Mystery Shawl

Things are moving along quickly on the cardigan -- I've finished the first sleeve and am nearly halfway across the back, already. And still loving it. I even closed the sleeve seam, so I could try it on and make sure things are fitting right. But we'll talk about that next time... Today I want to show off something else:


This is my completed Anniversary Mystery Shawl (begun here or found on Ravelry here) blocking out on my bed. I think the light blue of the sheet really makes the Ruby colour pop out. Or maybe I'm just biased to think this thing is really really pretty.

Would you believe that I didn't even measure it when it was blocking?? My estimate is about 45 inches across. It fits me comfortably, folded in half to make a semicircle, just covering my shoulders and crossing in front enough to close it with a nice pin (note to self: get a nice pin.) Yeah, I didn't get a photo of me wearing it like that either. But look, a close-up of the center!


For those of you who haven't been following along, this was a mystery shawl, which means that I didn't really know what I was making until it was finished. I mean, I knew it was a shawl, but I didn't know what it would look like in the end. This particular mystery was amped up a bit by giving knitters a choice, at each clue from 1-4, four options of what lace pattern to knit. If you have a Ravelry account, go check them out with the link above -- there are so many variations that it's hard to not want to knit another.


This photo is an attempt to show the various lace patterns close up. For the record, I chose clue D for the first three clues, and then C for the last one. There was no rhyme or reason to my choices, just intuition. I thought the chart to make the second clue looked like little ladybugs, and for the fourth, I liked the motif that looked like it would be feathers or evergreen trees. They both turned out pretty much like I had anticipated.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project -- a mystery is always fun, and knitting lace is so engaging. Especially when the yarn (JaggerSpun Zephyr wool/silk laceweight from my stash of leftovers, if you really want to know) is free.

Home Stretch

Well, this is it. The Mystery Shawl, after completing clue four, and just before beginning clue five: the edging lace (which is also a very very slow bind off of all 576 stitches.) I'm actually already a third of the way done the edge. It's a quick and simple lace edge, easily memorized so that I don't even need the chart. Further photos will come when the edge is finished and it's pinned out to block.

Needless to say, this race-to-the-finish with the Mystery Shawl means that I haven't yet sat down to finish piecing the quilt top. It is still sitting in strips and triangles, waiting for me to have the patience to do the last of the piecing. Unlikely I will get to it for another day or two, especially since I'm so close to finishing the lovely lacy shawl. Funny, isn't it, how more than one project nears completion at the same time...

Back in the Saddle

That next step of picking up the sashing and carrying on with Project Quilt Top Completion got put off for a couple of days... I ended up seeing The Dark Knight that night, instead (which is gut-wrenchingly perfect and really takes the whole saga to new and interesting places -- Christopher Nolan just might be a genius. I know I don't need to say anything about the performances, since it's all been said already. But yeah, jaw-droppingly perfect.)

And then, having finished the last (current) baby project, I picked up the Mystery Shawl again and have been voraciously working on it. Although it is a bit slow-going, I've gotten up to 60% finished the fourth clue. It is getting really difficult to show off, since there are so many stitches on the needles that I can't spread them out really well. Another week or so, maybe, on this clue, and then I get to do a nice finish around the outside edge...


As for the quilt, here is a photo of some more colourful little diamonds, laid out in the order they will be sewn to sashings, which is the next step I have to deal with along the way of finishing the quilt top. Today I will actually start this (promise) and then I can get the previously promised photos up.

In the meantime, I've been cutting out hundreds of little paper hexagons for another project... but I'll get to that later.

If Lampshades Wore Berets

then this picture would make more sense. I have draped the Mystery Shawl over this lampshade to try to get a decent photo of the third clue completed. The first two clues are above the top edge so you can't see them -- it's getting to be a good size. If you don't believe me, you can count the stitches: it's now up to 576 per round. Yikes. The clue I just completed only had 288 stitches per round (only!) so this upcoming one will go even slower than that one did, despite that little heat wave breaking, which means I can knit without sweaty little hands.

Having finished my Requiem quilt, my mind is racing with a million ideas for things I want to do next. This is probably partly from meandering through the many blogs I like to keep up with, since so many crafty people are doing so many creative things. There is such an abundance of inspiration in blogland, if only I had a corresponding amount of time and money. Meantime, the fabric for my next quilt is partly sorted, but not yet cut up into strips and/or triangles. Until I get some matching thread, I can't get much further than that, anyway. Watch for more pictures soon...

Thwarted by Summer

I never thought I'd say it, but it's too hot to knit. To knit lace, anyway. I find that my hands get all sweaty and then the fine lace yarn doesn't like to slide along the needles the way it should, and when the movements get too herky-jerky and strained I start to get frustrated and then it's not fun. The whole reason I knit lace is because it's fun. So I have to do my lace knitting while the weather is cool -- usually in the mornings and in the evening. Obviously I'd rather be doing it all hours of the day, but alas.

This means that my progress on the Mystery Shawl is slower than I'd like. I'm not quite half done the third clue yet, but it's looking great. Of course, lace never looks that great until it's blocked, but I have high hopes for this one. At this point, it's getting much bigger than the needles I have it on, so it's looking mostly like a big holey sack, but I've tried to show off a wedge of it so you can see the progress. Trust me, one day you'll be super-impressed, even if it doesn't look like much now.

In the meantime, I am so close to finishing Requiem that I can taste it. And it tastes great. I have a few more hours of handquilting and then I can take it off the frame and sew the binding around the front edge with the sewing machine. After that, I have to sit down on my sofa and handstitch the binding to the back. Ugh, that will be a challenge in this heat. Sitting under a quilt for hours is not exactly appealing. I'll have to brainstorm a solution to this one...

A Study in Circles

Clue 2, Chart D: done.

Squishy coppery yarn for Secret Baby Project.

Fuel for above.

I Love a Good Mystery

Franklin over at The Panopticon has something very important to remind us of, if you care to read it.

I have been despairing a bit about what to blog about for a couple of days. I've been quilting merrily away, beginning to see the end in sight for this one, which would make me sad, except that my mind is racing for the next one I plan to make (and the next, and the next.) But the quilt images (while beautiful) get a bit dull day after day for you, my loyal reader, n'est pas?

So you can well imagine my relief to find the Anniversary Mystery Shawl from Goddess Knits, while poking around Ravelry last night. By this morning, I had signed up -- signup is still open until June 30th, if you want to try it yourself -- and by this afternoon, I had finished a gauge swatch and knitted up the first clue.

If you aren't familiar with the concept of a Mystery Shawl, the basic idea is that each week, the designer releases a Clue, which contains a part of the pattern. You knit up that part and then wait for the next week's Clue, to see what will come next.
Until you finish, you really don't know what you're going to end up with. I did one of these last summer, and it turned out beautifully. I gave it away at the time, so I don't have a photo -- sorry. This one has another little twist -- the first clue gives you four options for a lace pattern to knit, and you get to choose which one you want. If this keeps up, it will be a sort of Choose Your Own Adventure shawl, with many different permutations of patterns to give endless possibilities. Stay tuned...