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!