Really, who else are you going to follow?
Depending on how I came to their account, I might not make mental connections out their blogs or patterns I see in magazines (which I suppose defeats the purpose a bit).
Because of this I was pleasantly surprised to see Fiberfool tweeting about hosting a KAL for the Pemberley Slippers from the Jane Austin Knits magazine from Interweave Press.
That image up there is the official KAL image from her blog, which she said participants can use.
Back in November I took a pair of classes with Sally Mellville at the Elegant Ewe down in Concord.
They were good classes and since it was at a hotel up the street (it's a small shop) they cleverly had lunch back at the store. And a discount for class members. As I was waiting to check out with some sock yarn (of course) I saw the magazine on the counter, flipped through, liked the slippers, and bought the mag, too.
And promptly tossed it into a cabinet in my new desk and semi-forgot about it.
Well, with my new found theme of "knit it if you love it" (and I have been knitting, just not blogging, I have to work on that) joining the KAL seemed like a good idea.
In fact, right after I discovered the slipper KAL I discovered a KAL for Lucy Neatby's Sea Lettuce Scarf, which has been in my queue for quite a bit longer than the slippers.
The slipper KAL runs from Feb 1 to Feb 14 and the scarf KAL starts on Feb 29. It's like they planned it for me.
These struck me as two opportunities to have some guided KIFYLI projects. I mean, how else are you going to prioritize? If I was able to prioritize all this stuff wouldn't be languishing and I wouldn't have so many WIP/UFOs, right?
Anyway.
I was planning to use Ella Rae Lace Merino Worsted yarn for the slippers. You might remember this yarn took a brief turn as the top for the Uncooperative Sweater but got frogged. I've been looking for a project for it.
Sadly, I swatched last night and was unable to get gauge. Well, I was unable to take the steps necessary to see if I could get gauge.
I swatched on US2s and it was rather tight. I got 6 sts/inch, which was short of the desired 8 sts/inch. Of course, since I was watching TV I went UP a needle size instead of down. After the second swatch was even further out I realized my mistake, realized it wasn't going to happen, and selected a new yarn.
I'm going with Ella Rae Lace Merino. The original, thinner version. I swatched that on US2 and got gauge no problem.
phew.
This opens up color opportunities. With the worsted version I was going to be bad and use a variegated yarn. It might be just as well it didn't work out.
With the Lace version I'm going to go two-tone, which is suggested in the pattern notes. I'm going to do a brown slipper body and green lace edging (since the edging is leaf shaped). This might be an easy selection, but I had too many options in stash and could have been dithering forever.
I read through the pattern this morning and was pretty sure I see where to do the color changes, which was confirmed by a quick post in the Designedly, Kristi Knitters Ravelry group. All indications are that we can race ahead in the pattern if we know what we're doing. I'll probably cast on and see how far I get. It will be interesting to see the discussion of the construction and get the extra guidance on the pattern.
It will also be interesting to continue the project finishing momentum!
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