A First Time for Everything

I have never participated in a KAL (knit-a-long) before.  I have had many opportunities.  I just never saw the point in knitting the same thing a bunch of other people were knitting just because a bunch of people were knitting it.  Of course, I also never knit with other knitters before until just recently.

I think part of my reluctance before was that I am not usually interested in knitting other people's patterns.  I tend to be a seat-of-the-pants knitter.  I buy every knitting magazine published.  I buy lots of books.  I check out every issue of Knitty on line.  I read a bunch of knitting blogs.  But I do these things for ideas.  Inspiration.

Ravelry has changed my perceptions quite a bit lately.  That and Twitter.  Until I started looking at all of the patterns available on Ravelry and following so many tallented desgners on Twitter I hadn't realized exactly who and what was available out there.

So, when @SpazzyYarn proposed a Twitter KAL I thought, "What the heck?".  A number of patterns were proposed and they all looked fine (except for February Lady only because I have already done that and don't want to take on a big project right now).  My preference was anything that either let me use one skein of sock yarn or some of my handspun.  Well, turns out the winning pattern is the Travelling Woman Shawl by Liz Abinante.

So, this morning I gathered up my Rare Gem (water) from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and after some digging found a size 6 turbo just hanging out.

I cast on 3 stitches, knit 6 rows, picked up 6 stitches along the side and cast on edge, and away we go...

So far, so good.  I'll keep you posted.