Slipstravaganza

Last year, in 2020, amidst COVID stress, I decided to knit my first Stephen West pattern….with the highly anticipated Westknits MKAL of 2020, Slipstravaganza.   No one does a mystery knit-a-long like Stephen West so it was quite an experience being part of the anticipation and excitement as the shawls grew – and grew.  

I kept you updated on the Slipstravaganza as I made progress, but now it’s time to finally show you the finished project!

The Yarn

After watching a few Westknits webinars, I was curious and excited to create my own color combination out of my stash.  Well, mostly out of my stash!  I found three coordinating colors in which a nice coral tied them all together.  I adore all of these yarns: Emma’s Yarn in Don’t Call Me Peaches, Cat Sandwich in Italian Ice, and Stitch Together in Lioness.  Emma’s Yarn was my stand out solid and I loooove this color!  

The two speckled skeins had one color in common: navy.  So despite raiding my stash, I had to purchase two skeins of Hedgehog Fibres Sock in Ink for my main color. And I love how Ink brought all the colors together!

The Pattern

Stephen West is always one for surprises.  So, right out of the gate, this pattern was not at all what I expected.  But, in all the craziness, I learned some amazing new techniques, which would make me do it all over again.  I did tons of slipped stitches and created holes, triangles, honeycombs, chevron stripes, and diamonds. All in one shawl!

Details

Pattern:  Slipstravagnaza MKAL 2020 by Stephen West

Yarn:  Hedgehog Fibres Sock (Ink); Emma’s Yarn Practically Perfect Sock (Don’t Call me Peaches); Cat Sandwich Fibres Trustie (Italian Ice); Stitch Together Smooth Sock (Lioness)

Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm)

Made for: me

Time to Completion: 7 weeks

This shawl is big and towards the end, a row took me 45-60 minutes to knit.  That’s a lot of knitting!  But I loved how much I learned through the knitting of this project.  There were so many techniques I was uncomfortable with but, by watching Stephen’s tutorials, I felt confident to try. And I made so few mistakes, it was amazing!

If I saw this shawl on Ravelry, I probably wouldn’t choose to knit it.  The honeycombs and diamonds are not really my thing – and Stephen is currently obsessed with them!  But because I learned so much with this shawl, I’m tempted to always do the MKAL.  

Did you do this MKAL?  How did you like it?  I love this shawl.  It was so much fun and I’ll always remember knitting it!