KALs or Knit A Longs

I love a good KAL. The first one I ever did was Kelley Petkun's (with Knit Picks) when she did the Knitter's Almanac, such a classic of a book that was brought to us on angel's lace knitted wings by Elizabeth Zimmermann lo so many years ago. Kelley had decided to knit through the book in a years time, much in the style of the book Julie and Julia. I hopped on board that train, and knitted two of the projects very happily before getting bored. I will someday come back to the Knitter's Almanac on my own and will enjoy several more projects I'm sure.

Other KALs have been of lace shawls, there seem to be an endless amount of lace designers out there just itching for us to buy their patterns, knit their shawls in knit a long fashion. I love it, but have never finished a shawl in the time allotted for the pattern release. Usually the clues are given one week at a time, and by the end of 5-6 weeks or so, you have a complete pattern. Here is the completed 1st weeks clue of the Fall Mystery Shawl I began last weekend:

I am enjoying it, Renee's shawls are beautiful, yet uncomplicated to knit. This one is a triangle shaped shawl.

The first thing I do when I join a KAL is to designate a simple paper folder (I buy cute ones in the school supply aisles of Walmart or CVS or wherever). I print out my receipt for the pattern and stick it in there. I also use the pockets of that folder as I go to save any other receipts I accumulate such as for the yarn, the beads if there are any, I like to use a thin magnetic board with magnet strips for placing my charts on, so I put that in there, too. I find those at JoAnn's in the cross stitch section. Then I wait for the KAL to begin. As I get the charts for the clues, of course they go in the folder. I can make notes to place into the folder if I want, such as any problems I come across or info from the other people who may be doing the same KAL. The idea online is that other folks can join you in knitting the same item and we help each other along with encouragement. We can share problems we encounter in the pattern and get help from the other's who have more experience or have worked out the problem for themselves! This is often a pleasant way to meet other knitters, also. At least to "meet" them online, right? :)

Today I have many things on my to do list, and haven't done a one of them, so I had better get off of the computer and get something done around here!



Still going...

Like that bunny with the drum, I am still going! Since I love my new swift so much, I decided to make yarn cakes of all my sock yarn that was in hanks. So, got out the big tub I have it in, and got to work yesterday! Yesterday morning yielded this:

Three 1300 yd hanks of laceweight, 1 hank of 880 yd laceweight, and various and sundry sock yarn hanks....all turned into little muffins!!

Went and ran some errands, went to my dr appointment, went to work where they were offering free flu shot, more errands, then home and back to going round and round with this pile as a result:

Guess I'm addicted! But that is a good addiction. Next time I'm digging through my sock yarn stash, I will grab some of these little yarn cakes to use. Some of this yarn I have had for years! But I keep reaching for the yarn that is already skeined up whenever I'm beginning new socks. I haven't really purchased much in the way of sock yarn in the past couple of years and yet I still have so much of it. This is really only a drop in the bucket. I should really be ashamed, right? Lets just say I'm fully prepared for any sock knitting emergency!!

Swiftly we turn...

Got a new yarn swift yesterday! I ordered it from a place on Etsy called Woodstockcrafts.

With it, and my trusty ball winder, I created this:

This is the yarn from Goddess Knits that is for Mystery Shawl 25. The colorway is called Quarry. Brings Mr. Slate, Barney and Fred to mind, doesn't it? I have wanted a tabletop swift for quite some time, and when I saw that this one was only 29.95 plus shipping, I decided to get it and then gift my old umbrella swift to my daughter, Lizzie and her hubby. I know it will have a good home there with them. I was surprised by the size of the package the swift came in, a long tube probably 5 feet long that was packed so well to keep the pieces of the swift safe from any bumps or damage. It comes completely disassembled and takes all of a minute to put together. I can take it apart and store it easily when I'm finished with it. I really appreciated the smooth parts that didn't snag my yarn at all. Made with care! Now I will be shopping Etsy for a nice sewn storage bag for it, so I won't lose any of the pieces.

I have so much to do today..it is my day off and I have a long list of things I need to do. However, like any good day, I think it will go better if I begin it with a nice cup of Starbucks and a little knitting. I hear the beep of the coffee brewer telling me to "come and get it"! Bye!

Me again.....a year older

It has been over a year since my last lame post, I know, but here I am again. Once in a blue moon I turn up, like a bad penny!

New shawl beginning today: the Fall Mystery Shawl 2011. It is another Goddess Knits kal. I finished MS 18 (will post photos another time) and the MS 19 is just over half done (photos another time). Today, I have pics of the yarn I will be using for FMS2011.

This is Knit Picks Shadow in the colorway Opal Heather. It is kind of a gray with flecks of blue and pink, to make it sort of like opal. I like it, so I am naming the shawl "Autumn Opal"! I bought some pink beads with pink lining from Artbeads.com. They turned out to be perfect for this yarn!

I think that this shawl will move along faster that the others have, although, much like the overconfident idiot I can be, I signed up for 3 (yes, that's THREE) other KALs that are starting soon. I will share about them when they begin.

Thankfully, I finally got my camera to sync up with my new computer. Usually what keeps me from keeping up with the blog is:
1. lack of knitting
2. lack of time
3. computer problems
4. anything else

Hopefully, I will be more reliable with the blog posts. I hope to be, anyway.