NaKniSHAWLMo

Hello again! Long time, no see. Just 3 months, right? A lot has happened. I've lost a total of 33.8 lbs so far, I've been knitting a lot, plus all the same ol', same ol' of work, kids, family, etc.

A couple of years ago, I participated in NaKniSweMo--National Knit a Sweater Month. Designed after National Novel Writing Month, it requires participants to knit a sweater of at least 50,000 stitches during the month of November. (Novel writers write a novel of at least 50,000 words.) I skipped it last year, but on Friday (October 31), I decided I wanted to do it again this year. Nothing like planning ahead, right?

Here's the problem: I've been on a sweater-knitting hiatus since I started my weight loss journey. I'm hesitant to spend time, energy, and good yarn on a sweater that might not even fit me anymore by the end of the winter. So, I started looking for patterns for very loose-fitting sweaters, which really aren't my style...  and I ultimately decided I'd create my own challenge:

NaKniSHAWLMo.

National Knit a Shawl Month.

I chose Leaves of Grass, designed by Jared Flood. It's a shawl that follows Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi Shawl construction, uses fingering weight yarn, and has more than 77,000 stitches. Perfect!

Here's the other thing: Progress photos of sweaters are much more impressive than progress photos of shawls. With a sweater, it's very obvious where progress has been made. With a circular shawl, it just looks like a bunch of yarn scrunched onto a circular knitting needle. See?

That was at the end of Day 1. Despite knitting more than 7,000 stitches on Day 2, it doesn't look much different:

(The color difference can be attributed to the fact that the top pic was taken at home, using incandescent and natural light. The one on the bottom was taken in my office, lit with fluorescent lights. The color is actually more accurate in the top pic--olive greens.)

So, anyway, Day 1 looks like a pile of yarn, and Day 2 looks like a slightly larger pile of yarn. Not very impressive.

To really see the design, shawls have to be stretched and blocked. When I stretch this bit (end of Day 1) over my hand, you can see one bit of the motif. 

Still not particularly impressive. Sigh. You'll just have to trust me as I report back on my progress.

I spent quite a bit of time on Saturday putting together a spreadsheet of how far I need to get each day. At this point, I'm a couple of days ahead of schedule. But, I worked an entire row wrong this morning before work. That will teach me to knit lace before I'm really fully awake.

Are you participating in NaKniSweMo? Would you like to join me for NaKniShawlMo?