Knit n Things

Last night I sat down and swatched for the Mystery Stole. I figure since I’ve got the mystery thing going on what better wool to use than some mystery stuff I’ve got in the stash. I do know it came from Henry’s Attic. I also know its a little bit finer than the Zephyr Wool Silk that Melanie is using. It’s about 33 WPI vs. 30 WPI for the zephyr. Here’s a comparison – the white is the mystery wool the purple is some zephyr from another project. Not bad - right?

Since my size four lace needles are otherwise occupied I started out on a five. Didn’t like the fabric at all – it was nearly impossible to “read” and you could barely tell the stitches from the yarn overs. So I dropped down to a four (which is what was recommended for the zephyr) I felt that was still a bit on the big side so I tried a three.

Walla - yarn barf. I love unblocked lace - it’s so full of potential.

I blocked the crap out of it and came up with this. Now this little swatch has absolutely nothing to do with the finished pattern, its only purpose is to decide if you like the fabric you’re creating. How come the stuff knitted with the four looks tighter than the three? What’s with that? Now I’m not sure which needle to use. While I was knitting it the three was much easier to “read” and I thought the fabric was better but now that it’s blocked I’m not so sure.

I also decided to abandon the beads. Notice the atrocity that is my lace at the very bottom? The beads (all four of them) screwed me up so bad that I couldn’t get the pattern back together. Not that I tried all that hard – didn’t really feel like tinking back on a swatch. Not only that but I broke half a dozen of the dumb things trying to get them threaded. If I can’t get them on without breaking them how are they going to hold up? Of course I could step up and buy premium beads as apposed to these which came from AC Moore but then I still have to deal with the PITA that is threading them. What do you think – is it worth the effort to add the beads?