Looking Forward To Friday

That's the day that the first clue will come out for Mystery Stole 3, which I've just joined.

Hearing that I might be interested in participating, my pal Kary sent me a gift of her new Knotty Sheep handpainted laceweight yarn! It's called Painted Ladies and the colorway is "Grapes Sing At Twilight" - a lovely periwinkle just perfectly mid-way between blue and purple, with dashes of misty gray, and dots of wine.

As with all of Kary's handpainted yarns, online photos just don't do this stuff justice. Since Kary knows what she's doing (handpainting small blips and snips of color, rather than just dipping a skein in three solid colors and then rewinding it to make it look mixed-up), I have never experienced pooling when knitting with her yarns. I'm a big fan of her Painted Toes sock yarn, so I'm thrilled to be working with this new offering.

At about 800 yards a prewound ball (Kary sent two!) I should be set for whatever form this shawl takes. The yarn is 100% merino - super soft, but spun tightly enough for good lace definition. I ordered some bead choices from The Beadwrangler, as I hear she ships really quickly... which is good because I want to start on this stole as soon as the first charted clue is posted.

I swatched and pinned the lace out hard (badly - excuse my rushed pin job!) to eight inches wide; I'm using Clover bamboo needles in a size US4.

It was over 90 degrees today, so Emma and Molly were forced to stay inside gnawing in frustration instead of running around joyfully in their playpen. I'm glad I had my knitting to keep me cool. Now, let's get this party started - it's still not too late for you to join, too!