File under: WHAT was I thinking?!?

The story so far: I received a group email from M., a member of my local knitting circle who obviously hates my family and doesn't want me to spend any more time focused on them than I absolutely have to. And her tool to make me abandon them, for all intents and purposes is a mystery. To be exact, Mystery Stole 3. I got a late start. I started on the Monday after Clue 2 was released. Relentlessly, I finished Clue 1 by the Friday when Clue 3 was released. (Confused yet? I know I am....) I knitted every spare minute, even taking my kids for daily Happy Meals at the McD's with the "good playplace" so they could happily play for an hour without me having to talk to them.

Now, this is my first foray into lace, or using a chart, so I've come a long way, I feel. I decided to exclude the optional beads because I'm not a bead person, generally. But friends (including the evil M.) tried to tempt me. "The beads just add a little extra sparkle! They just add to it. Look, you barely notice them! You can do it." But I was strong. I wasn't beading (uhh, I mean, bending...) to peer pressure!

Sunday night, I finished Clue 2. "Wow," I said to myself! "Maybe I can finish Clue 3 by Friday and be caught up!" (Don't worry.... I talk to myself regularly.) I proudly took my stole up to show my hubby. "Hold this corner, Honey, to stretch it out, so you can really see the pattern!" He said something about it. Or he didn't. I don't know -- everything was a blur. I can't remember anything else about that moment except... that's when I saw it... The Mistake!

The Mistake is probably not as bad as I'm making it out in my head. Maybe it's not so noticeable. Except that it is. At least to knitters. And let's be real. All of us MS3 knitters are going to happily accept compliments from every non-knitter who cares to make one. (And, oh, they will -- it's gorgeous!) But the compliments we will bask in are those of other knitters. The ones who will scramble across the mall to catch up with us and ask where we got the pattern. If we made it ourselves or if it was given to us. And this group of random knitters out there are the same people who will notice The Mistake.

My options:

• Frog back to the row after The Mistake and use the tail of the stole to wipe away my tears.
• Frog completely and start fresh, now that I've learned the techniques a bit better, and just be happy in the knowledge that MS3 Attempt 2 will be better than Attempt 1 could ever have been.
• Start fresh with beads, and proudly proclaim, "I meant to do that!"

(Can you guess which option I'm taking?)

So, Attempt 2 is all for me, but the beads are dedicated to M. The picture chronicle of the MS3 so far:

Stretching out Attempt 1 with Noah's help. The Mistake is visible.



Closer-up of The Mistake. Even non-knitters can probably pick it out at this distance.....


Attempt 2. If you click to see it a little larger, you can see the beads. I'm using gold colored glass beads. The yarn, by the way, is Jaggerspun Zephyr in Sable. Oh, I'm in love! :swoon: