Moonfleet

I'm doing another KAL this year. Last year I did the Secret Garden KAL which was a circular shawl and went to my mother-in-law. The shawl was beautiful, knitted with a silk/merino blend in a gradience colourway called peacock which went from green to purple.

I was so taken with the design and the whole KAL thing (KAL = knit along), that I decided to do another one this year with the same dyer (Unique Sheep) and same designer (Janine Le Cras).

The KAL this time round is called Moonfleet and is based on the same name book by J.Meade Falkner. It is a old tale, published in 1898, of smuggling, hidden diamonds and seafarers. I bought the audiobook and I'm hoping to knit and listen as I'm doing the KAL.

For the yarn I've chosen Marici, which is a 100% silk lace yarn, in the colourway Daybreak, a blend of yellows, orange, red, purple. It feels beautiful and the colours are just perfect. The design is going to be a rectangular shawl using beads. And that's all I know for now. The first clue is coming out this week on May 14th. I can't wait!

But we did get our swatch instructions last week and I got my first taste at using silk. It's nothing at all like wool or cotton. It's very very slippery and knots really easily. It took me 3 hours to wind the silk into a ball (by hand). I really need a wool winder! And then I had to try and knit with the slippery silk. It took me quite a few rows until I finally got the hang of it, kind of. If the yarn didn't look and feel gorgeous, I think I would've given up. But the end result of the swatch makes it worth it:

I'll keep you up to date!