The Rose City Yarn Crawl is an annual event put on by Portland area locally owned yarn stores. This year, they have added a really fun feature, two mystery-a-longs: one knit and one crochet. The premise of this activity is that participants put their trust into the designer, and buy yarn, begin, and knit a pattern without ever seeing the final project...at least not until it comes off of their own needles. With the website Ravelry available world-wide, these knit-a-longs are quite popular and talkative (which could result in seeing the final product before it actually comes off of your own needles). This knit-a-long being local, I decided to join up, buy some special limited edition yarn for the occasion, and join in on the fun!
Now this is my second knit-a-long, and with the last one (a bag) I was fully inspired by the colors around me in the springtime of Sonoma County. It became very close to a no brainer for me. The first lesson I have had this time around is to just trust my gut. I first saw the custom colors by thoroughly thwacked on Facebook. I was instantly drawn to a deep scarlet and a light honey color. Not typically colors for me. So I went into the store, and badgered the owner about what colors might look best (bless her heart, she told me "any of them would be amazing"). With that in mind, after moving all of the potential colors together for probably thirty minutes, I landed on the original colors. I was certainly overthinking the color choice.
When the colors came in, I had the same color questions. Which color should be my main color and which should be my contrast color. In the end, with the first clue (just a portion of the written pattern) I wanted to knit with the scarlet more than with the honey, so that's what I started with. Again, overthinking the color selection.
The other lessons that I have learned so far are directly related to designing and pattern writing. This pattern is excellently and very clearly written, with both charts and written instructions. As a very confident and experiential knitter, I have been surprised at the questions that have been brought up in the forums on Ravelry. It reminds me that everyone is on their our knitting journey with their own comfort level and willingness to make a mistake and start over. In fact, I look at the crochet threads and I know I would be begging anyone over there to hold my hand if I were trying to crochet that piece, because crochet instructions without pictures do not work very well with my thought process. Whose to say knitters don't have those same challenges?
Most interesting to me is seeing this pattern slowly evolve piece by piece. When I begin designing a piece of my own, I always try to get the entire piece thought out ahead of time. Now I'm sure the designer of this shawlette had the whole thing at least a bit thought out at the beginning, but it makes me wonder how far ahead designs need to be thought out. Could I start out with just the first thought, then move onto the others as they come (or more likely as I become bored with the first designing thought)?
I will be sure to post pictures of the final product once it is complete. I don't want to spoil anyone's surprise :)
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