I finished the Lutea Shell. I knew from the beginning that I wasn’t going to want the rolled hem (I don’t need any extra rolls of anything around waist/hip area). Originally, I thought I’d just do a bit of crochet to tame the edge but after trying on the finished top I decide the length, while correct for the pattern, wasn’t good for me. Since I’d only used 6 of the 8 balls of yarn I’d bought I had no trouble adding to the length. So now it’s really done, see:

The yarn was Cascade Pima Silk and even with the extra on the bottom I only used 7 balls to make the pattern in the largest size. Not bad.

The Mystery Stole 3 is almost done. I’ve got less than 10 rows to go but it’s been too hot and sticky to work on it at home and there are too many beads in the last few rows to make it a viable carry around project. I’ll take it to the yarn shop with me tomorrow. I’ve only got two students last time I checked so I shouldn’t have any trouble finishing it there. I haven’t taken any new pictures so look at the last photo and image more feathers in the wing section. I’ll be sure to take before and after blocking pictures for next time.

Now that the Lutea Shell is done and one of my 5mm needles is freed up, I’ve started something new.

Any one want to guess what it is?

Or at least it’s a wing - on the Mystery Stole 3. See:

That’s the start of the wing section at the bottom of the picture. See the feathers?

It turns out that the theme is indeed Swan Lake (I was so sure that couldn’t be it!). So the stole will end with a swan wing. This does open up some interesting possibilities for reusing this pattern. I could omit the wing and make two pointed sections - this idea is why Melanie had us put that lifeline in on clue 4. She was worried some folks would be unhappy with the wing. The lifeline is where you’d want to stop if you were going to graft two identical pieces together. She’s also working on a version that has two wings instead of the point at one end.

I’m not sure at this point if I love the wing but I know I don’t hate it. I don’t think I’ll be able to decide until the whole thing is finished and blocked. That shouldn’t be too much longer though. We get clue #6 of 7 tomorrow. Unless she has us put an edging around the whole thing in clue 7, I should be finished knitting the stole in about 10 days. I finished this last clue on Sunday. It just took me a while to get around to taking a picture - sorry.

I’ve made good progress on the Lutea Shell too. It’s still not much to look at, all stockinette, but it’s quite a bit longer.

I’m past the waist and am almost done with the bust increases. Once I get going on the armholes the lace will come up quick. Of course by then I’ll be almost finished with it. I’m toying with the idea of putting a round or two of crochet on the hem. It’s meant to be a rolled hem and I find those annoying to wear. The cotton/silk yarn may just end up flopping down anyway though. I’ll wait until I’ve finished the top and tried it on. If I do crochet it’ll probably just be a bit of crab-stitch.

Well, that’s it today. I just wanted to get the overdue MS3 pictures up before the nest clue arrives.

What big day? The day we will finally learn the theme of the Mystery Stole 3. Melanie said we will also find out why she wanted us to put that lifeline in. As much as I want to find out I also kind of don’t. I’ve been enjoying the whole mystery side of things. People have been making all kinds of guesses. Some of which I’ve immediately discounted but plenty of them made me go ‘hmm, could be.’ Once we know for sure we don’t get to speculate anymore. Still, there are only 3 clues left so the mystery can’t last too much longer. It may be that this next clue has something in it which totally gives the whole thing away. I guess I’ll know tomorrow.

You’ve probably noticed that I changed the theme again. That’s because as of August 1st we’re on to a new triad of color for Project Spectrum 2.0. The colors for August and September are bown, orange and purple. I didn’t do anything really for the last triad. I was a bit burnt out and wasn’t working on WTP swatches. This time it should be a bit easier. Anyone who knows me knows I love orange. A quick trip through my flickr photos yielded a few items:

I probably have one or two tons of yarn in appropriate colors. One of these days I’ll have to get it all photographed so I can catalog it on Ravelry but here are a few samples:

While I’m rummaging through my pictures I remembered I promised a picture of the Lutea Lace-Shoulder Shell (gack! What a horrible name. Lutea is okay but why all the rest of that, espectially the ‘lace-shoulder’ bit? Why not just Lutea Shell? -sigh-) Anyway… There isn’t much to look at yet but here you go:

It’s already a bit longer than this - gotta love stockinette in the round for speed - about 5 or so inches. It won’t really get interesting until I get to the armholes and those ‘lace-shoulders.’ Okay, so maybe there was a reason that’s in the name, but it’s kind of obvious from the pictures. I have 8 balls of the Cascade Pima Silk and I’m a good bit into ball number 2. This looks to be a quick knit. By the middle of August I should be wearing this. It is an orangy sort of pink so it might count for the Spectrum colors, right?

Emilee said:

I love the colors of your clapotis! The Mystery Stole is coming along nicely too. I’m not working on it myself, but it’s been a lot of fun monitoring everyone’s progress.

Thanks! I should have waited a couple of days to the Clapotis though. It’s perfect for current Project Spectrum colors. If I’d just waited two days… Oh well. I’ll just have to do better I guess.