Pattern: Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole
Yarn: Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes), Natural Earth, 6.5 balls = 520 g
Needles: Knit Picks Options Harmony 5 mm
Modifications: Less base triangles, more tiers, shorter fringe
Size: 36 x 200 cm without fringe

This was a lovely piece to knit. I enjoyed watching the colours change, and as the stole was getting bigger, I could wrap it around me and it would keep me warm.

I made some modifications to get the right size. I made this for my mother, who is also on the smaller side, so I didn’t want it to be too wide. Therefore I started with 5 base triangles instead of 7. I also made the stole a bit longer so it wouldn’t slide off her shoulders, and made the fringe quite a bit shorter and with fewer knots.

Tätä oli mukava neuloa. Pidin värien vaihtumisesta, ja kun stoola kasvoi pituutta, käärin sen hartioilleni lämmikkeeksi neuloessa.

Tein muutamia muutoksia saadakseni tästä oikean kokoisen. Tein tämän äidilleni, joka on myöskin pienikokoinen, joten tein 5 aloituskolmiota 7:n sijasta. Neuloin myös lisää pituutta, jotta stoola ei valahtaisi äitini hartioilta, ja tein hapsuista lyhyemmät ja solmin niihin vähemmän solmuja.

I especially like the fringe.

Pidän erityisesti hapsuista.

I considered leaving the shawl unblocked because I quite liked the bump effect, but finally decided to block it. On the photo above you can see how it looked before blocking…

Ajattelin ensin jättää stoolan pingottamatta, koska pidin sen möykkyisyydestä, mutta lopulta päädyin kuitenkin pingotukseen. Yläkuvassa on pintaa ennen pingotusta…

…and after.

…ja tässä sen jälkeen.

The colours were brilliant - beautiful, earthy shades that shifted gradually. I’d read some mixed reviews of the yarn, but to me it was just very soft and nice. I did use smaller needles than recommended, though, to get a tighter finish, and that probably helped with the fuzziness and pilling issues that some people have experienced. As this is a single ply yarn it was a bit splitty and it also had quite a bit of knots, but other than that we got along quite well.

Langassa oli upeat, maanläheiset värit, jotka vaihtuivat kauniisti liukumalla. Olin lukenut langasta ristiriitaisia arvioita, mutta minusta se oli mukavan pehmeää. Käytin suositusta pienempiä puikkoja saadakseni pinnasta tiiviimmän, ja se luultavasti hillitsi pörröisyyttä, jota jotkut ovat kokeneet. Yksisäikeisenä SWS halkeili jonkin verran ja solmujakin oli ihan riittämiin, mutta muuten meillä meni tämän langan kanssa ihan kivasti.

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

Now, amidst all this stash enhancement, I can just hear some of you wondering: is she secretly planning to open a yarn store, or does she still knit? While I do, admittedly, sometimes dream of running a yarn store of my own, no, I’m not opening one just now, and yes, I do still knit.

Here’s proof:

Pattern: Hanami
Designer: Melanie Gibbons
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk lace weight, shade Lady Slipper, 71 g
Beads: Gütermann Rocailles 9/o clear silver-lined
Needles: 3.25 mm bamboo straights & 3.25 mm Addi Lace circular
Finished size: 50 cm x 182 cm

This was a nice pattern to knit, although it seemed to take forever to get it done. It was my travel project and was mainly knitted in a car on various US interstate highways. (The long stretches on the Mojave desert were particularly productive.) Repeating the basketweave section for the umpth time got a bit boring, but other than that I quite enjoyed it.

I followed the pattern exactly except for the very end. There was a ruffle at the cherry blossom end of the stole that nearly doubled the amount of stitches and that I found a bit odd, so I just knitted a garter stitch edge like in the beginning. To balance it a bit, I also added beads to it so that both ends are now beaded alike. You can’t really see the beads unless they catch the light, which makes them look like little silvery rain drops at the end of the stole.

The yarn was lovely to work with, soft and silky, almost frail. So soft even that I can imagine it coming apart if pulled too hard. It’s the same weight as Wetterhoff Silvia, which I’m using for the Mystery Stole, but whereas Silvia is 70% wool and 30% silk, Zephyr is 50/50 and the higher silk content definitely pumps up the lux factor. This is even more evident in the black Zephyr; it has that silky shine that my MS3, knitted with black Silvia, sadly lacks.

Although actual cherry blossoms vary in colour from the palest white to very bright pink, this shade is perhaps a little too pink to portray the frail beauty of them, that passing moment when the whole world is suddenly filled with candyfloss before the fragile petals get blown away by the wind or beaten down by the rain.

I love sakura and the hanami season in Japan. I also like this stole. It’s a little too big and a little too sminky-pinky for me to wear it quite naturally, but I like it.

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.

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!

Clapo #2 is finished! I didn’t have much time to knit last week, so I’m glad I got it done yesterday so I can take something smaller to knit on my business trip this morning (yes, I’m still a one-project woman - we’ll see how long that will last).

First the yarn:

Here’s a progress shot from before the drop rows:

And finally the finished scarf:


Pattern: Clapotis
Designer: Kate Gilbert, Knitty autumn 2004
Yarn: Alchemy Synchronicity She Threw A Brick, about 270 g
Needles: Addi Bamboo 5 mm

Alchemy Synchronicity was the softest, most luxurious yarn I’ve worked with so far. In fact it was so soft that I was almost afraid it was going to disintegrate in my hands. The silk makes it delicately shiny, and the colours are pure sugar.

I wonder if this will satisfy my Clapotis urge for a while. The pattern was getting a bit boring the second time - the novelty has certainly worn off. But I just like the finished scarf too much.

My my, how can I resist you?

I probably would have left the knitting at that, but when the Pop hat was almost finished, my Knitting Guru showed up at work with one of these. I experienced an instant full-body reaction: I gasped for air, my vision blackened, my heart started pounding and my hands started sweating. Must… have… must… have… First I tried to bribe her to make me one, but she just said, “You can knit and purl now, right?” and gave me a printout of the pattern.

I simply had to have that scarf, so that left me with no options, and as I needed to get some dpns to finish the hat anyway, I asked my colleague where my nearest yarn shop was. Given the name of the shop but no exact location, I googled it and found that they have an online store as well. Great, I thought, now I can have a look at the selection beforehand! So I click on “Yarns”, and what happens: the introductory picture is a skein of Noro. And Pavlov’s dog is back: Must… have…

So off I go and buy not one but two sets of Addi bamboos, one for the hat and one for the scarf, and empty the store of Noro Silk Garden, colourway 84. And just over a week later I’m the happy owner of this:

Project: Clapotis
Pattern: Kate Gilbert, Knitty autumn 2004
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden 84, just over 300 g
Needles: Addi bamboo 5 mm

By this time I had found a zen-like peace of mind in knitting, although I was clicking away quite feverishly - I couldn’t wait to get to wear the finished product. The pattern was an absolute delight to knit and I thouroughly enjoyed it. It was simple enough not to keep me from watching tv and/or talking on the phone while knitting, yet interesting enough to keep me focused. I found myself waiting for the drop rows even though Silk Garden didn’t just drop because of all the mohair - I had to use brute force and tear the damn stitches down. And yet I found childlike delight in getting to drop a stitch on purpose. I just loved it!

I made no alterations to the pattern, and the finished shawl is big, lovely and warm. My only slight disappointment was the yarn. To me it looks better on the skein - I had no idea it was going to stripe like that. And where did all those shock pinks and poison greens come from? I mean, how did this

turn into this?

Although the friendly woman at the LYS told me she sometimes cuts off the colours she doesn’t like, I was interested to learn how the yarn behaves so I just let it do its thing. And somehow, despite the Technicolor surprises I got while knitting, the colours seem to blend in a bit in the finished scarf. I’m not going to block it, either - I love the way it curls.

I’m definitely going to make at least one more Clapotis. I won’t be using Silk Garden anymore, though; and hence the quest for the perfect Clapotis yarn has begun.