I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. I’m so, so tired. It seems like every day the news just gets worse and worse and my heart breaks again and again. From the increasingly racist tone of political campaigns and the dehumanisation of migrants, to the senseless killings of LGBT (mostly Latin@) people in Orlando and of British MP Jo Cox, who fought for the rights of women and of refugees.
This is my way of trying to get through it and you’d be more than welcome join me. This isn’t about replacing political action, this is about giving you (and me) something nice and soft and warm to recharge our batteries with so that we are stronger to face the world and all of the hate and bile it wants to throw at us.
Welcome to the Recharge Shawl Mystery-ish KAL.
Why a KAL?
Well, I was already planning on designing this shawl. It’s been bubbling around in my head for years really, ever since I saw these two colours of baa ram ewe Titus together. Because of the way I want to construct it, it works well as something that can be released in a series of little chunks. I will say up front: I haven’t knitted the whole thing yet. I’ll only be one step ahead of the rest of you – but I do have it all planned out and I know it’s going to work, I promise.
Why free?
Well, primarily because for me, this is not a business thing, it’s a personal thing. Ordinarily I’m not an advocate of free patterns, but I’m doing this KAL first and foremost because I need something positive to focus on for the sake of my own sanity. Making it free takes away some of the expectations that would come with a paid-for pattern – because sometimes life happens and deadlines get difficult and I don’t want this to become a stressful thing. If you do enjoy the pattern and you want to show your appreciation, from time to time I’ll suggest some good causes to donate to. That’ll be all the thanks I’ll need.
How will it work?
It’s reasonably straightforward. You just need to sign up for my mailing list and you’ll get an email every time there’s an update to the pattern. Easy peasy. I’ll be sending out the first segment in the next few days. Oh, and if you’re reading this blog post and the KAL is already underway, don’t worry – when you sign up to the mailing list, you’ll be sent a copy of the latest version of the pattern.
If you would rather wait until there is a finished and fully-polished pattern, I will put the pattern up for sale once the KAL is over.
The details
The pattern is a crescent/semi-circular shawl. It starts with a long, thin piece, from which you will pick up stitches on one side to create the edging and then from the other side to knit the main body of the shawl. The lace sections will include charts as well as written instructions. Nothing in the pattern will be overly complex but there will be enough detail to keep your attention.
Techniques: Lace, cables, picked-up stitches, short rows.
Yarn: 2 x 100g skeins of 4-ply with decent levels of contrast. I’m using baa ram ewe Titus in Parkin and Eccup.
Needles: I’m using 4mm (US 6) needles – sometimes my tension is a bit loose, so you might want to try out 4.5mm (US 7) instead. I’ll let you know my tension so that you can check.
The soundtrack to this design is All That We Let In by the Indigo Girls.
Kate Heppell 