Hi everyone! Fair warning, spoilers for the West Knits MKAL, Go Go Dynamo, ahead! It’s Sunday, so it’s time for a Year of Projects post. YoP is a Ravelry group of bloggers who plan their year of projects and then blog about them weekly. The calendar turning to October this week meant that it was time for me to officially start my YoP year, you can see my list of projects here.

But, the calendar turning to October also meant that it was time for the WestKnits MKAL to start! The first clue came out Thursday. This is my fifth year doing it, and I’m really excited about where it’s going so far.

This year I was able to pull yarn from stash. This is somewhat miraculous as the shawl called for two skeins of fingering weight yarn, and I almost always buy only one skein of yarn at a time. You would think after years of doing MKALs (not just WestKnits), which often require mulltiple skeins of one yarn, I’d start to plan accordingly when buying random yarn. And I mean I kind of did! The right hand yarn, some Fiber Optic Kashmir in the colorway “Nevermore,” I did buy at Rhinebeck 2022 together. The left hand yarn, some Laine And Lotus (sadly no longer dyeing), I also bought in 2022 with the intention of using for the MKAL that year, Twists and Turns. I ended up not using them because I didn’t like how it was going to look with my other options. I’m so glad I saved them because they look really really good with the Nevermore. I thought both would be a little too variegated, but so far the pattern is looking good and I’ve got good contrast.

I am finished with the first clue, which has 19K and change stitches, so I’ve done a lot of knitting over the past four days. I created a pattern tracker as I usually do, and this year it seems to be getting some traction on the forums which is cool. I like helping people be as odd and a bit obsessive about knitting as I am.

It’s a bit hard to get a photo of the whole thing of this right now, my 40 inch cable isn’t long enough and I was too lazy today to switch it out. But look how cool it’s looking! Stephen did his usual modular fanciness, and I’m exited to see how this continues to build! There definitely was a lot going on initially but now we’re on one needle so things have calmed down. No idea how long that will last, knowing Stephen and his penchant for funky construction but I’m excited about this right now!

I’m still working on my Lipstick lesbian socks, trying to maybe get these done by Saturday when I see my friend. I think it’s doable now that I have a few days to just work on them until the next MKAL clue comes out on Thursday. 64 stitch socks (I usually do 72 for me) really fly! Though I am a little worried about these being too small, so we shall see.

It’s been a pretty good week in non-crafting land too! I got some good things done at work, and lead a rehearsal Thursday when our director, music director, and choreographer all had to be out. Yesterday especially was really good. I spent the morning reading and knitting with Wasabi, then went to a local Pride event where I picked up some gorgeous prints. I then had a great time getting beers and food with my bestie, and we were treated to a nice sunset as we were leaving.

I hope everyone else had a great week! Looking forward to catching up with folks blogs tonight while I watch football and work on my socks.