#mkal

(And a pic of the floats since some will be curious)

In the final stretches!!!

The "Good Morning Baltimore Shawl" is almost done!

Making good progress in the Frankenmitts 2 MKAL. I just started them Saturday with yarns I had in hand in the truck and could spare.

I tried a slightly different method of picot the for the 2nd motif and I like it a little better. The first ones curl to the outside but the second set don’t. I don’t know why my guys have curlers in their hair.

Also I didn’t put the bracelets on for the pic, I was wearing them already.

These are my yarns:

If you are unaware, every year Stephen West does a mystery shawl knitalong that takes place in October. For years I have wished to take part in this event of sorts, but never have because I was on the fence about dedicating a whole month to a single project while trying to clear my knitting needles for the next year. This year I decided to change this and join along regardless of what is on my…

This is my 47.1% of Stephen West's Go Go Dynamo, last year's October MKAL:

This is where I had my light bulb moment

I couldn't keep up with the MKAL as it was going, which would've entailed knitting about 20.000 stitches a week (yes, I counted, I have a spreadsheet, obviously). That's too much for me, so I fell behind.

Which is fine, I put it in the WIP rotation, it would get finished eventually.

But I never really wanted to return. The shawl is a slog of garter after stockinette after garter. Rows of 400+ stitches. Boredom is too kind a word.

So today I "cheated" and looked ahead at clues 3 & 4. Only more of the same. Plus some incredibly messy and ugly short-row triangles that looked overly fussy and tedious.

So I quit. I'm DNFing this shawl.

I'll frog it and use the yarn for something I'll actually enjoy making.

To be fair, I do think the intended finished object is quite stunning:

And some of the details are quite pleasing :

I like West's clownish style. I like the bold colors and shapes.

But I'm a proces knitter and the miles and miles and miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiles of garter stitch kills it for me.

I knit for fun, dammit