Knitting a Mystery

I decided, on a whim, a few weeks ago to join the Stephen West Mystery Shawl KAL.  It called for 3 colors of fingering weight that would go well together, and I have plenty of that, so it seemed to me a fun adventure as well as a way to knit off a bit of my random fingering weight.

I haven't done a mystery shawl in many years, according to my Rav page - 4 to be exact.  I had signed up for this mystery shawl and got half way in, and the pattern stopped being symmetrical and I freaked and stopped knitting until I could see what the final product looked like, I like symmetry and I was worried.  To be fair to the designer, it is a gorgeous shawl, and she did provide directions so you could make it symmetrical if you wanted, but somehow knowing that she didn't plan for it to be symmetrical made me not want that finished product either.  So I put it down, and sometime last year, 3 years after I stopped knitting on it, I gave up, frogged it, and sold the yarn.  

So I felt rather brave and daring when I signed up for the Stephen West mystery shawl, but as a knitter I knew more about what I was doing and had looked carefully at all the other shawls he had designed so I could be fairly sure that whatever it was I was getting in to, I would be happy with the final product.

It involved intarsia, which - to be honest - I wouldn't have ever gone for voluntarily, and I probably won't go for it voluntarily in anything more involved than this shawl, but for this, it was worth it.

I used three different sock yarns, I figured what the heck, they looked nice together, and I am trying to stash down, so I'm not buying anything just for this project when I have so much already.

It worked fine, so I would do it again.

The blues are true in this pic, but the other color is really a deep plum/eggplant that looks much darker (and prettier) than this in real life.

I enjoyed this mystery knit so much that I have already signed up for another one, this time with Susanna IC, sign ups are here .  I am quite shawl happy lately, and I have another one to show you soon!

Comments

[Barbara-Kay]

I got burned by Swan Lake, too. It's still sitting in the box, up to date until she did the strange things with it. Guess I should frog it, also.

[Jocelyn]

Wow! I really love the way that looks - very, very nice! I bet you'll wear that a lot.

[Julia]

One after another: I love this pattern, too.

[Jodi]

Bold and pretty! You rarely see intarsia in shawls -- very neat.

I'm not much for mystery knits -- I like the idea, but I'm not good on the follow-through. Hooray for you, though!