Summertide Shawl MKAL by Helen Stewart.

Hello my friends, first I'd like to apologize for not been around lately but things have been very busy here. In the matter of a few weeks, we have sold our house, it is moving very quickly and I'm busily packing all our belongings into boxes, so haven't had much free time.

What I have been doing which I couldn't talk about, is an extra special test knit for Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade, it is the Summertide Shawl MKAL and is Helen's very first Mystery Knit-Along.

If you know Helen's designs, you will know she usually does the Curious Collective Shawl through the summer which is a Design Knit-Along where we got to vote on some of the design elements, which was always interesting to see what the final outcome would be. This was my shawl from last year which I loved with the cable and lace details.

This year, she has decided to do a Mystery Knit-Along which I think are so much fun and was very excited when Helen asked if I would test knit it. I knit it as a MKAL, so I didn't see any photos, I was just sent the clues as everyone else will be sent, I love the mystery part and having the anticipation of knitting the next section, not knowing how the shawl will look, though I knew it would be stunning as all of Helen's designs are. I really do enjoy MKAL's and the not knowing but if you do like to know, Helen will put a spoiler thread up which will be clearly marked, for those who want to have a sneaky peek at people's progress.

The design is inspired by those precious summer memories and as the summer comes to an end we can hold on to those feelings for just a little bit longer. The knitting is only part of the fun for me, the other is choosing the yarn, it is a two colour design, though it would work just as well with one colour.

When I have to chose more than one colour for a project, I go onto the web and type in colour combinations, you can get so much inspiration on there. I knew I didn't want to use the lighter summer shades but something a bit more dramatic, I found this photo and loved the dark green of the ocean against the grey clouds.

I decided to use Tosh Merino Light as I'd never used this yarn before and was one of the recommended yarns for the pattern. I bought mine from Meadow Yarn who I highly recommend for their choice of yarn and the super customer service. The colours I chose were Manor and Astrid Grey, I love both of these colours but the green is stunning and has so much depth with the different shades of green. The yarn is a handpainted, single ply merino, it is very soft and squishy, just how I like my yarn to be

The pattern will be available to purchase from the 1st September where you will receive a download with an introduction to the pattern, the first clue will then be released on Thursday 10th September, so the kids will be back at school, we're all back from our holidays and should have a little bit more time to ourselves.The clues will be released once a week, the last clue on the 1st October but you'll have plenty time to finish as the KAL will run until the end of October.

Helen is having a little giveaway over on the Ravelry Group where she is giving away 10 copies of the pattern, all you have to do is create a project page on Ravelry and post in the thread to say you're joining in, you can find all the Infomation on the pattern here.

I hope to see you all over on the Curious Handmade Group, the Chatter Thread is already very active, everyone is very excited about Helen's first MKAL and there are some beautiful yarn choices on there already.

Have a wonderful weekend

xxxxDebxxxx