.

Starting last clue of Mystery Stole 3 - and Barbara has a job!

Last night I finished all but the last wrong-side row of Clue 6. I didn't work on it over the weekend because Steve and I took a long weekend up to Lake Tahoe, and I don't chance this project in the car nor in less than ideal lighting-and-setup conditions. I hope I'll post a few pictures later of the trip -- although I forgot my good digital camera. All we had was the cheapie emergency digital camera in Steve's car -- for example, to take a picture of a fender-bender if that were to happen.

My eyes felt sunburned all day, despite wearing sunglasses and a visor all weekend. So I didn't even feel like starting knitting until now. Maybe I'll get a few rows done before turning in to bed.

The best thing that happened yesterday, however, was that Barbara was offered a one-year contract to teach a first grade class in the Union school district in San Jose at Lietz School. Here's a map.

Whew! That was a close one. She rushed over after her part-time hotel job in Santa Cruz to sign the contract and pick up paperwork. The district had new-teacher orientation today and tomorrow, and starts with an in-service day on Thursday. Classes start next Tuesday. She's been assigned a room in a modular (lots of the schools have these, because school districts sold off property during a drop in enrollments in the 70s/80s, and had to expand on existing properties this way when enrollments zoomed again). The room has desks, chairs and textbooks. Barbara was stressing out today about what to do to get the room ready -- hopefully, some of the other teachers and staff will help her get set up!

She needs to give notice at the hotel, although she feels obligated to work for them on weekends through September, since she had told them that's what she would do when she got the job in June. But she's not teaching in Santa Cruz -- and as a first-time teacher, I think she's going to need her weekends. But since she lost out on some income earlier, and is motivated to pay off her student loan from grad school -- maybe she has an extra agenda she's not sharing. I just hope she'll handle the workload with grace. I hope they'll tell her she doesn't need to work every weekend through September when she gives notice.

Mystery Stole 3 - Clue 6 progress report

Each row gets slower and slower as stitches get added. I managed to get 18 rows done this weekend, meaning I have 118 rows of the "wing" done. The last row had 121 "active" stitches, and about 37 stitches left unworked from Clue 4.

I seem to be getting additionally slower on each row due to my row markers. I separate each 10 stitches to assist in counting and debugging problems, and move them on the purl row if needed, which is most rows. This and the previous clue use "repeat" blocks of 20 stitches to repeat 4 times rather than charting the whole row. There are actually two repeats of the pattern in each charted "repeat" -- so each row is very symmetrical as you work it, except for the ends.

And I seem to make one or two mistakes on every row, so as I'm doing the purl row, I'm able to detect the problems and correct them. It's usually a missed or dropped yarn-over, which is easy to fix -- I just have to be sure I'm counting out the pattern in reverse as I work. It's getting boring.

Mystery Stole 3 - Clue 5 done

Here's what the stole looks like in its entirety, just smoothed out, not blocked. The tails of where I added the second skein are still loose on the upper right, and I have 2 lifelines at the end of Clue 4 -- as well as a few lifelines in Clue 5, the wing. I've put a yardstick beside the stole on the left to give a sense of dimension.

It'll be bigger once I block it, but it's not going to reach the 6-ft-plus length of last year's stole, unless a future clue somehow makes it longer, which I doubt.

Here's a slightly more close-up picture of the end of Clue 4 and all of Clue 5. Remember that you can click a picture to see if in a larger size.

This is the wing as of Clue 5. It will be bigger and lacier once I block it. I finished it last night, and have marked up Clue 6 -- and am getting ready to start!

Mystery Stole 3 - Clue 6 came out today -- but I'm still piddling along on Clue 5. I did 10 more rows last night, so I've done 87 of the 100. Each row gets longer -- but maybe I'll have a better block of time tonight and actually get Clue 5 done tonight. If not, then tomorrow.

Some of the KAL (Knit-A-Long) folk must have the day off -- if you want to see what the "wing" looks like after Clue 6 -- here's someone else's picture:
http://upload2.postimage.org/209486/photo_hosting.html

Mystery Stole 3 -- Swan Lake -- in the "Wing"

Clue 5 also has two charts. The 50 rows of Chart G went pretty fast, since it starts by working just a few stitches of the left-hand part of Clue 4. You add two stitches every 2 Right-Side rows, and decrease one of the leftover-stitches from Clue 4 every Wrong-Side row.

Here's progress after three evenings, more or less pinned out to see the curving "wing" halfway into Chart H, with 77 rows completed after Clue 4. There are still 58 stitches fom Clue 4 unworked, and all bunched up on the needle -- and 80 stitches on the "working" part of the needle for Clue 5. Melanie has us doing a different combo stitch where three stitches become one that is supposed to produce a better "line" -- and is, I think, supposed to be the spines on the feathers of the wing.

I think it's a little funny how the "Wings of the Swan" lace pattern which was on the outside edges of Clues 1 through 4 just suddenly end, but maybe there will be something in Clue 6 or Clue 7 which makes it make sense. That lace pattern was supposedly also used in MS1 "Leda's Dream", which I haven't made yet.

The floral-looking design in the main body (which was easier to see in the previous posts' pictures) is the traditional Shetland lace design "Cat's Paw". Melanie explained that in Swan Lake, one of the dances done by 4 "swan maidens" is the "Pas de Chat" step, which means "step of the cat", so she thought it made sense to include that in this pattern.

Mystery Stole - Clue 4 (both charts E & F) done as of late Sunday night. 335 Rows completed as of that point!

I didn't block it, just smoothed it out on the floor. It was funny, right before the infamous Row 287, where we had to put the lifeline (which was for frogging back, if you didn't want an asymmetrical stole) -- that's where it was obvious that I finally needed to start the new skein of yarn. (It's better on lace knitting to have your yarn change at an edge).

I did start Clue 5 on Monday night. Row numbering started over -- it started with very short rows. The first Right-Side (RS) row worked over just a few of the leftmost stitches. You do extra yarn-overs, so you're always increasing a couple of stitches -- and on the Wrong-Side (WS) rows, you end by purling the last stitch with one of the hold-over stitches from Clue 4. Each RS row is 2 stitches wider than the previous RS row, if you don't count the hold-over stitches that aren't "active" for now.

I've done 59 rows of Clue 5 so far. I have "worked off" less than half of the 99 stitches that were on the stole before, and have well over 60 stitches in the currently-active row. The net effect is that the stole is poufing into an arc around where Clue 4 ended. I meant to take a picture -- maybe I'll get it when I finish tonight.

Mystery Stole 3 -- Clue 5 came out today, and the theme is "Swan Lake". Swan Lake on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Lake

If you made the stole white, it represents the "good" woman-parttime-swan-whos-under-evil-spell Odette. If you made the stole black, it represents the imposter-woman-who-prevents-the-prince-from-breaking-the-spell Odile. If you switch colors so it's both black and white -- you've got both Odette and Odile.

And the stole is asymmetrical -- here's a schematic of what it will look like when finished. Although the Designer says that if you're not willing to proceed, you can frog back to row 287 in Clue 4 -- then remake Clues 1 through row 287 of 4 a second time, and join them with the Kitchener Stitch to make yourself a symmetrical stole.

This isn't the first asymmetrical stole that Melanie's designed. See her Hanami Stole: http://pinklemontwist.blogspot.com/2007/02/hanami.html (You can click her picture to see a closeup.)

When I had previously seen that pattern, I thought it was pretty enough, but I didn't think I wanted to pay $6 for it. I'd have wanted a symmetrical pattern.

But since I'm already at Row 304 or Row 306 of Clue 4 (only 31/29 more rows in the clue), I don't think I want to frog back to Row 287, nor have to join two separate pieces together to make a symmetrical stole. I think I'm going to follow through and complete the stole as planned.