MKAL News

The past few years have been years of knitting firsts for me….  My first yarn advent calendar, my first mystery skein, my first time buying Helen Stewart’s Sock Society and Shawl Society patterns…..  Now I think I’m ready to add a shawl MKAL (mystery knit-a-long) into the mix.  I’ve always wanted to do one and now Helen Stewart – Curious Handmade – is starting one near the end of June.

Let me tell you more….

The Pattern

The reason I’ve never done a mystery knit-a-long (MKAL) is obvious – you don’t know what you’re knitting and that makes me nervous.  I generally like to know that I’m going to like what I’m knitting.  That’s part of the fun, after all!  

With shawls, there are a great many shapes a shawl can take and some of them I like more than others.  I don’t generally like, for example, crescent shaped shawls….  So this is taking a chance.

Helen Stewart

There are many, many MKALs every year.  Steven West does some but I’m always nervous about his style; it’s not quite the same as mine.   I’ve been very tempted by some MKALs from Tamy Gore….  But the timing never seems to be right.

I generally like Helen Stewart’s shawls but I’ve still never knit one, despite buying the Shawl Society patterns.  I have a kit to knit one…..but still haven’t gotten around to it.  But I’ve been itching to knit another shawl and this one has perfect timing; I’m just about to finish a pair of socks!

The Yarn

Helen Stewart’s MKAL calls for three skeins of yarn – a light, dark, and darker skein.

Though I have plenty of yarn, I don’t have many sets – beyond two skein sets.  I have some skeins that would work well together but only one three skein set that I could use.  It’s from Madelinetosh (pictured above).  I’ve had it forever so I really should use it.  And if I don’t like the end product, there are plenty of people I could give it to at work.  Purple is a popular color there.  So this seems to be the best choice.  I definitely cannot buy any yarn right now.

If you’re interested in an MKAL, I highly suggest this one.  Helen Stewart has a gift for design so I’m sure this shawl will be lovely.