Building blocks

I too participated in last fall's Westknits MKAL.

What: Building blocks / Stephen West

How: Circular needle 3.75 mm

From: Yarngrimoire Dandy Sock + lanitium ex machina Merino Single + Madelinetosh Sock + DyeForWool Merino/Silk, 70 + 92 + 50 + 75 g

The mystery works such that you buy the pattern without knowing what the shawl looks like. In the beginning there's just some basic info about the yarns you will need to get you started. The pattern is revealed one piece a week and at the end of the month, you will have a finished shawl. Or would have, I had kept up with the pace. I really enjoy MKALs because of the mystery - at least if I trust the designer. It forces me out of my comfort zone and makes it impossible to try to control anything. It's good the do something out of the box every once in a while.

This year's mystery shawl comprised of blocks as the name suggests. Each block had different color combinations and different pattern stitches, garter stitch and brioche to name a few. I knitted the largest size and boy, is this huuuge. The edges are wavy due to the changing direction of decreases and increases in the shawl.

Last year's Westknits mystery was such a wild card you never knew which direction you would be knitting next. This time the pattern was very predictable and many people criticized it because of that. I didn't mind the predictability. The shawl turned out beautiful and chic. It has just a bit of an edge which makes it interesting. Knitting it might not have been that thrilling but it was a nice knit.

The most fun part was picking the colors for a shawl you hadn't seen yet. I ended up with three shades of grey and to add some color, I selected this turquoise merino silk yarn. It was from an Alice in Wonderland club, named after Absolem. These colors aren't for me but they do look beautiful together. And I knew just the person to give this to.

In addition to watch my colors play together, I enjoyed checking out other knitters' color combinations on Instagram. They all look so different. If I was to knit this again, I would definitely make it in marshmallowy pastel colors.

I recommend to write down which color is A, B, C and D. I didn't and I messed up. Luckily it doesn't matter that much in a shawl like this.