It’s an interesting question isn’t it - and one which I’ve thought about a lot in my years as a knitter. It’s that time of year again when knitalongs abound and the FOMO (fear of missing out) is strong as I survey Instagram and see everyone’s amazing yarn choices and spoiler alerts.
It looks so tempting, and a very large part of me is desperate to throw my WIPs to the wind and dive into the glorious planning stage of a Shiny New Project.
Perusing websites, squishing yarns and generally having a lovely 'high-on-yarn-fumes’ time.
Because while you are in the planning stage, this project is perfect. It can literally do no wrong. It is going to be amazing, the best shawl ever.
But is it though? I think we all know the answer to this one and it starts with ‘Maybe…’.
With a mystery KAL especially there is always that tiny voice at the back of my mind that says ‘ah, but will you wear it though?’ Will it join the very large, 5-skein shawl at the back of the wardrobe that cost you an arm and leg, and yet to my shame I never wear.
Shame isn’t an emotion that I particularly want to have attached to my knitting, but nevertheless there it is. Looking at me every time I reach to the back of the wardrobe.
One argument for an MKAL is that you invariably learn something new along the way, and that’s undoubtably true but at the end of the day it’s all about balance. And I can learn new techniques once I’ve actually seen what I am supposed to be achieving.
I don’t deal well with uncertainty at the best of times and grappling with an unfamiliar technique when I’m totally in the dark about how it is ‘supposed’ to look can send my blood pressure sky high.
In addition, I have to be sensible (groans) and recognise that I have limited time available to knit the designs I have in my pipeline, never mind the socks and other items that my knit-worthy family ask for. When I do have a bit of knitting downtime, often I’m looking for something super simple rather than something that will challenge me. There’s a reason that I’ve knit over 10 Hitchhiker shawls.
And who would I be knitting it for? That’s a slightly more tricky question because then I would be forced to ask myself whether I’m knitting it for me, really for me, or so that I have something new and shiny to share on social media, so that I felt part of a club.
Obviously, this is entirely my own thought process here and I’m attaching no judgement of others to this at all - just sharing my own jumbled up thoughts. I have definitely taken part in KALs and MKALs before and had a whale of a time. I think it’s more a case of context - at a time when I have a lot going on, the added pressure of keeping up with a KAL can just feel like one more thing on my to-do list and no-one wants to feel like that about their hobby.
All this is a very long winded way of saying ‘it depends’ isn’t it?
I guess it just shows that we don’t knit in a vacuum and that our choices on what to knit are governed as much by timings and personal cicrcumstances as anything else.
How about you? How do you feel about MKALs - and are there are any particular designers who always have you rushing to take part? Or you happy to watch from a distance and maybe cast on later, once you have had a good look at it?
