MS3 DONE!

So its finally finished. The knitting was actually finished several days ago. I just had to finally get around to blocking her. Looking back on the project I'm proud. I'm proud that I finished it. There was more than one occassion when I wanted to quit. The first clue was the hardest for me. And took so much concentrations. I think this project made me grow as a knitter. I learned a lot, while still having fun. Now on to the pictures!
First a bath:

And here we are all pinned out. blocking with the aid of Carly's blocking wires. Thank you so much Carly. We started out attempting to block this without wires and wow! So glad I have knitting friends to bum tools off of.

Now to just let the pictures speak for themself.









Pattern: "Swan Lake / Mystery Stole 3 by Melanie Gibbons"
Yarn: Knit Picks Bare - Merino Wool Lace Weight. I used one (880yards 100g) with 16.3g leftover.
needles:3.25mm (us 3)
started: sometime in Dec. After Justin got home from deployment. Not sure what day.
finished July 5

always knitting

Finished Justin's socks. Not 100% thrilled with them. But they fit perfectly and he really likes them. I absolutely love LOVE the yarn (but not the way the colors worked on this one).


Pattern: Justin's basic sock pattern
Yarn: Fleece Artist Merino Sock 2/6
color: SeaStorm
Needles: 2.0mm
Start: April 16
Finish: May 7


Finished clue 4 on the lace the other day. Will have to wait a bit before starting clue 5 (out of ink in my printer and its definately a pattern I need printed out. Can't see myself working off the computer for this one).



(I hate how the pictures are fuzzy. On ravelry and flickr they dont look fuzzy. and when we take them they are much better looking. so I'm not sure if its something I'm doing wrong when I post them here? anyone?)

project update

Pretty close to throwing in the towel on Justin's current sock in progress. Frogged back twice and still running into the flashing issue. I'm gonna go with third times a charm theory. But if that fails the sock will go away and I'll just pull out new yarn. I will say that so far the yarn is holding up really well, even with all the ripping back.

As far as MS3 is going. I finished clue 3 last night. I need to print the next section. Clue 4 is twice as big as the previous couple clues (it was a double weeker clue) so it might take me a bit longer. I really like how this lace it knitting up. I can't wait to block it. The blocker magic. Hopefully I'll remember to take lots of pictures of this one.

some wip

Ran into some issues with "Justin's 4th pair". after doing the 31 gusset decreases the yarn started to flash. This picture is with the needles removed just before I frogged back to the last decrease.
(this picture isn't great. The flash makes the yarn look all odd.)
My plan is to do another decrease or two and see if that fixes it. He will have to then try the sock on and check that it isn't to tight. I'm pretty sure going down just 2 stitches isn't going to make that much of a difference. I think I'll need to change at least 4 if not more than that to see much of a difference. But Justin is afraid going down 4 will make it to tight. He says right now it is the perfect fit. But I dont want to finish with it flashing like that. When I first started the socks I had to find the perfect combo of number of stitches and needle size to prevent it. Then I feared it would show up in the gusset or heel flap. When it did neither I totally didn't expect it to when I got back down to my original cast on number. But with half the sock know stockinette instead of all ribbing there is flashing. blah...

Since the issue with his sock happened while he was at work. I put it asside and was able to pick MS3 back up. Yes I still refer to it as MS3 instead of "Swan Lake".

This is it after finishing clue 2 and a couple rows of clue 3. (Figured it was time for a nice blog update.) I totally love knitting lace now. I finished Amie's Wedding lace (sorry no pictures. still working on that. was dumb and didn't take one.) I was really itching for more lace down in GA. So it was a real treat to get back to some when I got home. I decided instead of starting something new I'd finish MS3. It has been on hold for like 3 months. Clue 1 tried as hard as it could to kick my butt. And almost did. I was ready to give up on lace. Then I knit the wedding lace and loved it. I'm glad I picked MS3 back up. Clue 2 went extremely fast. I started it yesterday and finished up today. With very little knitting time actually available. I printed off clue 3 tonight.

I dont think I'll have a hard time finishing my goal of 3 lace projects this year. Its addicting. As is most knitting. When I was working on Rogue all I could think about was doing more sweaters. Working on socks makes me want to knit more socks, and now working on lace makes me want to knit more lace. Knitting is just enjoyable. Safe to say I'm more than a little addicted to knitting.