As You Wish: An unconceivable MKL byMary Annarella

I can not help it!  It is an addiction!  I wanted to wait …but then the colors I want might be gone….and you know how I feel about Miss Babs!  And I just finished the Snark O Meter.  All except putting the fringe on. And so I just pushed purchase…..the new Avon yarn in the colorway:  Prepare to Die

Mary Annarella (of The Knights Who Say Knit fame) is bringing us yet another fun and beautiful MKAL. 

So here is the story.  And it seems it is often my story ....that one thing happening in my life connects to another  thing in my life in a coincidental way.  I was reading the King Arthur trilogy written by Mary Stewart.  I started it at Christmas when I needed a book that was purely entertainment.  So I had knights and battles and Kings and Princesses and high adventure on my mind.

I finished my snark o meter and blocked it and began to think about my next knitting project.  Absolutely I would knit something that uses yarn from my stash!  And then I received the e-mail from Miss Babs about As you Wish. 

The designer of As You Wish, Mary Annarella,  had a MKAL recently called The Knights Who Say Knit.  Dar says that this is a reference to Monty Pythons Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).

Mary Annarella  says this about the last MKAL:

The Mystery Knit-A-Long that is not dead yet!

I seek the finest and silliest knitters to join me in a this quest for the grail! You have proven yourself worthy--Will you join us? There will be coconuts! Unladen swallows! And you must bring us….a SHRUBBERY! 

And about this newest project she says:

This pattern (including the Prologue above...) is an homage to The Princess Bride, which was based on William Goldman’s book of the same title (which in turn was based on S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure). The film is a true classic

 How can I miss the opportunity to do the MKAL, read the book, and watch the movie again one more time?  TOO much fun!  Could not help myself!

I am writing again on Feb 21 as the first clue will drop tomorrow morning.  I am READY!   

I wound the balls over the weekend!  I have chosen the red as C1, the grey/blue as C2, the Gold as C3 and the Light grey as C4.

I can hardly wait!

I enthusiastically started this wrap....and after a few days decided I was not interested in continuing.  So this yarn should be around for another project.  Pretty colors!

The bias rectangular shawl

 Knit stars sent an e-mail today in which was embedded a video made by Ambah O’Brien.  It takes many years to figure out which items one is most likely to wear.  By chance I had begun to think that my own favorite style was a bias rectangular shawl  So I took a few screen shots of Ambah wearing her creation:

A hat that fits

 I receive the newsletter from the knitting shop in Cuyago Falls Ohio.  Cindy is the shop owner and the person who puts the newsletter together.  This week the bottom of the newsletter had a Ask Hank article that I found of great interest.  I often felt that I did not want to start a hat because I worried that the hat would not fit the person for whom I was knitting this hat for.  But here is the answer on how to knit a hat that will fit.

Fingering yarn for a shawl

 I almost always have a shawl in mind when I buy yarn.  However, this purchase was purely inspired by the fact that I adored the yarn in the picture.  Harps and Thistles was closing out some hand dyed yarn and had only a few skeins left.  The yarn was dyed by someone local to the shop.  It is Baby Alpaca/Linen/Tussah Silk.  And it is as pretty in person as it was in the photo.  I bought four colors:  Queen of the Damned, Missy Z, The Shortcut, and Lemon Tart.  I envision this as my spring project in 2022.  

Some of the patterns that I envision this yarn in are:

Olive Pink

Concatenation

Botanique

The Big Easy by Melanie Berg

Christmas in the City by Tammy Gore

Church Mouse's Magic Three Yarn Scarf and Wrap

 I have looked at this pattern for years.  I purchased the recipe years ago and it is stored in Drop Box.  It might also be in my library on Ravelry?  I am working on a shawl that was a knit along with Casapinka this fall that is hard to pick up when the phone rings or I have a few extra minutes.  I keep making mistakes and ripping out.  I needed a mindless project to sit on my desk.  And this is exactly that.  It calls for three yarns.  One variegated, one mohair, and a bulky that calls for at gauge for size 10 needles.  So I raided my stash and found the following:

The red is 

The variegated is:

And the yellow is 

I cast on the recommended 190 stitches.  The wrap is knit from end to end rather than across.

I ended up setting this project aside in the spring to work on other projects and just pulled it out again in September 2022.  After finishing I decided to add fringe.  Then I decided I needed decent scissors to cut the fringe ....to even it up.  I really like the looks of this shawl.  I'll add a photo as soon as I find someone to take the photo even though I am still waiting on the new scissors to make final fringe trim.

How to avoid ladders on your sock when you knit with double pointed needles

 I remember having someone explain how to avoid these pesky ladders many years ago.  But I could not remember the explanation.  So today I looked on-line and it came back to me.  The secret is to make sure that the two needles that you are working with are behind the needle you just finished using.  It is also helpful to move a few stitches every round or two so the joins are mot in the same place all of the time.

I took the below from a You Tube presentation found at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uCe9s0FA34

up and down and the old needle is in the front allowing one to have the needles now being worked on to be very close in the back.

In this process, one tugs on the second stitch knitted on the new needle rather than the first stitch.

Casapinka's newest MKAL: Snark-O-meter

Last year at this time, I started Casapinka's MKAL:  the Sharon Show.  And I had so much fun knitting it! And then I LOVED the finished item as well.  Then when everyone was knitting Botanique, I again joined the MKAL!  And I also like that finished project as well!  So this summer when Casapinka announced her newest MKAL I decided to join in the fun even though I do not love the name:  Snark-O-Meter.  

So the first step is to find the right yarn for the project.  My stash did not yield four skeins of fingering yarn that made me want to jump into the project.  And dog gone it.....Miss Babs had a kit that I LOVED!  But when it arrived it was darker than I had imagined when I saw it on her site.  And I just could not envision knitting those colors on a beautiful fall day...or for that matter mid August either.  So I decided that I would just miss this MKAL.  But then I found a kit that I could not resist.  I bought it from The Yarn Club.  

Three of the skeins are autumn and Indigo and the fourth is Knerd String 4-ply fingering.

And the blue is a different brand:

And then II began to agonize (my favorite thing to do with knitting!) over which set I would use.  Finally

I chose to go with the original set and it is turning out quite well.  the yarn is Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply and the colors are 

I like it so far. These knit alongs are fun to knit on as they are never boring.

I finally finished the shawl in February 2022.  I LOVE IT!  Oh, my!  It is so soft and fun to wear.  Here are a couple of photos to show it off: