stripe study shawl knitalong

Yes, that’s right – I’m participating in a wonderful KAL, hosted by Sarah from Crafts From The Cwtch and pinkundine from Misadventures in Craft!

I taught myself how to knit when I was ill a little while ago, and it stuck :-) My project baskets were empty, and I was in need of a ‘big’ project, so imagine my surprise when I heard about this KAL on Twitter! I asked Sarah if it was a suitable project for beginners, and she reassured me that it shouldn’t be a problem. That’s all the encouragement I needed! ;-) I immediately got on my bike and went to the nearest LYS to score some 4ply yarn.

I decided on Rico yarn: white Creative Sport DK as the main color, and variegated emerald green Fashion Tasai as the contrast color. I’m knitting on 4mm circular needles, as specified in the pattern. The yarn calls for a 5mm needle, but I found that the 4mm works just fine and creates a fabric that is not too dense or too loose.

I had some start-up issues when I started knitting; I did the M1R increase wrong. But after I started over, I quickly got the hang of it! :-)

I was so proud that I accomplished this! And quickly, the first green stripe materialized…

And the second one…

Isn’t it gorgeous? :-) I can’t stop looking at it, and stroking the fabric… It’s sooo soft, I am going to love wearing this when it’s finished!

I still made a little error: I cut the yarn, instead of carrying it. So now I have this bundle of ends that I don’t know what to do with… I’m carrying the yarn from now on, and I’ll deal with those pesky ends later.
My knitting speed is really improving; I made the last green stripe within an hour (it took me three days to make everything else). But I still have a lot of catching up to do with some of the other ladies, who are on their 5th, or 6th stripe even.

If you want to join, head on over to Crafts From The Cwtch for more info and a nice, detailed FAQ :-)

xo,
wink