What the Fade?! MKAL, Part Two (Socks, Suspense, September! 2017)

Hello Everyone!

Time for an update on knitting my first MKAL and Fade. 

I am now a big fan of MKALs. For those who have happily knitted your way from Clue Five to Clue Six, I applaud you!! But, if you're like me, you are somewhere between Clues Four and Five of Andrea Mowry's Mystery Knit Along, "What the Fade?!" Waiting for each clue is much like reading a mystery novel, trying to guess what's next as each page turns. In the beginning, it was hard to visualize what this shawl would look like. The "spoiler" pictures from Andrea Mowry's Drea Renee Knits Ravelry page helped with picturing what my shawl might become shape wise. The color choices were bright to muted and everything in between. As you may recall, I chose Mrs. Crosby Plays Speckle Fade Kit. When I first picked this fade kit, I vacillated between the Speckle and the Purples Fade Kits. I really liked each one, ok, I loved each one, but decided to go brighter; my eyes were attracted to the Speckle Fade Kit first. I think after knitting on what are well over 400 stitches a row and counting, that maybe the most important thing is to love your yarn. You have to love the yarn weight, the feel, and most of all, you have to love the color. I say this because you will have this yarn on your needles for a while, knitting many Brioche and Garter Stitches, and the project is that much more enjoyable if you love your yarn.

The next important aspect of knitting this shawl is becoming as Andrea puts it, a Brioche “Rockstar”. Without exaggeration, there is a lot of Brioche knitting in this shawl. The Brioche knitting gives shape and dimension to the shawl all while sharpening the skills required to execute the stitch and colorwork knitting with “fade” colors. This is a stitch I could barely knit until last month and here I am, knitting it without hesitation. I think I can even correct an error without ripping out my work (although I hope this is an increasingly rare occurrence!). I finally saw the pattern between the stitches. It felt like a huge light bulb went off!

Another aspect to consider is your knitting needles. I use convertible circular needles for all my knitting and these needles made all the difference in my ever-growing shawl. I stared with an eight-inch cord and grew to a 50-inch cord! I have never used my 50-inch cord, but I had one, just in case. Would you believe that the 50 inch cord with five inch tips are almost too small?! I can connect two cords together to make an even longer cord, which is just part of the beauty of convertibles.  Like loving your yarn, it is also important to love your needles.

And as I continue to knit this beautiful shawl, I am amazed at how the colors play off each other and how the intricacy of the stitches is displayed. I will keep you posted on my progress, through finishing and blocking. And, I am already looking forward to our next project, Stephen West’s Speckle & Pop MKAL. Linda helped me pick out some incredible colors and to see how they come together will be exciting.

One last Thing for this blogpost entry, take time to admire your hard work and your progress. Take pictures along the way. It will surprise you at how far you've progressed. Here is my progress, so far...
Knit On!

Lisa