My week in stitches.
Hello again. Sorry for the delay in posting, half term had hit us last week so childcare and family time took priority over any blogging or knitting time.
What have I been working on? Well, I managed to finish off the clue 3 for the Westknits MKAL fairly early in the week (by end the of Monday evening), so I had some time to continue with my volcano trail cowl by Maxim Cyr
I am using a custom dyed fade set from Tiny Teal Handcrafted website here. I sent over an inspiration image based on a succulent plant- basically I wanted to fade from a lighting green to a dark purple with a bit of pink in there too. I must say I thought she did a fantastic job
The cowl is coming along quite nicely. I had started it about a month ago, but the yarn had started to pool quite badly in the darker section. So I 🐸 -ed it back to the green section and changed the number of rounds for the colours to distribute them differently as I wanted more of the green at the top too. I’m really pleased with how it’s knitting up now I’ve got the colour distribution correct. Hopefully I’ll get it finished off in the next week or so.
Now.. onto the MKAL.
The Westknits MKAL – Clue 3 – It’s got Brioche baby!
!!!!!! ⚠️ WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠️ !!!!!!
It’s Brioche!!!
Oh my gosh, I was so excited when I saw there was brioche for this clue. Stephen West had hinted it might be included, and I was hoping there would be at least a little. I have wanted to try brioche for a while now but I was a bit nervous about the process just by the way it seems to have a love/hate reaction from most people in the knitting community. But I knew that if it was in a Westknits project, there would be well explained instructions so I felt in very good hands.
Section 10 – Brioche Option
Ok, here we go.. first time brioche. I made sure to read through the pattern carefully and watch the video tutorial through once before I started knitting, which helped give me some confidence. Then I picked up my project and set off.
I have to say I loved working this Brioche. Luckily we didn’t have to deal with any increases or decreases so I think it was a perfect introduction to the style. The videos by Stephen were so easy to follow, with detailed explanations and examples of possible mistakes that I soon got the hang of it and settled into a nice rhythm.
Don’t get me wrong, I did make mistakes, but I managed to correct them without much of a problem, although I did take a closer look when I was working on this weeks Clue 4 and noticed that one of my yarn overs has slipped to the front, but I always go by the 2 meter rule- if you can’t see the mistake from 2 meters away, it’s not worth worrying about.
I am now a brioche convert. I really enjoyed working this section and the finished result feels so lush and squishy I can see why it’s so popular. I will definitely be doing more brioche in the future.
Section 11 – Criss Cross
So after the delight of the brioche, came the finickity cross cross section. I was fine with the set up rows and the wrap rows but actually working the cross stitches was a nightmare-
The stitches were all bunched up and were incredibly difficult to move up to the end of the left needle to work into them. I tried my best for a good 30 minutes but I was really struggling and thought I was going to end up snapping the yarn and making a right old mess. So I got the smallest needle that I have for my Chiaogoo set (a 2.75) and changed my left needle, and boy was I glad I did.
This made it so much easier to work the stitches. It was still quite a lengthy process and it took me at least 90 minutes to complete that one row. Also, as I was working them, I was thinking the cross crosses looked very messy. I then remembered that I was working on the wrong side and once I turned my work they looked much better.
I’m really looking forward to what the last clue holds in store for us.
I will try and update as soon as I finish and block the final shawl. I’m really proud that I have managed to keep up with the clues so I want to make sure that I keep working on the shawl and not put it down to work on other things. So watch this space for a Finished Object post.
Coming soon…
I recently went to the in person Yorkshire Yarn Festival in York, and my goodness, I got a fantastic haul which I will share later in the week.
Bye bye for now, take care, stay safe and happy crafting.