Of Designs, Stitches, KALS and Knitty Things

First Woolly Wednesday of 2013 and with December now a distant memory January heralds new beginnings and New Year Resolutions, which often included the promise to finish off all those works in progress that are clogging up needles and bobbins. 

This year my 'wips' are as many as ever - in fact there is is one poor project that has been languishing/hibernating on the needles for a whole twelve months!  The reason for this is KALS or Knit Alongs - I am addicted, and just the suggestion of  a Mystery one is enough to send me rushing to my stash.......... or more often than not to the Internet to purchase the appropriate yarn.  In fact this December I have done two!

The first, now an annual event, is the Advent Stole/Scarf KAL which starts on December 1st and ends appropriately on December 24th, so instead of opening a door and eating chocolate you get a pattern and knit, a great way of getting in shape if you intend to over indulge over the holiday period.

It is also a great way of trying new stitches in a limited way, for if you don't particularly like a stitch you know that this is the only time you will do it!  It has it origins in the stitch sampler common in the 18th and 18th centuries before the time of written or charted patterns.  An excellent book on the subject of lace samplers is Knitting Lace by Susanna E Lewis which not only explains the reasoning behind these lengths of knitted lace, but also provides 100s of lace stitches - a definite must have!

My second knitting KAL, this time knit over the twelve days of misrule, began on the first day of Christmas, so instead of getting a Partridge in a Pear Tree I got the first 50 rows of a Lace Stole.  I hadn't seen any of Monika's designs before so had no idea what I had let myself in for.......... well I needn't have worried, it is a fabulous design, far, far too good for a stole - an absolute work of art!

This photo was taken at the half way point shows the intricacies of the design, but the pattern is well written and easy to follow (only available free until Sunday 6th January) you need to be very very careful that you don't purl a YO together with a stitch on the reverse............

But what of designs - I have been busy on my first real knitting pattern, not just something that happened but a project that had a proper beginning - I wanted a cover up that would suit me as a wheelchair user, while also being a stylish garment that anybody would want to wear and I came up with a square poncho - named for the place that saw its first wearing - Seaton Beach.

Knit in stocking stitch with an eyelet increase the poncho can be made as big as you want, a real one size fits all.  It also has a contrast detail around the lower edge that is repeated on the cowl neck and is knit in Bulky Yarn.

I used Knits Pick Wool of the Andes dyed in charcoal and raspberry colourway.  Being a bulky yarn this made it a very quick project and I have shared for free on Ravelry!  This is the first proper pattern that I have shared and I have had some lovely comments - my real reward will be if somebody other than me makes it!!

With January a new year of shawls can begin - had hope that the challenge would be 13 Shawls in 2013, but it is only going to be twelve again this year, although I shall probably do more.  The first one is a................Mystery KAL and bit off my usual sort of shawl - no K2tog or yarn overs, but I  believe that it does you good to step outside your comfort zone once in a while. 

This is a merino/cashmere sock yarn dyed, raspberry, chocolate and lime, the main colour chocolate divides the other two, with the raspberry and lime never being next to one another - or so the pattern blurb says!  It starts with a fringe, not the most interesting of knits and having knit the 70 little stems I noticed right back near the beginning I had changed sides - this was a 11.30pm and I was more than a little annoyed to say the least................ But with the new day I realised that I didn't have to frog and start again - I just cut off the offending stems at the beginning and knitted nine more at the other end - disaster avoided................. no one need ever know....

Of course it won't end there, I have already signed up for two more beginning in February..........

Happy New Year!