On day 2 I mentioned I knit a gift through a knit-a-long (KAL), well last month, I participated in an annual MKAL. The MKAL is a mystery knit-a-long, where hundreds(thousands) of knitters around the world participate in knitting something that is a complete mystery to us. We start out with suggested yarn, yardage, needle sizes and gauge that we’ll need to match for best results. We either buy the suggested yard, or stash-dive for an equivalent yarn weight and test our gauge to ensure we match. I generally need to drop 2 needle sizes, so this prep week is perfect for me. In this year’s MKAL I had to actually switch yarns because the one I started with just would not behave and match gauge even after dropping 3 needle sizes (see yesterday’s post about what happens alot over the holiday knitting!)
We receive clues once a week over the month of November, and end up with a finished project. Any MKALs I’ve participated in let us know the general category of what we were knitting (ie hat, shawl, socks, etc), so it’s not like we have no idea what we’re knitting, its just we don’t know what style or stitch pattern nor what it even looks like! I love the MKALs as I get a surprise at the end myself before it becomes a gift!
