Mystery Stole 3: Part 1 - the swatch.

I haven't knit in about 2 weeks. Been kinda stressed out and realized that the lack of knitting might be contributing to stress level. So, I'm joining the Mystery Stole 3 Knit Along.

The swatch, before blocking.

I worked up my swatch yesterday. Clearly I need a new bind off method. Actually, I've always needed a new bind off - I bind off wicked tight no matter what I do to try to loosen it. I've copied a few suggestions from the MS3 group and will try them out later today.

The swatch - blocking

I also had some difficulty remembering to knit the first two stitches in each row consistently.

I'm going to be using pewter beads with the "dark grey" Merino Lace yarn Laura at Creative Fibers helped me pick out.

I've never worked with such fine yarn before and it's a bit of a challenge. I've been meaning to get some bulky projects going so I could get some immediate gratification, but the 'pressure' of a knit along might actually encourage me to FINISH something for once.

on another note - I went and ordered a new computer a couple days ago. I can no longer play iTunes on my 3 year old Alienware (www.alienware.com) Aurora as my SCSI drive is keeling over and when I ripped "The Essential Johhny Cash" I must have hit a bundle of bad bits on the drive. iTunes just freezes the whole system now and computing w/out music; that's just no way to live.

I may be off line a while if LEELOO (the Alienware box) dies before the new box (yet to be named) arrives.