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In Esperanto ]
For those of you active in the knitting world, you probably know all about the Mystery Knit-a-Long. It's the companion to the standard knit-a-long, which is a project or pattern shared online that people in different locations knit over a shared span of time, sharing their progress with one another as they go. There are online fabric arts stores (such as
Jimmy Beans Wool) that cater to this, setting up project kits for sale that are usually linked to some master project page, often at
Ravelry (an online fabric arts community).
The Mystery Knit-a-Long is a special breed of KAL (
of course there is an acronym) in which the pattern is released in parts ("clues") over a period of time.
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| Lots and lots of spoilers |
I just completed my first KAL, which happened to be an MKAL, yesterday. It's called "Queen of Thorns" and is a Game of Thrones-themed MKAL paying homage to that prickly old lady, Olenna Tyrell of the House of Highgarden.
Being a big Game of Thrones fan, that's what caught my attention (
sucker!), so I ponied up the $42 bucks for the yarn set, bought the $3.50 pattern introduction, and jumped right in.
As mentioned before, I'm an intermediate knitter (but a beginner when it comes to lace), so parts of the project were challenging to me. But it was lots of fun nonetheless, and also frustrating when I'd make mistakes and have to rip back to a known spot to start over. Knitting this sort of thing is a duel-edged sword: it's really good for my mental health in that I don't dare concentrate on anything else while I'm doing it or I'll mess up (keeps me from thinking about work) but is really bad for being around the family because they want attention and I can't provide it if I'm knitting. So I have to learn to balance.
Anyway, I've learned some things from the MKAL that I think are worth mentioning, both from the perspective of a participant and as advice to a designer from a newbie's point of view:
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| QoT Color Block |
Picking colors is challenging, because the whole point of the MKAL is to be an M - that is, you don't know exactly what you are doing or how it's going to turn out. For this project, I went with the designer's choice. I think in retrospect that had I known what the final pattern was going to be, I would have adjusted colors (in particular, I would have picked a pale grey or white color for the "rosebuds" section of the shawl). For the designer, I'd recommend putting a color block into the pattern. This allows the prospective knitter to get a rough sense of the color progression & proportion, without giving away the actual pattern, and will help those of us who want to a) choose another of your suggested color sets or b) go entirely off the rails and do our own thing.- You need blocking wires for lace. Blocking is a process in which you soak your project and dry it until it's lightly wet or damp, then pin or wire it into the final intended shape; when it's dry, it holds that shape. Or is supposed to: I'm still, as of this writing, struggling with the picot edging and making it thorny like I see the other (much more skilled) participants doing. Having wires, especially flexible wires, would be helpful, especially for that (or any lacy) edging and I'd like to see that as a suggested item.
- Non-standard instructions make the pattern fun. There were actually parts of the pattern that were (sorry, Marinade) a little boring -- there was a whole section of garter stitch, for example. It got interesting when the designer included instructions for something she termed "Make Cluster", which was unusual and new and interesting. But it was particularly challenging because the instructions were all written -- it became clear, fairly quickly, that a lot of the participants were having problems with this, so a number of descriptions were posted, but not all of them were actually what the designer intended, so she ended up making a video of the technique herself. I had actually watched one of those other people's videos, so my rosebuds aren't what she intended, but I was too far along in the process by the time I realized this, so I just kept doing what I was doing (and it turned out all right). Two lessons learned from this:
- For me: read, and follow, the "knitting help" forum thread for the clue, before actually starting. Even if I think I know what I'm doing.
- For the designer: pictures, pictures, pictures. Any time you do something non-standard (i.e., not a stitch that's available on any of the standard knitting help sites, such as Lion's Brand Yarn), show pictures. It's not too hard to manipulate a photo so that it will print nicely, and I will help any MKAL designer with that stuff -- though you have to be patient with me, because I am busy "IRL" and it cuts down on my free time. But if you don't have a photo-editor of your own or aren't that conversant in it, hit me up.
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| Block me! |
So, with all that said, I highly encourage you to get involved in one of these. It can be pricey, but it is fun, and always interesting when you're waiting around for that next clue, and you get something nice that you've hand-made at the end of it. How cool is that?
