I really wasn’t. I wasn’t going to start another shawl, and I wasn’t going to participate in the Stephen West mystery knit-along this year. At least, I wasn’t going to participate while it was going on. I thought I would wait. And I did wait. A week. Ha!
When I saw the beginnings of some of the first clues, I still thought “nah.” But then I saw some of the first clues fully knit. And I was smitten! Mine won’t have the contrast like this one, but I thought it was beautiful. You might need to click the right arrow in the photo to get to the “spoiler” photos.
And again, this is not mine, but I just had to share – I love the subtle beauty of the two shades that are close to each other.
The construction is (as it often is with Stephen West’s designs) something I’ve never seen before. It looks like a hot mess to start (and it is!), but it becomes something really beautiful when you manage all of the “Twists and Turns,” which is the name of the shawl.
He recommends you use three colors – two that are coordinating (and he loves a lot of contrast, but I wanted to see a much lower contrast this time) and a third “pop.”
I thought – if I’m going to do this, I want to work from stash yarn only and not buy more yarn. That could prove a challenge because of the amount of each color required: 200 grams each of 2 colors of fingering weight (approximately 800 yards each), and 100 grams of the third color (approximately 400 yards).
While I have multiple skeins of several colors, most of them are dedicated for future sweaters. But I remembered that I bought some of the Cloudborn Highland Twist yarns on closeout. I chose the two lightest neutral shades, Oatmeal Heather and Taupe Heather. Then I looked at my other semi-solid/slightly variegated to see what might coordinate. The KnittyandColor sparkle yarn in the color “Mocha Macchiato” just seemed to sing. It’s quite dark, so my “pop” is really going to pop against these two lighter neutrals. I hope it works!