Westknits MKAL week 1 SPOILERS

 These past few weeks I've been a little quieter on the blog and socials. Some of you who follow me and also follow my dear friend Ted of Tedknits would know that he was over visiting for a few days.

.

Unfortunately he contracted Covid on his journey over and it meant that he was unable to travel home as scheduled, and his visit was spent mostly confined to one of our guest rooms.

.

I did my duty as a friend and made sure he took painkillers when needed and kept his fluids up. It also meant that I couldn't really do a lot so I took the opportunity to do something I haven't done in a while, and take part in a mystery knitalong. 

.

Ted was able to travel home a week after he arrived, and is now feeling much better, it was still lovely to see him, even though he felt rather poorly and didn't get to do any sight seeing on this beautiful island. 

So while Ted was resting, I cast on for the Westknits 'Twists & Turns' MKAL for this year. For those of you who don't know about MKAL's (Mystery Knit Along's), usually the consist of a pattern being released in weekly instalments, usually over a month or thereabouts. Each week a new 'clue' is issued by the designer, and nobody knows what the final item will look like until the end of the final clue.

.

They're hugely popular and a lot of fun to knit. The annual Westknits knitalongs are shawls, patterns are released in 4 clues, over 4 weeks, and people race to finish each weeks clue before the next one is released.

.

I will say that this one has been rather a toughy, don't get me wrong, I love everything about what I have knit so far, but I will say that clue one took me almost 2 weeks to knit, so while some folks were whizzing through clue 3 I was still finishing off clue 1. As of today I am 2/3 of the way through clue 2 and will share progress of that as it is finished. 

.

.

So here is my clue 1, finished, I absolutely love the effect of the braids, though time consuming to knit they are stunning, I can easily imagine a garment using them. For my version of the MKAL I am using all Easyknits yarn, of course, and using Mechanoid, Lavender Love and Yellow Brick Road as the accent colour, which so far has not been used, I can't wait to see it in action against the two more neutral shades.

.

Stay tuned for clue 2 soon, I hope to be finished before the final clue (clue 4) is released this week.