Color Craving, Complete

Finally!

2013 was the 3rd year I signed on to take part in Stephen West’s Mystery KAL (Color Craving). 2011 was fun, and I wear the finished product all the time. 2012 required a restart- I hated the way my first color options were playing out- but when I finished it, it rapidly became one of my favorite knits ever. So of course I bought the pattern for the 2013 project, and rapidly ordered some yarn…

(Knit Picks Palette in Sil er, Cosmopolitan, and Ash)

It took me a while to get into the resurgence of neon, but I finally did.

I started the project in September, 2013. And I ran into one problem after another. I accidentally skipped changing colors for a stripe, which I didm’t catch until a few stripes later, and then I broke a needle, and tried to sub in a different size, and it made a crazy huge gauge difference that was completely noticeable. Did I mention all these issues occurred in Clue #1? Out of 4 clues? And I got cranky, and I put the project down.

Yeah.

And then in January, I finished a pair of socks, and had no other project ready to go. I realized I felt guilty about my abandoned project. I picked it back up, and frogged it completely. I rewound the yarn, and started from scratch, this time with the larger needles from the start. I paid much closer attention to the color changes, and I finished Clue #1 in just about a week. And I felt good! So I kept going, all the way to the over 100 inches of picot bind off.

I finished the final picot bobble just as the women’s olympic figure skating ended…

I was so excited to finally be done that I soaked and blocked it ASAP.

The shawl was longer than my dining room table, with both leaves in. I had to get creative with the blocking matts and build them out from the table… But the yarn is so light, it dried overnight, and was ready to wear!

So now, the many, many photos… This is the strangest thing I have ever knit. The process was odd, and the shape is unique to say the least. But I’ve actually fallen in love with it. I wore it to work on Monday, and got so many compliments that it darn near made the ordeal of knitting it worthwhile.

And the other best part of finishing it? I cast on my first socks from the 2014 Cookie A Sock Club!

Did you have any finishes this week? I was planning on showing you a gorgeous, completed skull quilt- but I had a major sewing machine malfunction on Wednesday night. I won’t know how bad until I can get into the repair shop on Saturday. So the quilt is stuck at 1/3 of the way quilted- and the baby is due any minute. Sigh. Cross your fingers for my poor little Viking…