mystery knit-a-long update

I haven't been updating on the mystery shawl because, well, there isn't a whole heck of a lot to say, except for that my worst fears about doing a knit-a-long are coming true.

Given my crafting attention deficit disorder, I had the very real fear that I would be left in the dust as the clues piled up and I fell ever more woefully behind. Lo and behold, it is so. I started Clue 1, but then I had to finish my homework for my Vogue Knitting Live classes, then attend Vogue Knitting Live, then recover from Vogue Knitting Live.

In the meantime, I decided that my original color assignments were not ideal for the pattern. The garter stitch bands needed to be worked in the darker color, because garter stitch and variegated yarn are usually not friends. Likewise, a lighter yarn will show off stockinette and patterns better. Exceptions exist, but these are good general rules of thumb.

So I ripped out my meager progress, switched the colors and started again.

At the same time, all those ends from the color changes were bothering me. I needed to figure out how to weave them in as I went, but I could not make any of the techniques work for me.

And then Clue 2 came out. All I could think of is Lucille Ball in that episode of I Love Lucy where she is working the chocolate packaging line, and then they turn up the speed of the conveyor belt. No option to stuff yarn in my mouth, either.

Here's where I am, as of tonight:

Halfway through Clue 1A, and much happier with the yarn assignments, but a long ways to go. Yes, I probably should be knitting instead of blogging.

Part of my holdup has been figuring out what to do with all those ends. I made a little video on how I handled it, and hopefully someone will find it helpful despite the occasional lack of focus.



If I can just finish Clue 1A tomorrow (along with dinner guests and other miscellaneous obligations) and Clue 2B on Sunday (along with the annual church meeting, a huge track meet, baseball tryouts and a youth group outing) then I should be good for the next clue release on Monday.

Yeah, I know. I'm basically screwed.