Finally, pictures of Mystery Stole 3, now called Swan Lake, that I finished a while ago. I had put it on hold in July when there was a two-week break in the clues, during which I went on a long holiday and started knitting something else. On top of that, I had to pull out the needles as I only had one pair of 3.25 mm needles (guess how many I have now…) and I needed them for my travel project. The stole did travel with me to the US and back but was on stitch holders the entire time.

The last three clues were all posted while I was away and only got to check my e-mails sporadically. Clue 5 revealed the theme as Swan Lake - and it also revealed that we would be knitting a wing. While I’d knitted the previous clues as soon as they came out, this time I waited until I was back at home, partly because I couldn’t get the clues printed on the road and partly because the idea of a wing sounded so weird that I wanted to see how it turns out before deciding whether to knit it or go for the no-wing option.

I agonised for a while over my decision and knitted other things - the wing looked so out of place, but the symmetrical option seemed too boring a solution, especially as it meant ripping back to the designer-instructed lifeline and knitting clues 1-4 all over again. Or, to be precise, the wing as such looked quite nice but the two halves were too different to my taste. It was like two completely different things stuck together. Like half horse, half armadillo.

Finally I decided to knit the wing, partly because it was the way the designer intended and partly because it actually looked good when worn.

To be honest, had I not knitted half the stole already I would never have started, but it made more sense to finish the stole than rip everything.

Luckily I enjoy knitting as a process and liked knitting the wing. It was also fast, so when I finally picked up my needles again, the stole was finished in no time.

In the end I found myself actually liking the wing better than the rest of the stole.

As a whole I quite like the stole and am glad I knitted the shorter version as the size is just perfect for me. I’m also glad I participated in this Mystery Stole.

Pattern: Mystery Stole 3 / Swan Lake
Designer: Melanie Gibbons
Yarn: Wetterhoff Silvia, black, 61 g
Needles: 3.25 mm bamboo straights / Addi Lace / Knit Picks Options Harmony
Finished size: 55 x 170 cm

I waited a while before starting clue 4 of the Mystery Stole, posted last Friday. This was the stage where we could either shorten or lengthen our stoles and it took me a while to agonise over my decision. While I probably am the shortest person in the group, I still thought about knitting the full-sized pattern. I use scarves and shawls for warmth rather than decoration and like to wrap them around me, and preferably more than once.

However, I finally came to the conclusion that if there is a shorter version, it’s probably meant for people 10-15 cm taller than me, so really the answer should be quite obvious, and I wouldn’t want to be tripping over my accessories, either. So I went for the shorter version. But, alas; this was a two-week clue and therefore almost three times as long as the previous ones. The normal version, that is. The shorter version was even less than our regular dose. So I basically ran out of knitting as soon as I’d started, and clue 5 doesn’t come out until next Friday. Bummer.

Now that clue 4 is done, the shortened stole should be about half of the finished size, and I must say I’m a little worried. I know that wet blocking will stretch it more than pinning and yes, it will be longer than my wingspan, but at least one end is pointy and that doesn’t really count, does it…?

There’s a “designer-instructed lifeline” towards the end of the clue. I don’t normally use lifelines, but for this one we were strongly recommended to insert one on a specific row, for reasons yet to be revealed. Sorry for the crooked spine, by the way - I was in a hurry to pin the stole out and didn’t notice until now that it’s all wonky.

The design is still looking good, and I enjoy knitting it. My only frustration with this project is that the clues are quite short and when they’re done, something seems to prevent me from starting anything new. It bothers me that there’s something this big just sitting there unfinished - I’d rather finish this one quickly and then go on to something completely different. (Such as another lace stole…)

I wasn’t going to post about the Mystery Stole every week as I thought no-one would be interested in seeing the same old thing slowly progress week after week, and I also figured that since the KAL was so immensely popular, you’d be sick of seeing basically the same thing over and over again on thousands of blogs. But turns out I was wrong - people like to see progress shots! So, due to popular demand, I present to you clue #2 that never got posted last week:

And this is the situation now, clue 3 finished:

My keeping-track-of-pattern method is simple: Post-It notes. Works like a charm. Haven’t had to rip back once.

It’ll be interesting to see what the finished stole looks like and what the theme is. The MS3 mailing list is full of wild guesses. I quite like the “Indian headdress/goat/frog/medusa/dragon” image on the bottom, the “honeycomb/flames/scales” pattern above it and the “waves/tribal/Celtic” design on the borders, but hope there will be no more upside-down Vs, at least not for a while…

Here’s a closeup:

I seem to be getting sucked into lace knitting now. I still don’t consider myself a lacy person - I just like knitting lace (and everything else I’ve tried so far). I’ve just ordered yarn for four other lace projects, two of which I have a pattern for. The other two will be waiting in the stash for the right moment. Oh, and I’d already bought yarn for one lace thing (no, I don’t post all the yarn I buy on my blog…), and then there’s all that laceweight merino from Tallinn…

Note to self: Buy more pins. Loads.

While waiting for the Mystery Stole clues, I knitted a pair of socks for my love. Man socks! I had them with me at the monthly knitting meet-up last week, and while I would describe them as “massive”, “huge” and “monstrously big”, the others reckoned they were just normal. Which they probably are, but I’m not used to knitting socks that big. While it takes about two afternoons to make a pair of socks for me, these seemed to drag on forever. I was also seriously worried about running out of yarn, but in the end there was probably enough left to make a pair for me as well.

Pattern: Thuja socks
Designer: Bobby Ziegler, Knitty winter 2005
Yarn: Trekking Pro Natura (75% pure new wool, 25% bamboo), colourway 1603, about 70 g
Needles: 2.5 mm bamboo dpns

The pattern is about as basic as can be, which is OK as I guess few men would like to wear elaborate lace on their feet. What’s weird is that while I was looking forward to knitting socks precisely according to the pattern, for once not having to do the maths and make them smaller, I had no such luck. The yarn I used was so much thinner than that of the pattern that I actually had to make these bigger! I also modified them a bit around the heel and gusset decreases to make the stripes go the way I wanted them to go.

As for the yarn - not impressed. It was coarse, thin and splitty compared to JitterBug, and what’s more, it completely lacked that spring and bounce that makes JitterBug such a lovely sock yarn. I know I’ve been JB spoiled, but I can’t help it. I found myself knitting these with a permanent frown on my face, constantly apologising for my poor choice of yarn and promising to knit the next pair with some decent yarn. Even the pattern seems to get lost in the flatness of the yarn. The colourway is faded and a little dull - much less bright than in the colour chart picture - yet somehow quaint. It reminds me of an old barn, faded and worn from decades of sunshine, rain and harsh weather. Quite beautiful, actually.

And He Who Shall Wear The Socks likes them, and that’s the main thing.

Clue 2 of the Mystery Stole is also done. The clues seem to be quite short - I had expected them to be twice as long. Sure it leaves time for other projects, but impatient as I am, I would rather finish this one quickly and move on…

Last Friday was the day almost 4,000 knitters worldwide had been waiting for in agony - the first clue of Mystery Stole 3 was posted. While I don’t quite share the tremendous excitement and panic wallowing on the mailing list, I, too, printed the charts and grabbed my needles.

After some serious swatching (first time for that as well…) I settled on Wetterhoff Silvia, 70% wool and 30% silk. It comes in some truly fab colours, but for this one I stuck with black. It’s slightly thicker than the Merinos Extra I swatched first, about the same as JaggerSpun Zephyr which the designer of MS3 used for her stole and which quite a few of the knitters-a-long seem to be using. There’s something weird about this yarn, though - the colour seems to rub off onto my hands, and the bamboo straights I’m using weren’t this black when I started, either. Has anyone else noticed the same? Is this typical of all Wetterhoff yarns or did I just get a bad batch?

In any case, here’s the test swatch…

…and here’s clue 1, lightly pinned out so you can see the pattern:

And guess what? I like it. It was even more fun than I anticipated to see the design appear little by little. I even like the design so far and definitely enjoy knitting it. My only disappointment was that it went by so quickly. I started on Friday evening after dinner and did a bit more on Saturday after dinner, both while watching tv, texting to my friends and making dinner party arrangements, and all of a sudden I was done! And now I have to wait until this Friday for the next clue.

What’s more, I seem to like knitting lace in general. I guess it helps that I like knitting from charts - it’s so easy and clear. And after all the sock resizing maths, I found it really relaxing just to knit according to the pattern and leave all the thinking behind.

And since it’s freezing at the office and I could really use a light but warm shawl now, I’m already planning my second lace project. I’ve been a one-project-woman so far, but with this one stretching over mid-August I have to have something else to do while waiting for the clues…

If you’re at all thinking about joining MS3, I can recommend it, even if you’re new to lace. This is my first lace project, and so far everything has gone well. I just knitted according to the pattern and didn’t even have to rip back once. There’s still a couple of days left to join before the group closes this Friday. A word of warning about the e-mail traffic, though - you might want to consider going digest or special notices only unless you have a lot of time in your hands…

…such as knitting cobweb yarn. Or knitting lace. Or knitting a stole. Or participating in a knit-a-long.

Or, say, participating in a lace stole knit-a-long. Which is what I’ve done. Yep, joined Mystery Stole 3. Honestly, I’m the easiest person to talk into things.

I’m not sure whether this will be something I’ll ever wear, but I’m in it for the surprise and I also want to take this as a learning experience. Luckily, black was one of the recommended colours and as I happened to have 1,400 metres of ultra thin black merino yarn, I was all set to go.

Yarn: TitanWool Merinos Extra, black
Needles: Addi 3 mm bamboo circs

However, I’m not sure whether this will be my MS3 yarn after all. Knitting the test swatch was a real pain. That yarn is thin, and I mean really thin. The pattern wasn’t difficult, but it’s quite tricky to try to see the stitches, especially as they’re small and pitch black and tend to slip off the needles as soon as you look the other way. Plus I pushed my needles through the strands several times although I was using blunt bamboo circs because I was flying again. I’m going to knit the actual thing with my new Addi Laces if the size is right.

The swatch looks better after blocking, but I’m still not sure I like the way it looks or feels. What finally made me decide to knit a lace stole was when I was told that it would be light, yet warm, and handy to keep at the office as protection against the air conditioning. Those were the magic words - I’m always cold at work and now that the summer has begun and I’m not wearing any of my regular scarves anymore, I sometimes sit at work with my overcoat on, warming my fingers around a hot cup of tea, and get very, very odd looks from the rest of the crew who walk in sandals and t-shirts and complain about the “heat”.

Anyway, what I’m saying is that since this yarn is so thin, I’m not sure whether it will serve the purpose. I might still change it into something a bit thicker. I’ll leave it for now, anyway, and go and enjoy the long Midsummer weekend.

Happy Midsummer everyone, hyvää juhannusta kaikille!