Buttons! And a few questions.

     

     

We've got buttons for you, in 6 lovely colors to coordinate (or not) with your blog: raspberry, moorit, chartreuse, lake, plum, and brick. Use one or use them all! Remember to save the button to your own site; no hotlinking please. Use the code below:

<a href="http://strandedcolorwork.blogspot.com"><img src="YOURURL/YOURIMAGEDIRECTORY/btn_strandedkal_YOURCOLORCHOICE.0.jpg" alt="Stranded: The Colorwork Challenge" width="100" height="100" border="0"></a>

The KAL's starting this Friday; we'd love to get a feel of what everyone's doing through their blogs. (If you don't have a blog, you can leave your answers in the comments here.) Who's doing Fair Isle? Traditional Norwegian or Swedish (Bohus Stickning)? Who's working on their nth project? Here are a couple of simple questions to get you in the mood for colorwork.

What are your projects for this knitalong?

Is this your first colorwork project? If it isn't, what was your first, and has it survived the test of time?

Welcome!

hi ~ just a couple of days until the KAL starts, but i wanted to write a quick introduction and a happy welcome to all of you! so far, we're 35 41 participants and i can't wait to see the amazing knits we're going to make over the next few months. some people are starting after the holidays, some are making things *for* the holidays, but either way, it's going to be exciting.

i'm andrea and am pleased as punch to be one of your hostesses. i did my first colorwork last year during mj's great norwegian-knit-along - the flenten hat from bea ellis knits. i loved seeing the pattern appear and was pretty much immediately hooked to fair isle. soon after, i started the fair isle bag by beth brown-reinsel,bought as a kit from nordic fiber arts. i barely squeaked it in at the end of the kal, but i love love my bag. sure, it still needs a nice cloth liner, but that's just icing really. ;) i highly recommend both projects ~ gotta love the kits, and the end projects are beautiful. next up? too many ideas still bopping around in my head, but for now, i just started the turkish cape from a recent vogue knitting, am eyeing some poetry in stitches sweater kits, and am always up for another bea ellis hat. yup, ambitious, and probably unrealistic. ;)

so! looking forward to getting to know you all ~ again, welcome and hooray for the colorwork challenge!

p.s. don't forget to check out the flickr group.

Why yes, we have rules... (smirk)

Here are the rules, borrowing again from Sandy's Warm Hands Knitalong:

1. Knit something in stranded colorwork.
   
2. Knit them starting December 1st.
   
3. Or later.
   
4. Just knit them.
   
5. You must finish them
   
6. Or not. Your call.
   
7. Share your progress (or frustration. Or hints. Or tips) with us.
   

That is it. People, it'll be fun and inspiring, I promise! If you're interested in joining, email us at strandedcolorwork at yahoo dot com. Be sure to included the following information:

1. Your name (first name, last initial; you know we'll have duplicate names).
   
2. Your blog's url, if you have one. It's not necessary. If you don't have a blog, send us your photos and we'll post them here for you.
   
3. Your project. If you're not sure at this point, that's fine. The start date is December 1.
   

Photos © 2005-Present MJ Gumayagay.

The story behind Stranded: The Colorwork Challenge

Last year I started the Norwegian Knits-Along, a 6-month knitalong that eventually grew beyond Norwegian-style knitting into Fair Isle, Latvian and miscellaneous colorwork. The participation was great--50 plus knitters and bloggers joined in, some for the first time ever. It was a great experience for me to see all the beautiful progress photos, finished projects, and meet some new people. I promised I'd host the KAL again.



This year, I knew I wanted to do more colorwork, and host a knitalong, but I didn't want to limit it to one particular style. There are quite a few unique styles and patterns out there, and I didn't want to turn down anyone because they weren't knitting Norwegian-style colorwork. After discussing the KAL details with Andrea and Mary-Heather, debating on names and categories, we decided to:

1. Create an all-types-of-colorwork knitalong. This means, if you're interested in doing stranded colorwork, this is the place for you.
   
2. Create categories based on the colorwork style of a person's project. If you're making Selbu mittens, you're in the Stranded in Norway category. If you're making a Fair Isle vest, you're in the Stranded in the Fair Isles category. Simple, eh?
   
3. Make a separate blog for the KAL. Not that we have grandiose plans of duplicating the Knitting Olympics, Sockapalooza, or Socktoberfest, but we do anticipate a bit of traffic. Besides, having a separate blog frees your three hosts from excessive bandwidth usage. (Let's be practical here.)
   
4. Divide hosting duties. Last year, with 50+ blogs and emails to check, I slacked off on a couple of updates (well more than a couple). This year, Andrea and Mary-Heather actually volunteered to do updates. He he. Uh, thanks girls!
   
5. Host a gallery of finished colorwork projects. Click-thru statistics from my site showed that last year's gallery was quite popular. You know you love seeing finished objects!
   
6. List resources, vendors, books, online groups, and other colorwork information. Don't know where to find a great first project? Or are you looking for a pattern from an old book that's no longer in print? We'll post information frequently.
   

So. Here's my line: are you interested in doing colorwork for the first time? Do you have a colorwork project that's been languishing in the back of your closet? This is the KAL for you. Our targeted start date is December 1, 2006, with no targeted end date. If you're interested in joining, send an email to strandedcolorwork at yahoo dot com. Get your pattern books out, the Colorwork Challenge is here!

Photos © 2005-Present MJ Gumayagay.