One year more, the long-awaited Westknits MKAL is here. This is a Mystery Knit A Long in which we will knit a shawl together during 4 weeks without knowing how it will turn out. But being a Stephen West design it will be an amazing shawl for sure.
What is the MKAL?
It is very easy. You can buy the Slipstravaganza MKAL 2020 shawl pattern through Ravelry. First of all you will get a PDF with details like what kind of yarn to use, the knitting needle size, notions,... After that, from October 9th on, you will get and update of the pattern every Friday. You will have a week to knit the pattern until the next clue, without knowing how the final shawl will be. Sounds fun, right?
Materials
To knit the shawl you will need fingering yarn in 4 different colors. We have prepared several Kits to help you choosing your colors. Anyway, we encourage you to make your own combinations.
For the main color you need 700 meters of yarn. You will also need 3 more colors to make the contrast and you will use 365 meters of each of them.
You will also need 54 stitch markers and a darning needle to hide the threads at the end.
We will knit with 3.5 mm needles and a 100cm cable. If you want you can start now by making the stitch gauge. It should be 24 stitches and 36 rows for 10 cm in stockinette stitch (un-blocked).
We know that most of you are not really fans of making gauge swatches, but they are really important. In this case, for example, the number of stitches for 10 cm is more important that the number of rows for 10cm. If your swatch has between 22 and 24 stitches, perfect! You don't need to worry for the yarn or for the needles. But if your stitch count is closer to 20 stitches be careful because you may need more yarn that the quantity suggested in the pattern. So play with the width of the needle to get closer to the gauge in the pattern.
The pattern will gives us the option to make a smaller version if we want it. So if you don't want to change the needle size and are running out of yarn, you can always make the shorter version.
Do you need help to knit the shawl?
If you have never knitted a MKAL before or if you are a little scared of knitting a Westknits shawl, don't worry. At Miss Kits we want to help you as much as we can. We have created a group at Ravelry where we will chat in Spanish about our doubts with the pattern and we will help us together. This is the nice thing about this kind of KALs, that distance is not an obstacle to help and be helped, and to admire and cheer others progress.
Friday 9th is the big day. The MKAL will start. And at Miss Kits we will celebrate a cast on party. Due to COVID restrictions it will be a petit committee, but some of us will join and start the shawl together!
That's soon! So prepare your yarns, make the swatch and join our Ravelry group! We will cast on soon!