Okay, I lied…

Well, it wasn’t exactly a lie so much as a sin of omission.

My name is Robbyn and I joined a Knit-Along…

It all has to do with what I was ranting about on Monday - discipline, paying attention - being willing to learn something from someone else for a change :)

All the finished MS3s (Mystery Stole 3) are hitting blogdom and looking very lovely indeed - look here at Opal’s beautiful stole or here, at Kathleen’s masterpiece-in-the-making.  And I was looking at all these gorgeous stoles and thinking hmmmm...

When we were little, my folks used to take my brother and I on Mystery Rides.  We would be told to dress in particular clothes and then everyone would pile into the car.  We would try and guess what the destination was.  My folks never spilled the beans though, and we never knew where we were going until we got there.

Well, a mystery project is something like that, isn’t it?  You’re told what kind of yarn, needles, etc are recommended and what other extras you might need and then you get serial clues (chart segments, I gather) at intervals and work one after the other until the item is finished and the theme becomes clear.

So when I heard about this…

The Secret of the Stole, my fingers got itchy :) I thought about it for a while.  Here I am, a stubborn and independent middle-aged person who generally makes things up as she goes along, works to few rules but her own and has a lousy record of actually finishing things.  And I’m thinking about participating in something where the only choices I get to make are yarn and bead color?  I’m going to let someone take my hand and lead me into the dark?

Does this sound like a good idea?

Well, actually, it does - for many reasons some of which I can articulate and which you already know and some of which remain slightly fuzzy :)

Anyway - that’s what the beaded pieces were about :) Here they are again:

That last one is new and those are the beads I’m going to use on the stole.  They are clear, lined with a light sherry opalescence.  I know they’re a bit difficult to see in the photo (that’s why that photo is a little bigger than the others), but they are subtle enough not to scream and still have a quiet, shimmering presence.  The beads are “E” beads (about size 6) which would be a little bulky I think for lace weight, but which seem to work well with the fingering weight I’ll be using.  The swatches were made in the same yarn I’ll be using for the stole.  The first two were done on size 6 needles and the last on size 7s.  I’ll probably be using the 7s.

I did try some size 8 beads(smaller), a bronze and copper mix…

...but they seem to be a little overwhelmed by the yarn.  I think the bigger bead works better.  Also, while I could get the bead over the crochet hook (and obviously did), it was much more work than with the E beads - in fact I almost poked a hole in my thumb :)

So that’s what’s going on right now.  There is still plenty of time to join if you’re inclined that way - The actual project doesn’t start until October.

Chatters is on tomorrow night :) Hope to see you there!