Thirty-five again!

Well, I'm ready to start row 35 on Errold's Grove. It's amazing how much faster it is for me to knit from a chart than from a written pattern. It took just a couple hours to knit ten rows/rounds on the shawl. Then again, there are only about 140 stitches to deal with at the moment and every other round is knit plain, which doesn't take much time. I might actually get through Chart 1 by the end of the weekend (just 30 more rows), barring any major errors or other distractions. By the end of the weekend I'll post a progress picture.

While I was deciding whether or not I had the brain power to tackle lace knitting tonight, I wound my Secret of the Stole 3 yarn into a ball. I debated casting on tonight, but decided it would wait until tomorrow evening, when I might be a bit more focused. I'll try to keep up with the knitalong, but I'm already a week behind everybody. My goal is to finish within a month of the last clue being issued, more or less. I don't remember how "late" I was in finishing the SOTS-2. I did wear it last week though to keep the chill off.

Speaking of SOTS-3, there's a bit of controversy/debate about the shape of the end of the stole. People are quite invested in whether the end is flat or pointed or curved in either a convex or concave manner. It's amusing and annoying to see people lecturing each other how the stole should be shaped, when they're just guessing themselves. Having looked at other people's stoles, I think it would look best with a concave curve at the cast-on end, but that's just my opinion and it's completely subject to change once the rest of the pattern comes out. In any event, I figure each knitter is entitled to shape it however he or she sees fit and none of the answers are wrong. The only person who actually knows the designer's concept is the designer herself and she ain't telling yet. That's part of the fun of a mystery knitalong, I think. You get to discover the pattern as you go along and try to figure out what it is, but it's not about who is right and who is wrong. It's about knitting and camaraderie and watching the pattern unfold.