Fridays are for knitting!

Fridays will be for knitting, at least until this mystery knit-along (MKAL) is done. The theme of the MKAL is the Snow Queen and it will turn out to be a hexagonal shawl. With the amount of snow we've had lately, I feel like I'm the Snow Queen. Just last week S said to me that it looks like we live in Arendelle and that she was Elsa. I told her to put her gloves back on and stop freezing us. She laughed.

Today Clue 2 for the MKAL was released. I've really been enjoying working on the shawl - so far my love/hate relationship with lace has been love only. I've been trying very hard to pay attention to my knitting and not make mistakes. I've made a few but it has been easy enough to fix them so far. Knowing how many stitches should be in each section helps. It also helps that the pattern is very well written so far, even including directions for when to change from one colour to the next. The pattern is written for gradiance yarn, which is yarn that goes from light to dark over six skeins (or as I'm doing it, dark to light). Switching colours involves knitting a few rows with one colour and then switching to the other for a few rows, then switching back again. Today's clue included the first transition. I seem to have done it correctly!

Here are some pictures of what I've done so far:

This is the gauge swatch that we did to make sure we would have enough yarn. According to the designer, my gauge is fine and I will have plenty of yarn.

This is what it looked like at the end of clues 1 (top) and 2 (bottom).

It's going to be hard to wait until next Friday for the next clue. I do have other projects to keep me busy - two hats and an ongoing scarf. I always think it would be cool to make a scarf and then when I start doing it I can't help thinking WTF was I thinking, making a scarf? Scarves and probably one of the most tedious things to make. The scarf I'm making is an 8 row repeat on size 4 needles (knitters out there, I feel you cringing with me). Non-knitters - this means that it is going to take me a LONG time to make it the correct length, with lots of repetitive knitting. At least I have the pattern memorized and don't have to give it too much attention.

I am still waiting for the yarn for the Hobbit-themed scarf I am going to make. Yes, another scarf but this one should either keep me very interested or make me cry. It's knit using the double-knit method, which I have never done before. For non-knitters, that means both sides will be the 'finished' side and will look exactly the same, just opposite colours. I am looking forward to starting it. This MKAL shawl made me realize that I like complicated things that require a lot of my attention to avoid screwing them up. We'll see if I still feel that way after I start the Hobbit scarf.

I'm going to go try to finish the hat I'm making for myself now. Tomorrow we will probably be going to the winter snow festival they are having this weekend and I'd love to have a new, warm hat to wear. And for those wanting more of my Kilynn story, you'll get another installment soon. I have more sitting in the document waiting to be shared. I just need to give it another once-over to make sure it's ready to be shared. Maybe tomorrow, maybe Sunday but then again, maybe not until Monday!