My anticipation had been building for nearly two weeks. Click here to read where my MKAL journey began. I woke up last Friday morning and
could not wait to see if clue number one to my first every MKAL was available and IT WAS! I don’t really know why I needed to have it available first thing in the morning, I had to go to work but the wait was over. I now had my knitting project for my long weekend with family on Lake Coeur d’Alene. Where is your favorite vacation spot to do a little knitting?
For me, having never participated in an MKAL there was both a mix of excitement and a little hint of fear. After all, it is knitting so what is not to be excited about? And I love color so knitting a project by Stephen West is never going to disappoint. On the other hand, I am trusting my treasured, carefully 
curated collection of yarn in the hands of another person. I picked the colors,
I know I am knitting a shawl, and I know that it will have a marled look to it, but that is all I know. I don’t know the shape or size of the finished project. For a knitter that is used to looking at a pattern, reading through it, and making some edits, this project is taking an extreme amount of trust. Having finished clue one I have to say I am loving it!
For the first part of clue 1 (photo above), I chose a yarn that has a white base with some black splotches as my base yarn that I carried throughout the entire mesh section. I worked with most of my speckled yarns for this section, lighter to darker ending with a black yarn. Then I picked up the stitches to make the second part of clue 1. For this section, I changed both yarns throughout the panel using as many bright colors as I could. As you can see from the picture below, I had a lot of glowingly bright colors to work with. Knitting as the snow fell in front of a fire on the lake with family was delightful! My knitting beverage of choice? As a coffee addict, homemade salted caramel sauce latte. The weekend was perfect. What is 
your favorited project to take on vacation to work on? If you are like me, your yarn bag is packed well before anything else and you probably pack more projects than you will ever get to. Yet for some reason, I never pack the ‘necessities’ until the day of, it drives my wife crazy!
It is not too late to join in the fun! If my color palette is not quite up your alley, check out some of the other great projects from those who have already joined the fun of this Marled Magic MKAL, 1,138 projects and growing! Below are a few of my favorites:
What does clue two hold in store? Your guess is as good as mine! From the pictures you can see that one side is a bit bigger than the other and there are two sections of live stitches. As I wait for the next clue, I find myself wondering what the final shape and size of this shawl will be. One thing is for sure, with the amazing beginning to this project I am sure I am going to thrilled to see it finished! If you are looking to supplement your collection of fingering weight yarn for this project, we have you covered. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date with all the fun we are having at Paradise Fibers!
