I have signed up for the Mystery Stole 3 Knit Along which I learned about from the Three Bags Full Shop News . The idea is that everyone who wants to participate signs up (sign up closes July 6th) and every week a clue, in the form of a lace chart, is posted. No one but the designer (and her mother) actually know what the finished project will look like but her other designs are beautiful so I, along with 3000 other knitters, am putting my faith in her and knitting blind.
 
For me this is going to be an extra mystery since I decided to order my yarn over the phone and have only a vague idea of what colour it is and what it’s made of. I’m also ordering some Addi Lace needles (I didn’t have anything the right size and length). I’ve been wanting to try these since I saw them talked about on blogs a few months ago but didn’t really have a project.
 
I expect to get rather behind in July (our wedding taking precedence over any crafting projects not involved in it) but intend to catch up in August. Lots of people have already knitted up all or part of the first clue (released yesterday) and it looks beautiful. It will be a lot of fun to knit something with a bunch of other people (I’ve never done a knit along before).

 

 

The knitting bug has a good hold on me - I’ve reached the point where I can’t keep track of all my needles! I was trying to work on a project last night and just knew I had a 24” 3.75 mm circular somewhere... but it wasnot in my basket. Fortunately I had started this yesterday afternoon and, while it wasn’t able to help me last night, I hope it will serve me well in the future...
 
Meet my new circular needle case.

I spent some time the other day looking at various needle cases on the internet to compare styles and features before designing my own. The overall dimensions, completely open, are roughly 14” wide by 14.5” tall. All three fabrics came from fat quarters I got in a quilt shop on vacation last summer. There are twelve pockets but I think that I could easily get two smaller gauge needles into one pocket. Right now I am comfortably storing all my circulars ranging from a skinny 3.00 mm to my jumbo 17 mm. I can fit the cards from the needle packages in too so I’ll know what I should have when something goes wandering.
 
PS. Since I couldn’t find the circular I wanted I ended up starting a different project (on DPNs). I’m finished the cuff of my first Endpaper Mitt and all ready to begin the colour work.

 

 

 

This used to be part of a skirt. A little while ago I spent some time sorting through my closet and pulling out the things I didn’t or couldn’t wear anymore. This skirt fell into the latter category. I think I must have boughtit in grade ten or so and it is hard to believe that I really used to fit inside. I still really liked the fabric though and I didn’t want to give it away so it spent some time shoved in the back of my fabric cupboard. Last Friday I decided that it would make a very pretty reticule for Regency dress up.
 
I decided to use a French seam for the outer layer since the skirt fabric looked like it would fray rather badly. This wasn’t ideal since the bottom of the purse is curved but it will help the seam last longer and the jogs in the curve aren’t noticeable once there is a bit of weight inside. I also lined the body with muslin so it would be a bit sturdier.

The fabric ‘beads’ were an after thought - I wanted to cover up the knots in the ribbons and there were some smallish pieces of material left over. They are just circles with running stitches around the edges. I stuffed some batting in around the knot to fill out the bead and pulled the running stitches in tightly. I made a back stitch to hold it and sewed through the edges right across through the ribbons to the other side a few times make sure everything would stay put.