Rambling Warps

mystery stole... chart A done, no pix yet

Well I just finished chart A... no pix... my 8/0 beads didn't come today, but the 1st stole clue was posted & I was anxious to go ahead & get started, so I'm using the sapphire lambswool merino-mohair....I asked Chuck at Jaggerspun for more info about the yarn, she said it is a fingering weight yarn and is leftover from a customer's special order... it's kinda nice, just not nuts about the color... I figured I'd use it to get started & then when my 8/0 beads come I will probably use the mystery offwhite yarn...

I also have some Knitpicks in grape jelly in my stash... I swatched it but I think I'll save it for something else... again, I will decide When The Beads Get Here...

Will it be tomorrow?? We shall see...

I used US 5 needles, bryspun straights... but ordered some Balene II circs since I have a habit of (intentionally!) letting go of the empty needle when I finish a row...this habit does not work with single pointed needles and I just LIKE circulars... so be it... that said I got comfortable with the bryspun straights, but still would prefer circulars...

Working with beads wasn't hard at all... the trick I found was if there was a bead to be placed on the second stitch in a row, I would just move the first one out of the way, then put it back on and work until the next bead...

I may try the twist tie trick to putting the beads on as people have described on the email list: I'm not too fond of working with the crochet hook (#10/1.30mm boye with #6/0 beads) because it doesn't seem to always want to catch the full piece of the yarn, tries to split it...so far there aren't very many beads, I'm almost a little bit disappointed about that, but maybe there will be more beads as we go along: Melanie said there would be fewer than 300 and so far only 14 beads have been used and there will be 28 more for this clue making approximately 42 beads for 99 rows worth...tomorrow I'll look at it in the light.

I got my cards from the famous artist ATC exchange yesterday & they came out pretty nice... some were funny... Mama Lisa for Mona Lisa was a pretty good one! I'm not sure mine were that original since I mostly used either colored pencil or colored ink pens as my interpretation in another medium...

Hopefully there will be more ATC exchanges in the future, but right now my head is in the mystery stole project...and a couple of others...

Choices choices...

I'm making myself dizzy trying to decide which yarn to use for the mystery stole project... I think I've decided to wait until I have everything and then decide... the beads aren't here yet, and I also ordered small crochet hooks but I may be able to get by with a 10 that I got locally... I hope the 10 works because I tend to lose things...we'll see!!

Today's mail is already here so maybe tomorrow or Saturday (or Monday,etc..) the beads and tiny hooks will be here I'm thinking of one of the following yarns (and not in any favorite order):

Yarns I'm considering (in no particular order) for mystery stole 3:

Jaggerspun heather 5/20 indigo (I'm still swatching this one... it doesn't feel luxurious, but I like the flecs of colors that come through the indigo)

Jaggerspun wool 65% mohair 35% 3/10.5 in sapphire... need to swatch this.. not nuts about the color but something else I'm making looks nice in lace... just need to do a swatch & block with this... I'm considering overdyeing after it's knit if I still don't care for the color, but we'll see...

Mystery off white yarn, not sure of content, but has a bit of wool and not sure what else (lost the label, but remember it said something about Montvideo or Montevideo..got it in mid 90s, mentioned it in a previous blog entry)... swatch looks nice enough but I don't think this yarn is speaking to me... it also doesn't feel luxurious

Colourmart cashmere-merino... laceweight.. cobweb plied double... the plies are not twisted and for some reason I dropped 2 stitches when I swatched, so it's not an easy yarn to work with... it does FEEL luxurious and I like the knitted fabric, but it's hard to work with.. may do another swatch and see... have considered adding more twist on the spinning wheel, but I'm worried that may cause problems with the yarn... and then the yarn would no longer be on the cone... we'll see!

I also don't care for the color for this one: it is a drab beige... maybe this is something to overdye later... (year right, one more step... but I suppose I could do this while blocking)...

knitpicks shadow merino in grape jelly... probably won't use this one...or maybe I will... it feels luxurious, but I think I need to see the first clue or two before I decide. I actually bought it with this project in mind...maybe I will use this one!

I also have knitpicks shadow in campfire, 2 skeins, which MIGHT be enough but I don't feel like the rust color would go with what melanie's been talking about...

When the beads get here, I'll decide what to do... or not to do! :)

Needles... let's not go there today... will just say that I'm swatching 4 and 5 and have 6 and 7 on hand and some are circs, one pair (5) straight...

May get some pictures up the next day or so as Gary put the Mac back up...will block all the swatches for that... (though may forge ahead with one of the yarns anyway)...

I'm looking forward to

the newest Mystery Stole project designed by Melanie Gibbons of Pink Lemon Twist: see my sidebar for the link to other Mystery blogs... at this writing, I have not decided on yarn, but have at least 3 possibilities: 1 is a mystery yarn that I've had in my stash for years... I looked at it 2 years ago when considering trying Mystery 1 (now known as Leda's Dream), but was not ready to tackle lace at that point... here is what I wrote about the mystery yarn on my blog 2 years ago:

"the label says that is is Montevideo, also lists a few other obscure things about the yarn..."

I wish I listed those obscure things on the blog since I've lost the label...if anyone knows anything about Montvideo yarn, please let me know. It's a nice yarn, swatched nicely & I just may use it this year, but am also tempted to use Jaggerspun Superfine Merino in Vanilla... but I'm not sure if I can justify spending the money, but it might be nice to have it on hand in case anyone wants to buy some... I figure we can get 3 or 4 stoles out of a 16 oz cone of yarn...
email me by tomorrow morning (Wed 6-20) at patchworkgirl at-sign weavingrainbow dot com if you're interested in some Jaggerspun superfine merino....

A mystery yarn for a mystery stole DOES sound reasonable though, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, I'm working on Scheherezade...am done or almost done with chart 2 on one side and chart 3 on the other... I'd like to recover one of the needles, but I did find out that the HiyaHiya needle, although MARKED as a 4 US (3.50 mm), it really is a US 5...it will NOT fit in the 4 hole... so I'm thinking about getting another 5... again, can't justify spending the money, but was thinking of getting a WEBs bamboo circ... we'll see...

I'll post the swatch once I block it (and find some more AA batteries or buy some)...

The other possibilities for yarn are Knitpicks Shadow in Grape Jelly, but I'll probably save this for something else...

Diet Cola & Mentos Experiment

Back in March, we did a Coke Mentos experiment & I'm just now getting the pictures off the camera onto the computer:

Getting things ready... we had 3 different sodas,

Mentos in the bottle, geyser getting going... the one in the back TRIED to splorf, but calmed down... then........

Wheeeeeeeeeeee.... I guess it has to be Sugar Free....