my first KAL

We've been working on Baby, trying to get her to sleep in a bit. We've figured out that the earlier we get her to bed, the later she'll sleep. Counter-intuitive I know. But it's true. The problem is getting her to bed earlier than 7:00pm. It's hard to fit in cooking dinner, eating dinner and bathing all before 6:30. So it's been off and on waking before 6:00am for me. Which is nice in a way (just this one way), because I get some early morning knitting in.

The knitting I started early this morning was my first ever knit-a-long. And did I pick a KAL. It's like the KAL to end all KALs. It's the
Mystery Stole 3 KAL. I followed Yarn Harlot over there, it was the first I had heard of it. I joined. I just didn't want to be left out. I picked yarn from my stash (Taiyangshan laceweight 100% lambswool, sold as Jade Sapphire's Lacey Lamb in the US) in a gorgeous plum color. I bought beads (shiny black size 6/0). And for some reason I already had the super tiny crochet hook needed to get the beads on the stitches. I was good to go.

I wasn't sure what size needles to use, so I actually knit swatches. Two of them! Below you see size 3 needles used on top, and size 5 on the bottom (and yes, the bottom has one extra repeat of the pattern).



After knitting these, I kinda felt like I wanted to use size 4 needles. Only problem is, I don't have size 4 needles. When I've needed them in the past, I always figured - how big a difference can .25 of a millimeter make? And then used my 3s. And I guess I kinda figured the same thing this time, as I ended up using my 3s. Maybe someday I'll get some size 4 needles. Here's the first 17 rows (out of focus, sorry).