Secret of the Stole and other updates

It looks like lots of people are signing up for Secret of the Stole http://www.islandzephyr.com/blogs/nauticalknitter/2007/08/23/secret-of-the-stole/. I had a lot of fun with Mystery Stole 3 (OK, I admit it, I'm still having fun, but the thing will be finished in a week or two, I swear! I'm on row 131 of the wing!). I have joined the Secret of the Stole KAL. I think I'm going to use Fearless Fibers laceweight yarn (pictured).

In other news, are you all listening to the Stash and Burn podcast http://www.stashandburn.com/? They had a one skein challenge a couple weeks back. I sort of figured that I wouldn't participate, because I have too many other things on the needles, and I'm really trying to focus! Well, I finished a project that I think qualifies (it took 1 1/2 skeins, but it will count in my heart, if nothing else). And of course, there's a story that goes along with its creation...

My non-knitter sister came to visit for Labor Day. She arrived on a Friday, and planned to stay through Monday. On Saturday evening, she mentioned that she was going to a wedding the next weekend, and she needed a wrap for her dress. Where, she asked, could we go buy one? Well, I was working on MS3 at the time, and I put the needles down and said, I suspect you could have asked your knitting sister to make one for you. She sort of turned her nose up and said "I don't want a knitted wrap. I want something pretty." Hello, is that a challenge?!?

My husband was sitting across the room from us, and upon hearing her remark, put down the newspaper he was reading so he could fully take in my response (them's fightin' words in my house!). I kept my furor in check, and instead pulled a few books off the shelves, Victorian Lace Today, Lace Style, and the Vogue Accessorize book. I made her thumb through them, and tell me about all of the pretty things she saw. Well, of course, she saw bunches. The problem was that she was leaving in 36 hours, and I needed to use stash yarn. I ended up using a pattern stitch from 200 ripple stitches, and knitting it with Fiesta La Boheme and size 15 needles. The picture shows it blocking. If I had more time, I would have made it a little longer, and possibly added width. She'll be wearing it tomorrow, and I hope she'll get a picture. I told her if she meets a guy at the wedding, and they get married, she has to let me knit her a wedding stole. She agreed.
I am editing this to add that my sister just called to tell me she was at Nordstrom, and saw a shawl (I was prepared for her to say that she decided to buy one and not wear mine!). Anyway, she was all excited, because it looked similar to the one I had made her, and it was $72, so she felt like she got quite the deal with my little gift!

I have a little more than 1/2 a skein of the La Boheme left. I think I am going to combine it with another skein of La Boheme in a cranberry color, and experiment with the Chevron scarf everyone raves about. I'm hoping my library has the book. We shall see...

Oops! I nearly forgot the obligatory ZEN photo... She's thinking about eating her ruby slippers. Admit it - if you had ruby slippers, you'd eat them, too!