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Super Secret Test Knit - revealed

In August I said I was doing a super secret test knit for my friend Anna, also known as One Pink Plum. As has been well documented, I love a KAL (knit-a-long) and a test knit is just a KAL for a project that hasn't been published. Anna had asked me if I wanted to test knit the Picnic shawl for her and I said yes very quickly! At Bendigo I had bought everything on my shopping list, and nothing that wasn't when Anna provided me with the yarn quantities. We happened to be outside the shed when Averley Finnsheep was, and I scuttled in there and bought these two skeins of light green yarn so fast!


Knitting the shawl itself was a bit of a roller coaster. It's got three charts, and when I got the third chart established I just kept struggling. In fact, on the Friday night after I started it I was talking about giving up, I was struggling with the pattern so much. On Saturday I saw Katie, who was doing the same test knit and she was a little surprised with my struggles. After I got home I sat down and it was like a switch had flipped. Off I went on this delicious knitting journey. Just enough interest to not be boring, and I didn't have to look at the chart again, because it was suddenly simple and intuitive.

It made this squishy and delicious fabric, and was just so much fun to knit ...except that my yarn bled like crazy, so my hands looked dirty the whole time I was knitting it, and it took about 11 rinses until the water ran clear.

I've knit with Averley before and never had a problem. I guess with plant based dyes you don't always know what you are getting.

I enjoyed this test knit, and even more I love the finished shawl, which is quite scarf like. Even though it looks amazing draped around the shoulders like in my photoshoot pics, realistically I wear it wound around my neck, like in this less posed picture.

 It's got tons of knitterly details, like the integrated i-cord edging. It's being published in Laine magazine this week, so if you want a squishy delicious shawl pattern, you know where to look. 



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