Bella Knitting

Two-ply Tulips

Sarah

Well, I haven't made much progress on my second Sockapalooza sock -- after getting his vaccinations yesterday morning, Measure has been needing extra TLC -- but I wanted to share this photo of the yarn I finished spinning and plying as a gift for my sockpal.

And, of course, as soon as I officially declared myself on a break from my injured Mystery Stole, I found the time and the energy to actually fix it. It actually didn't take that long -- and even though the fix was a little bit half-assed (one quarter-assed? ten percent-assed?) the problem was only across twenty or so stitches, and they hadn't unraveled as badly as I'd expected, so I don't think that the slight wonkiness in that part of the shawl will be very obvious. I can live with it.

Lace Misbehavin'

Sarah

This weekend, my parents came for a visit, Jason turned 30 on Saturday, he and I both read the final Harry Potter book, we had family over for a birthday celebration Sunday, and this morning, Measure had a doctor's appointment which included his first shots. All of this gave me a very good excuse to avoid dealing with the unravely mess on the side of my Mystery stole. Fixing it up is not going to be horribly difficult -- I dealt with worse when I worked at an LYS -- but it's going to be tedious and painstaking, so I am officially going to take a short break from this project. I need to work on my second Sockapalooza sock, anyway -- I need to send those out on August 2nd, and the clock is ticking!

Arrrgh!

Sarah

No, this post has nothing to do with pirates. That's the "irritated" kind of arrgh, not the "Avast, matey, I'm about to make this scurvy dog walk the plank" kind of arrgh. This post will have no picture today, and you want to know why? It's because my stupid laptop, which has all the photo stuff and the ability to talk to my camera and whatnot, is refusing to believe in the existence of the internets. Bastard.

Worse yet, the thing I planned to have a picture of is itself a bit of bad news. My Mystery Stole 3 has experienced a setback. Liz's post reminded me to get back to my stole to finish clue 3, which I'd put down earlier this week when I was distracted by my spinning projects. When I went to pick up my knitting, however, I discovered that a section of the stole had been pulled off the needles and was unraveling. I was too disappointed by this discovery to do anything about it yesterday, but once my emotional fortitude returns, I'll do my best to fix it up and soldier on.

Learn from my mistake -- use a lifeline!

All Wound Up

Sarah

The third clue for Mystery Stole 3 comes out today, and I am in a lace-ey mood. I still have no particular plans for the SeaSilk yet, but winding it into a ball yesterday took a little bit of the edge off of my jonesing for lace.

Yesterday I also came pretty close to finishing the third bobbin of my Sheep to Shoe kit -- I'm hoping I can finish it up and ply it over the weekend. This yarn has been a long time in the making, so I'm really excited to see how it turns out. Then, of course, the yarn will sit in my stash for aeons before I actually knit it...but that's another issue.

Hurry Up, Friday!

Sarah

I finished with Clue #2 of my Mystery Stole over the weekend, and since then I've been twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the next clue. I'm an impatient person. Meanwhile, I've got a second Sockapalooza sock to work on...

A Better Way To Bead

Sarah

Carol from the comments asked about the crochet method of beading I mentioned in my last post, so I figured I'd put together a little tutorial for anyone who hasn't run across this nifty method of beading before.

Whenever I've used beads in the past, I strung them on the yarn and then slid them down as needed. There are some obvious downsides to this method -- if you've got a lot of beads, they can wear on the yarn and cause it to break (which is exactly what happened to me a few days ago while I was working on my Mystery Stole.) You also have to know exactly how many beads you're going to be using beforehand, so that you can string them onto the yarn. There is a better way! I have tried the crochet method of beading, and I am now a convert. If you haven't tried this method before, here's how it goes:

First, you place your bead on your crochet hook. The Beadwrangler page has some recommendations on what size hook to use with what beads -- and obviously, that size is very small!

Next, using your hook, lift up the stitch you want to bead.

Now you can slide your bead down over the stitch, and slip the stitch back onto the needle to be knit.

The beaded stitch is now ready to be knit, and on you go!

Just in Time

Sarah

This morning I finished the last 12 rows of clue one in the Mystery Stole 3 knitalong -- just in time for today's release of clue number two!

Sorry for the less-than-elegant photo, I just wanted to get a quick shot done before I start on the next clue. I thought maybe once I finished up clue one I might have some guesses about what the mystery theme is, but I am still clueless.

You can kind of tell from the photo that the yarn broke -- I guess one of the plies in the yarn was very weak, and with the weight of the beads, it didn't really stand a chance. At least only a dozen or so of the beads ended up on the floor. I wasn't too happy about that, but hopefully it won't happen again -- I ordered a really small crochet hook anyway, so later on I can add more beads using the crochet method. It's probably the safest way, considering how fine this yarn is.

Ok, on to Clue #2!

Knitting a Mystery

Sarah

Well, I've got the first 50 or so rows of the Mystery Stole 3 knitalong -- click for a larger photo and you will be able to see the beads better. I didn't properly block this, but got my knitting damp and then roughly shaped it out on a towel.

There are about 50 more rows of charting in this first clue, so I'm going to keep plugging away to try to be finished in time for the next clue's release. A lot of participants have been making guesses about the stole's theme, but so far I still have no idea. Do you think you see a theme emerging yet? Maybe I'll have a guess when we get to clues two or three...right now I am just happy to be puttering along.

And the Bead Goes On...

Sarah

Today we're getting the first clue for Mystery Stole 3! If you're interested, you can still join up within the next week or so.

My beads were very quick to arrive from Beadwrangler. I ordered the ones I mentioned in an earlier post -- the variegated set on the right in the photo -- but another set also caught my fancy, and I ordered them on a whim. It was a pretty good whim, as whims go, because I think I may prefer these to any of the options I'd previously considered. They're a sort of bronze color, and they catch the light nicely. In the swatch, the peachy-brown beads from my stash look pretty blah (they're on the far left), the bronzey ones complement the dark brown yarn and look nice and firey without being too flashy, and the variegated ones kind of just blend in. They're pretty when they are close up, but I think I might prefer to have them stand out just a bit more. I'm sure eventually I'll find something else to use them for -- they are really pretty, ranging in color from straw to caramel.

Let the stole-ing commence!

Decisions, Decisions

Sarah

Thanks to everyone in the comments for the great tips on de-fussing the baby! And thanks for the horror stories, too -- it's good to be reminded that the fussiness is over soon, and that Measure is relatively easy. (It certainly cold be worse!) He seemed to be feeling better yesterday, so hopefully we've seen the worst of it.

I mentioned in my last post that I had some beads in my stash which might work for the Mystery Stole 3 knit-along,  but the copper beads are actually a little too big. The peachy-brown beads look pretty against the dark brown yarn, so I could use those...but I saw these online, and I think they would look pretty cool. What do you think?