Mystery Stole Dropout

In one of my joiner moments, I signed up for Mystery Stole 3. Hmm, it was sort of surprising that I did this, as it is totally against my nature. I love reading mysteries, but don’t want to knit something that I don’t already know what the finished item will look like. Because I had some lace gifted to me last year by my Lace Swap Pal, I thought this would be good to appropriate to Mystery Stole. But as I have about 1800 yds, I do feel I should use it on a shawl that uses a lot of yarn.

As I began knitting on MS3, so excited for my first clue, I was a bit surprised at how long it took for each row and these are not huge rows as it’s a stole, not a triangular shawl that grows each row. I’ve gotten up to row 80 on the first clue, but I’m not feeling it. As I see others finished (up to clue 2 or 3), I don’t really like the design. Nothing wrong with the design, it’s just not my preference. M looked at one and labelled it a “table runner”. It does sort of resemble one, but it just doesn’t float my boat.

It’s interesting on the list b/c someone said they didn’t really like this design and decided to stop knitting it. Another list member said this was like a lace knitting workshop and that the person should finish it and give it to charity if they don’t like the finished result and everyone had to determine what they wanted from the knitalong, her goal was to challenge herself. Obviously everyone can do whatever they want, but that response sort of chapped my hide. I totally disagree that you should just finish something because you started it, that’s ridiculous in my book. It’s a beautiful design, but not one that I would choose. Just because it’s given to me, doesn’t require my finishing it. Knitting Mystery Stole isn’t for me to challenge myself. It’s a more advanced lace design and I guess I don’t feel the need to challenge myself with this. I actually feel like I challenged myself working on DFS.

So Mystery Stole is a mystery no longer. It’s been ripped out and I’m ready to start some new lace. I’m in a mood for socks and lace right now, probably due to the heat. No desire for tanks right now, just lightweight, portable projects.

Above is a pic, but not a great one for Mystery Stole, as it wasn’t pinned out. Sorry for the crappy shot, but I don’t much care as it’s all gone now.

Ballet Camisole revealed

Thanks for all the well wishes for M2. He really enjoyed reading them and was surprised that so many people that didn’t “know” him would send him birthday wishes. He definitely enjoyed his 14th this year. And is attempting to act more maturely too! Yay for us.

The weekend went by too quickly as usual. A lot of time was spent on the Mystery Stole 3 (yeah, I signed up too this year). But I’m still so slow and behind. Anyhow, I’ve got something else to show you. FOs abound in this household lately.

Let me present to you a top I’m very pleased with. Knitting Ballet Camisole was fairly easy, but I decided to add short rows in the bust area.

If the pictures look a little wonky, sorry about that. I played around with the tripod and automatic timer feature on the camera. I took several photos and selected the best, as it were, but they are definitely not a substitute for having a photographer of the bf taking the photos for me.

A side view of the Ballet Cami, showcasing my faux “side seams”

Another view of the Cami:

Pattern: Ballet Camisole
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport
Needles used: US 6 (4 mm needles)
Start: end of May 2007
Finish: June 24, 2007

Modifications: for the most part, I knit this pattern as written. It was in the round, top-down, which is one of my favorite methods. However, another knitter on Ravelry admitted that she wished she’d added short row shaping at the bust. Since it’s something I’ve wanted to try and understand successfully, I decided to incorporate it into this pattern. I also planned on having the knitting done up to the armholes before I went on vacation, but that didn’t happen. I was forced to figure it out myself. Luckily for me, the internet is always open. Thanks to Bonne Marie and Lucia’s tutorials, I was able to figure it out. I was ever so pleased with myself. I am typically not the the type to figure out things by pictures alone. I tend to prefer to have someone show me, usually just figuring out by a book method doesn’t “stick” with me and I don’t grasp the concept as clearly. I guess determination won out this time. So much so, I’m ready to incorporate bust shaping in another project soon.

That’s pretty much it for this project. A quick and easy knit and it fits well, so I’m chuffed!