Slipstravaganza Knit-A-Long
Are you someone who loves a mystery KAL (Knit-A-Long) or do you like to know what you’re knitting? Stephen West launches multiple mystery KALs a year, and the Slipstravaganza last November one was a beauty! It caught the eye of our knitting teacher Rebecca Glazier as soon as the 1st reveal of section one was public.
We’re not going to lie, this is a monster of a project which is why we thought to host a supportive knit-a-long this Spring via Zoom to encourage and support as you go. If you’ve never tried colourwork knitting, slip stitch colourwork is a great place to start as you only work with one colour at a time across each row and the slip stitch technique brings the magic.
The shawl features 5 sections of slip stitch patterns which are designed perfectly to flow from one to the next. You need 200g (usually two skeins) of main colour yarn, and three contrast colours, each of 100g. This would be the perfect project to stash dive and use some of those precious single skeins of fingering or sock weight yarn you were coveting, or if you prefer to have a kit put together with nicely matched colours, do we have something special for you!
Rebecca is not only our in-house teacher, she is also a talented dyer of the natural dyed yarn company, WildWestDye, and she has put together this amazing set in the custom ‘Baaad Anna’s’ colourway! This kit that Rebecca created for us is naturally dyed (as opposed to chemically manufactured acid-dyed yarn) and features four new colours; Tornado, SilverStar, Eros and a speckle yarn, Polesque in WildWestDye’s supersoft fingering weight pure merino.
WildWestDye uses wool that is carefully sourced from New Zealand and is spun in Canadian mills. The wool is only purchased from farms that do not practice mulesing and attention is paid to the ethical treatment of the sheep (free from hunger/thirst, free from discomfort, free from pain/injury/disease, free from distress/fear).
And best of all, we have a sample knit up in this colourway for those of you that enjoy seeing how colour selection works up:
But if colour matching is in your wheelhouse, the store is stocked with so many wonderful fingering weight yarns for you to choose from for your Slipstravaganza shawl. You can browse them all in the online store or come and see them in person. And of course if you want to use some coveted stash yarn, feel free to bring in 1 or 2 skeins from your own stash as we can help you pick up your contrast colourways to best work for this project! To choose your colourway it is recommended that each contrast colour needs to contrast well with the main colour, but not necessarily with each other. Stephen suggests the ‘lazy swatch’ method to make sure you are happy with your choice before you start:
A lazy swatch is a quick way of visualizing colour choices before you start knitting. Take a piece of cardboard and wrap your yarn around it in the order you want to use your colours.
Sarah and Gabby from the store participated in the mystery KAL in November and you can see their finished shawls and lazy swatch in our Project of the Month post here. Ravelry is also a wonderful resource to check out all the colourways that have been created to help you visualize yours, there are 6078 projects linked to the pattern so probably every which way you can think of!
This shawl is divided into sections five sections, and once each slip stitch pattern is set up, you settle into a flow. We will be hosting a six-part Zoom knit-a-long where you can join us to embark on the amazing Stephen West Slipstravaganza shawl adventure! During this non-instructional but supportive KAL we will meet up for six, online sessions via Zoom, and you can join in for the full six sessions, or hop in on any given week on March 14th, 21st, 28th, April 11th,18th and May 2nd from 11:00am-12:30pm PT.
These sessions are focus on each section with at least a week in between to encourage participants to ‘meet up’ at the next knitting goalpost. Rebecca found that the colour changes within each section was a great encouragement to that ‘just one more row’ feeling, and having a Zoom group to meet up with will help keep this giant project on track.
As the shawl grew, Rebecca’s found that finishing off with 4 stripes of chevron’s at the end, and 900+ stitch rows is not something she does often, but she compares this to working in the round. The only time it was a little frustrating was when a mistake was made and 450 odd stitches had to be tinked. These 900+ rows are also ideal for when you are spending time at Virtual knitting shows! Fibre Love Affair will be happening again from April 24th so fits in perfectly with finishing off those final rows in time for the end of the KAL on April 30th!
And our knit-a-long will have incentives! For those who register to join us and complete the shawl by April 30th you will receive a $10 Baaad Anna’s store credit, and for those who purchase the Slipstravaganza Kit and complete by April 30th a $20 Baaad Annas’ store credit!
During these times of social distancing and limited interactions, this KAL will give us all the opportunity to stay connected, motivated and creative.
Some more thoughts from Rebecca on the knitting of her Slipstravaganza:
What was your favourite section?
Probably the honeycomb and creating the holes, this is what drew me to the design in the first place, but I honestly enjoyed every section. I find that designs which change textures and colours holds my interest for much longer. When a design is the same throughout (texture or colour) I tend to quickly get feelings of cast-on-itus. Castonitus is the intense desire to cast on new projects!
Any snags along the way?
As well as a couple of 450 stitch tinking at the end, in the painted bricks section I completed one row of bricks before realizing it was the ‘wrong’ colour next… oops…
Did you block the honeycomb section before continuing on?
No, I really didn’t see the need to do this as it was going to be blocked at the end, and I didn’t want to pause on knitting! One thing to note, that Sarah, who decided to block her’s before she continued found that one of the colours bled really bad, so if you are choosing your own yarns and not the kit, you make want to knit a swatch and wash to make sure you don’t run into this problem too.
YouTube Video Support
Stephen West created a set of videos to help you through each step of the way available on YouTube, you can learn the ‘Weavin’ Stephen’ technique of joining in new yarns if you haven’t already and if you’re feeling a little stuck in-between KAL’s this is a great resource to keep you on track.
On Shlankets
And if you’ve never made or worn a shawl this big before (or is it a shlanket? A shlanket is a shawl so big, you could also use it as a blanket), and are wondering how you would wear it, Stephen West has recently released a new ‘How to wear you shawl 2.0’ which features the Slipstravaganza shawl along with some of his others fabulous designs.
Join our Knit-a-long
Whether you’ve made a start on this shawl already, or are now tempted to, you are more than welcome to join us for the knit-a-long! In addition to the incentives, we will throw together some fun prizes for this KAL as well!
When Rebecca was asked what knitting skill is required to make this shawl, or whether they ‘could do it’ or not, her immediate response was ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’
THIS IS AN ONLINE KAL via ZOOM, so you will also need to have a decent internet connection and download the free ZOOM app. Instructions will be emailed before 1st meet-up!
DATES: Sundays March 14, 21 and 28th, April 11th and 18th and May 2nd from 11am-12:30pm PT.
Come join us as we as we embark on the amazing Stephen West Slipstravaganza shawl Knit-a-long!
During this non-instructional but supportive KAL hosted by the incredibly talented and motivating Rebecca Glazier of WildWestDye we will meet up for six, online sessions via Zoom.
The Slipstravaganza shawl is a five-section fingering weight shawl that uses two skeins of main colour yarn and three contrast colours. You can read more about its construction and two sizing options here on our blog.
Even more exciting is that we have our very own custom colourway Slipstravaganza Kit from WildWestDye with brand new colours just for this kit: Polesque, Eros, SilverStar, and Tornado.
We have incentives! For those who complete the shawl by April 30th you will receive a $10 Baaad Anna’s store credit, and for those who purchase the Slipstravaganza Kit and complete by April 30th a $20 Baaad Annas’ store credit, both to be used online.
During these times of social distancing and limited interactions, this KAL will give us all the opportunity to stay connected, motivated and creative.
Materials Needed:
- 1963 yards (1795 m) Fingering weight yarn in four or more colours or one WildWestDye Slipstravaganza Kit
- 3.5mm/US 4 Needles
- Stitch markers
- Sliptravaganza Shawl by Stephen West Pattern
Materials can be purchased at Baaad Anna’s Yarn Store. (Current Canada Post shipping turnaround is min one week, please be sure to order supplies with enough time for them to arrive before the start of class; OR call (604) 255 2577 for more immediate curbside pickup which can be arranged any day Mon-Tues between 11am-2pm and Wed-Sun 11am-6pm)
DATES: March 14, 21 and 28th, April 11th and 18th and May 2nd from 11:00am-12:30pm PT
COST:
FULL KAL: $30.00 for all 6 sessions ∼or∼
DROP IN: $10.00 per session
HOST: Rebecca Glazier
