- Pattern: Slipstravaganza by Stephen West
- Yarn: MC – Louet Gems fingering in Eggplant CCs – Casual Fashion Queen Sparkly Merino sock in a club colorway, Nox Yarn Co Vesta Fingering in Frou Frou Foxes, Nooch Fiber Midtown sock in On Loop
- Timeline: cast on 10/9/20, cast off 12/7/20
Yeah, I really love this! I had been scared of Stephen West patterns for a long time, but I decided to really embrace this one. One side effect to working from home for 9 months is that I’ve expanded what colors and patterns I’m willing to make for myself – before I felt like I was defined by what I perceived to be “professional.” Anyway, this shawl is big and out there and fun but also very wearable! I’m really happy with the colors I chose. I don’t usually trust myself when trying to match colors, so the fact that I could do this all from stash and it actually looks good was a big, big win (and probably a sign that I have too much yarn, but we’ll ignore that part).
The one modification I made was to end a little early. I had gone up a needle size from recommended, I didn’t swatch but I’m usually a tight knitter. Also the MC was a bit plumper yarn with less than 400 yds per skein, so those two things combined meant I was short on MC yardage. I did 4 ending Chevrons instead of 6, and made the last stripe one garter ridge of each color. I finished with 3.8 g of the main color left, which wasn’t even enough for one row at 940ish stitches!
This was really fun to knit, each section was different but also relatively easy. I didn’t finish in the MKAL timeline mostly because I was working on a sweater that took priority, not because of anything wrong with the pattern. I will say though I probably would have struggled to keep up even if it was the only thing I was knitting, there are a lot of stitches each week in this thing. I was able to do a lot of reading while working on it – it’s a really perfect blend of looking super complex and impressive while being relaxing to make.
I think my favorite section is those middle diamonds – look how cool they look! Each section flows really nicely to the next also, though if you look SUPER hard you can see that going into the checks after the diamonds, the center stitch shifted over one. Grr! It’s totally not at all noticeable unless you’re up close lol.
Overall super stoked with this. It definitely got me out of my comfort zone and wanting to explore more Stephen West patterns!
Awesome job!
This looks awesome! Though it does highlight my biggest issue with Stephen West patterns: they all seem to be HUGE. I just don’t usually have enough patience with shawls to knit ones that are as big as his patterns that I’ve seen. 🙂 Oh—and agreed. That diamond section is really neat.
Yeah that’s true – it is quite large! Nice sometimes but certainly not what I want to do on every shawl.
Fabulous
I looks SO GOOD on you!! And I really think that you made it big enough, it might be hard to style if it was larger. The colours work so well together! Super great project. 🙂
Thank you so much! The pattern as written wouldn’t have added too much length, I definitely would have done it if I had yardage, but I also appreciated the shorter timeframe 😀
This shawl rocks! It’s so awesome!
I spotted this on your IG earlier and it is lovely! The best part of it all is the HUGE smile on your face!!
Love this
You did a wonderful job on this – it is lovely! And it looks great on you, also! Love the colors you chose – being able to do it from stash means your stash is doing what it’s supposed to do. Living your best yarn life!
Kath! This is amazing! It’s so beautiful – your color choices were perfect.
I did a Stephen West KAL a few years ago and ohmygoodness – each clue was massive. It took me almost a year to finish it up. You made excellent time with yours! Stephen West seems like an amazing teacher though – if I remember correctly, he provided patient and kind videos for all of the tricky bits. I’m glad you took the plunge 🙂
Thanks so much Katie!
Yes the videos were very helpful for sure. I feel like I only finished this in the relatively short timeframe because it’s 2020 and I had a bunch of days where I did almost nothing but knit! I can’t imagine trying to keep up with one in a normal year!
It is gorgeous! Congrats, that looks like a difficult pattern!
It really wasn’t difficult. This has been my favorite of stephen’s patterns!
It’s just gorgeous. It looks like stained glass!
Amazing. I love the colours you’ve chosen.
Likewise, I have been shy around Stephen West’s patterns but your shawl is an inspiration!
Thanks so much!