Third swatch is a charm!

Swatched for MS3 again, this time on bamboo 2's, and tried a center bead placement. This did the trick!

Third Swatch

All three, top- size 2's, middle- size 3's, bottom- size 4's.

Swatched- but not quite right yet

I swatched the Alpaca (color "First Frost") on size 4 needles last night, but I'm thinking it might be a little loose in the stockinette, so I'm going to make at least one more swatch (size 3) maybe even one on size 2. Going to hit the bead store soon too (maybe today, if the kids cooperate!) to find something subtle; kind of a tone-on-tone effect. (Yes, the LYS had anothe skein in the same dyelot, so I'm golden on yardage with lots of swatching room to spare! Winding one of those skiens last night took FOREVER, and I'm hoping I didn't wind too tightly. It was hard not to, with that tiny lace-weight yarn pulling against the giant wooden swift! I gave it some hand-tension, but it's still pretty tight.)

Behold- first swatch...

ETA: Second swatch....

Size 3 needles, with beads! (I think I "overblocked" this one, but I'll see what it looks like after it dries.)

Jumping in and ready to swatch!

I found a link regarding the Mystery Stole 3 Yahoo group, so (of course) I jumped on the bandwagon. It just so happens I bought one skein of "Alpaca with a Twist- Fino" in an almost-white color a while a go, "just because," and I think it will be a perfect fit for this project. The question now is do I swatch it up and make sure or zoom down to the LYS to pick up a second skein, hoping she still has one of the same dyelot? I should probably just call her and ask her to set one aside for me (if she has one) and quickly swatch the one I have. Oh, and this will be my first "Knitting with Beads" adventure too, so I need to pick up a vial of #8 seed beads, something clear-ish and maybe a little shiny, I'm thinking. This is so hard, not knowing exactly what it'll look like! Part of the fun, I suppose.

Ds's Wallaby is coming along, one sleeve done and the other on it's way, once that is long enough to join to the body, it'll go fast. Still working on sister's Rona shawl too, but that thing is a monstrosity at this point and needs to wait until I have some more patience.

Finally remembered to take pics of dd's Wallaby!

Hood down:

Hood up:

Ds's Wallaby is :uh coming along. Even though it's smaller, it's kind of boring to make the same pattern back-to-back, so I'm not feeling the knitting mojo right now. BUT- I'm officially OUT OF SCHOOL for the summer, so expect some progress soon!