Clue 3: the Wager

Mr Fogg makes his (for the time) crazy statement that a man may circle the globe in 80 days, and he is willing to stake his honor and fortune to prove it. Don't you wish you could have the time and freedom to just pick up and go, with nothing but a bag of money and a change of underwear, to circle the world?

My Aouda shawl - Blue silk and gold 8/0 beads

This clue finally marked the much anticipated entrance of the nupps and beads options. Beads seem to be the great favorite, but I have seen quite a few lovely pictures of nupps and eyelet only shawls, and even a few creative combos.

Mr Fogg in silk/wool and nupps

Throughout the shawl, there will be a few clues where you will have the option to choose beads and/or nupps, and I will also try to include options for those that like neither. It may be a little while before you have a chance to use the beads again, since I believe they are best used sparingly, but you will have at least another 3 clues which will use them, including the border. How many should you buy? Honestly, I have no clue. The design is not finished, as the testers and myself are right now in a slow boat to China so to speak.

Nupps are harder to see in darker yarns but they will pop when blocking

 Release Calendar for the KALendar
Remember that yesterday was the cutoff date for the free sign ups. And also remember that you are responsible for keeping up with the clues - if you miss one, there is no begging others for clues, just own up and pay up the staggering 2.50$ penalty. That is one time, for the whole year.
When it comes to deadlines in this group, remember we are running in Spanish time. If I say the clue will be released one day, it will be some time that day, but I am unable to stick to an exact time. Once the new clue goes up on the site, the old clue comes down and the cumulative pattern gets updated. Bottom line is, don't wait till deadline day to make sure you have your clue downloaded. And we will keep 2 clues available at all times, which means that, for most of the shawl, you have almost a month to download a clue. And save it. Safely.
I have adjusted release dates so they fall on Saturday, which means you can have at least part of the weekend to knit. This seemed to be a popular option last year!. In order to do that, I have advanced the release date of clue 4 to Saturday, March 26th. That is THIS Saturday! Which means clue 2 will come off that day.

• Clue 4: 3/26
• Clue 5: 4/9
• Clue 6: 4/23
• Clue 7: 5/7
• Clue 8: 5/21

After Clue 8, we will gauge how long it is taking people to catch up and time the rest of the clues. I expect the shawl to need 15-17 clues, which will put us right on time for Christmas. I hope.

A Postcard from London
I received this delightful photographs of ravelers Annie and Rhinny knitting the shawl in front of the Big Ben! Isn't this special??? I was incredibly flattered that somebody was so thoughtful. There are so many of us from so many places in the world, I would love to see more pictures of you knitting around the world and post them in the blog or on a thread. Keep them coming!

Here is Annie and her square piece

And gorgeous Ms. Rhinny, only 17 and an accomplished knitter!

Some real London fog and the Houses of Parliament

Remember this guy?

 That's right... the 2010 shawl!. I am in the very last portion of the edge, which means I will be soon blocking and photographing... And I need your photographs too! I really want to finish the cumulative pattern and release it. And if you don't come to you, I will find you where you are hiding. I may be sending you messages in Rav asking for permission to use your photos in the pattern. Or, if you want to, send me pictures of your favorite clue for the last 6 months of the shawl to neverfrog@aol.com. You will definitely be credited if I use your photos, and all participants will be able to enter a draw for a prize.


The Great Acrylic Project
Besides the 2011 and 2010 shawls, this is the only other project on my needles right now. I wanted to make a concentrated effort to finish the 2010 shawl. But sometimes I need a mindless break from all the laciness, so my collection of a dozen balls or so of acrylic is slowly being turned into a colorful Log Cabin blanket.
I traded some of my KP Oregon Coast with raveler Kay, and this is what I got in return:

 

A large, colorful quilted project bag. Seriously, this is the size of a weekend duffel bag. I am totally in love with it. It was perfect to stash all the acrylic and the squares.

I am using this to do a little study in color theory and combinations - above is a bold almost-primary color block, below a more soothing combo. I am working on couple of  warm color/cold color combos. Unfortunately, since I started the project, this has not helped to eat my acrylic since I have added at least 3 new color balls. I can see myself buying random balls of colored acrylic from the sale bins, and this turning into a self-perpetuating project. Specially now that I have Kay's bag to hide the corpus delicti.

See you real soon for clue 4!