So … last year I competed on the first (and so far, only) season of The Fiber Factor. This year, Skacel and The Fiber Factor have been hosting a series of Knit-A-Longs (KALs) for some of the designs featured on the show. My design for the first Challenge (“Knit Your Life”) was Evolution, a big heart-shaped shawl that begins simply and ends with a flourish of lace. Evolution is the November KAL for The Fiber Factor’s “Year of the KAL.”
I led an informal KAL right after the pattern was published by Skacel, and I’ve heard about several knitting guilds selecting Evolution as a group KAL pattern — last time I checked, there were 90+ project pages for Evolution, including just over 40 finished shawls. Nothing thrills me more than knitters making stuff from my patterns. It makes my heart sing!
This latest, greatest Evolution KAL will be hosted by yours truly on the Fiber Factor forum on Ravelry. I’ve re-knit the pattern in Rylie (a great sportweight yarn made of alpaca, silk, and linen), and made little videos for each week of knitting.
Cast On: November 3rd
Cast Off: December 8th
Prizes: provided by Skacel, awarded to three lucky randomly-selected KAL participants (see the forum post for full information).
We are a week away from the release of Clue #1 of the Flywheel M-KAL! I’ve decided to start the prizes early for this M-KAL. If you know me, you know I think swatching is a valuable and important part of the knitting process. Any M-KAL-er who posts a photo of their swatch for Flywheel is eligible to win this pair of hand-made stitch markers:
Many thanks to Jane for crafting these (and many more!) fabulous stitch markers especially for me to give away during this M-KAL. She does beautiful work.
Yarn: Dream in Color Wisp in 712 Brilliant (2 skeins, sample used about 770 yards)
Design/Skills Needed:
Flock is a crescent-shaped shawl worked from the bottom edge up. The main lace pattern features nupps. The curved stockinette body is achieved with short rows (no wraps, just decreases). The top edge is finished with an echo of the main lace pattern that transitions to purls to help fight curling.
Flock is fully charted, except for setup and finishing rows. Complete written translations for all charts are also provided.
Special thanks go out to Dream in Color, which provided yarn support for this design, and also gave me a skein of Wisp to give away! I’m hosting a KAL for Flock in the Remily Knits forum, and I’ll be giving the Wisp away to a KAL-er who uses any DIC yarn for their Flock (and finishes by the end date).
I will be hosting a KAL in the Remily Knits forum — let’s make the official start date June 24th, so people have time to get their yarn together and clear some WIPs off their needles.
You are, of course, welcome to use any yarn your like — but if you haven’t tried it, please consider Unisono. It’s fantastically sproingy and comes in beautiful solid colors (as well as the self-striping, which I chose for the design).
What you’ll need for the KAL:
US #7 needles (or there-abouts)
975 yards of sport-weight yarn
a generous handful of stitch markers
The pattern is currently published with CHARTS ONLY, with the right-hand side of the shawl shown — the left-hand side is mirrored.
However, I’ve been given the go-ahead to write out directions for all the charts. I’ll be working on this over the next week or so — I’ll get them done as quickly as I can. The written translations of all charts will be made available through an updated download from The Fiber Factor, as soon as they are complete and have been proofed.
For more details and to officially “sign in” — go see the forum!
I would like to invite all my readers to join my new mystery KAL for Capriole.
This semi-circular shawlette is worked from the top down. With a wide cast-on edge and curved shape, Capriole hugs the shoulders for easy wearing. The simple, bold lace pattern allows variegated yarn to shine; Capriole is equally beautiful in solid or semi-solid colorways.
Capriole is part of the upcoming Airs Above the Ground Collection. Each of four shawlettes in the collection can be made with a single skein of fingering-weight yarn. “Courbette” (sideways, modular, crescent-shaped, lace) will be available on March 20th, 2013. “Mezair” (lace border worked sideways, crescent-shaped, short-row body) will be released sometime in April, and “Levade” (bottom-up, heart-shaped, lace) will come out in late May.
KAL Details:
The Mystery KAL for Capriole begins now, with the release of this Swatch Clue. The swatch includes several special stitches, and will thus allow you to practice them before beginning your actual shawl. All clues will be given both as complete charts and full written directions.
Schedule for Clues:
Clues will be released via Ravelry sometime after midnight, EST, on four consecutive Wednesdays.
March 27th: Clue #1 – Setup and first 40 rows.
April 3rd: Clue #2 – Rows 41-68
April 10th: Clue #3 – Rows 69-88
April 17th: Clue #4 – Rows 89-101, plus blocking advice
Cost:
For the duration of the KAL, and for at least two weeks after the release of the final clue, Capriole will cost only $1. After that point, the pattern will be changed to the regular price of $6. When I release the final version of the pattern, it will replace the individual clues in your Ravelry library.
Prizes:
All knitters who post a photo of their finished Capriole by April 30th will receive a Ravelry coupon for any of my patterns on Ravelry, including the Airs Above the Ground collection. In addition, I will be giving away other prizes by random draw of finished projects, including at least one skein of yarn from “A Hundred Ravens” and a copy of the entire “Airs Above the Ground” collection.
3-in-3: One of the trickier stitches in this shawl pattern is a 3-in-3. Here is the description from the pattern:
3-in-3: Over the next three stitches, work a sk2p; yo, then knit 1 stitch through the three stitches just worked (stitch count does not change)
I anticipated that this stitch might be a bit troublesome, so I made sure to include it in the swatch so knitters could practice ahead of time. I’ve also made a quick video demonstrating two ways to make the 3-in-3 stitch. I demo both “English” and “continental” style, because I know it can be hard for knitters to understand the “other” way from their own style.
I am very excited to announce my very first Mystery Knit-Along: Crushed.
As I have mentioned, I am working on a three-pattern collection of lace shawlettes. Each one is made from a single skein of sock-weight yarn. I’ve finished the samples and written the patterns for the first two, and I’m in the process of testing them. The third will be done soon. I will be offering one of the patterns FREE as part of a Mystery KAL during the month of November.
I would like to invite all my readers to join this KAL. I will be hosting it in the Remily Knits forum on Ravelry.
For the 4th year in a row, I will be making an “Anniversary Mystery Shawl” courtesy Renee Leverington of Goddess Knits. As to the reason why … here are the results from the first three years:
Anyway, the signups are now OPEN for this most excellent and FREE lace shawl KAL. Go to the Anniverasry Mystery Shawl 2012 group page at yahoo, and join. That’s all there is to it. You have until May 5th to sign up, but after that you are out of luck. Renee creates beautiful hand-dyed lace yarn for the KAL, but she doesn’t require knitters to use it. I rummaged through my stash, and plan to use Ivy Brambles Romantica in Pine Tree:
If you have been meaning to knit yourself a Kudzu, but haven’t quite gotten around to it …
… I thought you might like to know there is a current (and VERY active) KAL going on right now in the “Dozen Shawls in 20Dozen” group on Ravelry. Kudzu was chosen as their February Advanced Shawl, and some people are already well into the knitting (I think some have even finished!).
Remily Knits 