Well, I had really good intentions about telling you the details of my wacky hi-jinks with Mystery Shawl 3. Unfortunately, I have been up to my ass in alligators over here, trying to finish a merino/silk stole that I started last month. The good news: As of this morning, I only had 16 rows to go. The bad news: Each row was 316 stitches of patterned lace. And I did it, casting off that last stitch with a mighty sigh of relief. And here it is as "yarn blob":

Yech! Unblocked lace is truly uninspiring. Here it is again, a little more composed:


I need to give it a good soak in Eucolan and block it, either tonight or tomorrow. I was motivated to finish it because I know once the SECOND CLUE (!) comes out tomorrow, I will once again be a slave to The Mystery. I got the yarn for the shawl pictured here at this year's Wool Market in Estes Park. I bought 2 skeins of this gorgeous hand dye (color:"Brass Button," I think it's more "Old Gold" myself) from the folks at the Lambspun booth. It was so decadent to knit, I decided I wanted a really big pattern to show it off, and, after digging through several knitting books, designed a simple shawl around a pattern called "Cathedral Windows" (from The Knitter's Bible).

So, good Lord willing, I will have pictures to show you tomorrow of this stole blocked and ready to go.