Preparing for the MKALs

This time last year I wrote a post about how I was going to plan a good time, even though we were in lockdown etc. And it's true, I did all the things I said I was going to do and enjoyed the heck out of them! Now we're a year down the track we're in lockdown again and I am very tired. So when I saw imagined Landscapes was doing a Gnome MKAL I said "yes please". I've only knit one Gnome, and it was a lot of fun. I had yarn in stash, and I'm loving the whimsy of a mystery gnome knit-a-long.

And then of course September is prep month for the Stephen West mkal - this year it's called Shawlography, and features 5 bold contrasting colours. just like last year I found 4 perfect colours in my stash, and I'm going to dye that white (which is a sparkle yarn) the colour of the pink sample I have there.

I'm stoked about the Aussie dyers I'm using - Louie and Lola for the light and dark grey, Stranded in Oz for the purple and The Purl Box for the teal.

I'm pretty excited for this KAL, it's was a lot of fun last year and I made a shawl I wouldn't have chosen but love and wear a lot. I hope this year's is huge and silly. I know I'll love the colours, because they are all my faves. Also, I'm finally using the Stephen West / Joji collab shawl bag I bought in May. It's so pretty.

And sitting down to write about these plans has cheered me up no end. I'm looking forward to dying the pink, probably next weekend and casting on the Gnome in a fortnight. Even when things are quiet, when we are staying sloe to home and staying safe, there is always small joys close by.

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Linky Wednesday - the one with the pause

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As mentioned, prior to our hiking trip I suddenly, and rather randomly, decided to knit Andrea Morwy's Traveler Shell . It's basically an open fronted rectangle in a knit purl pattern. The pattern is FOURTEEN pages long. Why is the pattern 14 pages long? Because, instead of explaining the ten row repeat and then putting the shaping on top of that (e.g. decrease while continuing to knit in pattern), she writes out the entire ten row knit purl sequence every time something changes. Additionally, most of the time she starts with even number being the right side and wrong numbers being the right side,which is just plain odd. It's confusing and it's like she wants to keep you looking at the pattern for every row, rathe than following the very intuitive stitch pattern, which I had memorised after one repeat. The instructions for the band just say 'pick up x number of stitches'. No ratios, no acjnowledgement that different bits of the band have different ratios. Afte...

Geogradiant MKAL Part 1 - that was unexpected (spoilers)

Stephen West released the first MKAL clue on Thursday night. I started knitting it without looking at spoilers. When I got up on Friday he had sent through an "alternative" clue one. I then went and had a look at the spoiler thread to try to work out what was going on. Which was that some people thought the pattern looked like a "German hate symbol". I knit on anyway, since I was half-way through. Then he took down the original clue, replacing it with a mitred square in garter stitch. The Ravelry forums and Instagram are a complete shit-show, even though Rav is being moderated. It's been a bit disheartening, having something that is usually quite light and fun weighed down with all this. I admire Stephen's quick and sensitive response to this drama. I also feel that anything can look like anything if you squint. To me this looks like a Celtic knot. I think mine is pretty, and I'll knit on through all crises.

What I made, by Sharon

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