Stoling along...

My Mystery Stole 3/Swan Lake (no longer a mystery, but it was when I started!) is creeping along... I think my work on the other stole will help this one move more quickly. I had never attemped lace of any significant size and never worked with laceweight before trying this stole. I'm almost 1/2 way through the pattern, using Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud on US3 Addi Lace circular needles. The very thin, but lovely, laceweight alpaca cloud makes for slow deliberate knitting on my part.

I have been working on my Secret of the Stole, too. Hint 4 comes out tomorrow morning. I've not quite finished Hint 2 (19 pattern rows to go, out of a 167 total revealed through Hint 2). I have developed a bit of rhythm with it and may well catch up by next week! That's my goal anyway. I'm doing this in a fingering weight and it moves a bit faster than the laceweight... it is building my confidence to work more quickly with the lace weight.

So.... I signed up for the Mystic Waters KAL as well! Triangular shawl, rather than a (mostly) rectangular stole. First pattern charts were posted Wednesday. I've printed them, but haven't started. More on that later.

Other things have been keeping me busy.

I went on my annual Women's Retreat on Rhinebeck weekend! Check the archives for last year to see a bit of what I saw this weekend. The theme changes each year, but the venue is the same.

I was able to finish twelve more 6" squares for Summer's Hope project at the Hugs and Stitches Yahoo! Group. I promised 24. Those 12, the 9 already completed and the three more I finished yesterday fulfilled my promise and filled the box. They'll head to GA on Saturday and will be assembled with other squares into afghans for children suffering with cancer.

I have completed three and will have at least two more 8" squares to send to San Diego for new blankets/symbols of hope for families that have lost everything in the devastating fires.

I completed the last of 6 hats to be added to the HAP table at a craft fair on November 11 to raise money for the Handmade Afghan Project. Deborah has received requests to send the afghans to Landsduhl Hospital in Germany and to a medical facility in Afghanistan. Postage to send fully assembled afghans was not part of the original vision, but we are all rising to the occasion and fulfilling the request. Since expenses are rising, the group got a table at a community craft fair and members made various items for sale. If you are in the Silver Spring, MD area on November 11 - stop by Fairland Community Center and check out the goodies!

Back to Stoling along now...