Speckle & Pop!

The boxes are unpacked from Camp and now we are starting to get things in order for the Woodstock Fleece Festival.

Saturday October 14 at the Woodstock Fairgrounds. This is a fun show. Not just knitting but all fibre arts and you will be inspired.

Check out the Fleece Festival website for more information...

If you live in Toronto, the Toronto Knitters Guild has a bus going to the Festival. Here is more information about times and pricing...

We received good news from Hedgehog Fibres today - our order is in production and should be here in time for the show.
184 skeins of Skinny Singles
76 skeins of Hedgehog Sock

Are you ready for the next Stephen West MKAL? The fun starts on Friday. I need to pick my colours tomorrow and get my skeins wound.

Select 3 colors of fingering weight yarns in a colorful speckled fade. I recommend 3 speckled colors, but you can also use solid colors if you prefer. I recommend a light, medium, and dark color for these 3 main colors. These 3 full skeins will act as the main part of the shawl. If you can find 3 colors that fade nicely together from light to dark, that will be ideal. 

Select 5 contrast colors for your color pops. These contrast pops will show best if they are different from your main colors. For example, choose 3 full skeins of light, medium, and dark neutral colors combined with 5 color pops.

I'm going to sleep on his recommendations. I have something in mind and you won't believe where I might go with mine.

Swatch out! The Mystery KAL cast on date is getting super close. If you would like to play with your yarns and make a gauge swatch, here is the gauge information. 

Needles: I recommend a 40” US 4 / 3.5mm circular needle You may need to adjust your needle size to get gauge. 

Gauge: 22 stitches and 52 rows = 4” / 10 cm with garter stitch 

It’s not necessary to swatch in advance because you can also use the cast on and beginning of Friday’s instructions as your swatch to check your tension. Stitch gauge is more important than row gauge. I recommend trying to get as close to 22 stitches as possible. If you have a looser tension (fewer stitches per inch), you may require a bit more yardage. I have factored in some wiggle room for yardage so if your yarn type or tension is a bit looser, I will address that factor in the last couple weeks of the KAL to accommodate some yardage variations. 

Color To get a sense of how your 3 main colors blend together, you can play with a color fade technique to stripe them all together. 

Knit 10 rows with color A. Knit 10 rows with color A striped with color B for 2 rows each. Knit 10 rows with color B. Knit 10 rows with color B striped with color C for 2 rows each. Knit 10 rows with color C. 

I recommend using your colors from light to dark. 

Don’t worry about incorporating the 5 color pops yet. We will explore the color pops together soon! I can’t wait to share the first section of Speckle & Pop with you all this Friday! 

Tomorrow is a big day. Alex finished my Dotted Rays - Speckled Fade. I can't wait to see it. There will be lots of pictures!