Oh, For the Love of a Good Mystery (UPDATE)

• Posted on 2 February 2025
• By Anne
• 0

Oh yeah baby! Nothing like a good mystery knit-along. I'm so enjoying this one, getting up at the crack of dawn on Wednesdays to see what's next. And to get in some precious knitting before the day kicks in. Here are a few of my thoughts, and choices.

UPDATE 2/25/25. I finished! Well almost. Just this morning, I took out the blocking pins and put my provisional cast-on stitches on a needle. All set to start kitchenering my way around. Quite a daunting task, though, to graft together 120 stitches. Here's a helpful hint if you're at the same place (or just for future use). With this many stitches, and life's inevitable interruptions, it never fails that I get off a stitch or two. And the flub isn't discovered until I get to the end, finding I don't have even numbers of stitches left on each needle. Undoing kitchener stitches is a bitch! So now, when faced with something big like this, I place markers every 10 stitches on each needle, making it a series of smaller sections to graft. That way, I discover my error long before I reach the end.

So off I go to find a comfy place to finish my masterpiece. Watch for it during the Crawl, either on display at For Yarn's Sake, or around my neck.

I have long been a fan of mystery alongs. I think my first one was a Stephen West shawl. Not a huge fan of his designs (a very nice man, though - I took a class from him once), but the idea of breaking up a project into parts, not knowing what was coming next, and the anticipation of what each 'clue' brought - well, needless to say, I was hooked. Since that first taste, I've become obsessed, not being able to pass up a new mystery. My mystery adventures have included shawls, scarves, cowls, socks, mittens, and yes, my all-time-favorite Imagined Landscape gnomes. I particularly enjoy tying the mystery to the holidays for an advent project. Other than my beloved advent gnome MKAL, I particularly enjoyed several pairs of Scandinavian advent mittens, designed by Skeindeer. The first was 'Julenatt' - Jul is the Scandinavian Christmas time, and natt translates to night. The finished pair depicted a lovely winter scene against a dark blue winter's night. So fun to watch the scene mysteriously unfold.

So no surprise that I brought my love of mysteries to the Rose City Yarn Crawl. In the early years of our annual event, I suggested we do a mystery along for the crawl, showcasing a local designer, and building some excitement for Crawlers. Our very first knit designer was Michele Lee Bernstein (aka PDXKnitterati), and the 2013 MKAL shawl was called Rosaria. I've taken the journey every year since.

And this year's is no exception. I was thrilled to learn that the 2025 project was delving into colorwork. Not having ever knit one of Jamie Lomax' designs, I was intrigued. And I must say, delighted by her ingenius doodle format - you'll now find a full array of her Doodle Decks and patterns at FYS.

Themed around a sky full of stars, of course I had to use the color of the night sky as my background. I chose a gorgeous royal blue from Neighborhood Fibers - Palisades in their Capital Luxury Sport. A blend of merino wool, cashmere, and silk. Yummy! For contrast, I wanted something more fun than a single color, and Dyed In The Wool came to mind. After trying different Spincycle colors (there are so many to choose from) against my pretty blue background, I settled on Midsommar. Pink, of course, mixed with a little bit of green, yellow, and gold. Great choices I discovered, as I've worked through the first 3 clues. The combination of the Dyed In the Wool, blue main color and outer space motifs remind me a little bit of McMenamins. What do you think?

Clue 2 - Meteors (or maybe Comets) and Space Ships

Clue 3 - The Moon and a planet- Saturn, I think

So much fun to not only watch each clue evolve, but also the color change. And hooray - it's Wednesday. Time to dive into Clue 4!