Decided that this project will be aka Inclusivity and Honour to remember how beautifully Stephen has handled the situation that arose when the first version of clue 1 turned out to have some some similarities to a swastika completely by accident

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Summary of my shawl (see below for more details):
Clue 1 - original clue modified so that a swastika is not evident
Clue 2 - as per pattern
Clue 3 - as per pattern except that I carried the yarn up the icord for most of the second “wing”
Clue 4 - (note that the icords at both edges and the shaping at the one end was continued throughout as per the pattern) rows 1-7 as per pattern; rows 8-12 each have four increased stitches, a single stitch in each of four places per row, to create the 20 total increased stitches required for four extra dip motifs; row 13 as per pattern; row 14 plain p2tog rather than p2tog tbl; rows 15-18 as per pattern; row 19 has elongated stitches in colour D but the plain stitches in colour A; row 20 plain p2tog rather than p2tog tbl (in colour D, colour A dropped); row 21 as per pattern; row 22 knit rather than purl; row 23 purl rather than knit; row 24 knit rather than purl; rows 25-29 are divided into colour blocks that are each 40stitches across joined by intarsia, with the extra stitches added onto the colour block at each end, the pattern was: knit one row, purl one row, k2tog yo for one row, purl one row, knit one extra row; row 30 go to other end to work a RS row, knit (using bind off colour); row 31 purl (using bind off colour); bind off using: cable co 1, k2, k3tog tbl (moved down to 3mm needle and used just the tips for most of bind off, and back to 3.75mm for far end to match beginning), added in colour pops consisting of one bind off row of each of the other three colours, randomly along the bind off.

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The hype sucked me in!

I managed to snag a couple of S&P kits but the one I REALLY wanted (witchcraft)was already gone… never mind, I still count myself very fortunate to be able to purchase yarn at all and I am sure that the yarn I purchased will be absolutely gorgeous. that it gets here as fast as my last S&P order - just under a week!!! Amsterdam to east coast Australia in just under a week was pretty amazing … but I’m not holding my breath …

Bought the Mominoki yarn Sabi gradient set. Thea likes it , too, so I will use that and hopefully share the shawl with her
Colour A = Kerry
Colour B = Sabi
Colour C = Olive Green
Colour D = Teak

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Clue 1

Went up to a 3.75mm needle b/c I know I am a tight knitter without doing a swatch.

Visiting mum for the first couple of days of the MKAL and didn’t have my yarn, so I managed to only join after the whole “swastika” episode had somewhat settled. I didn’t want to do the simple gradient square that Stephen came up with within the first couple of hours (he is absolutely amazing). Rather, I wanted to do something that was somewhat reminiscent of the original design, keeping the retro feel and angular stripes, but without the swastika-like effect. I was thinking that keeping the original construction and aiming for more of a pinwheel should be possible by just playing around with the colour order. I drew up a couple of squares and picked out four green pencils (my yarn is green) and had a little play. I came up with:
Section 1 - DABC
Section 2 - DCBA … ABCD
If the knitting turns out something like my drawing I should be happy (I think??.)

Just wanted to add that I am knitting from the original clue one YouTube video. I have zero modular knitting experience and I was quite excited to be learning it here, so I need the original video in order to make my clue 1 square. Feels a bit weird to be knitting by following a video rather than from a written pattern or chart (I hadn’t printed or saved the original clue 1 before it was rescinded), but that is also a great learning experience … and one thing that I most love about Stephen’s MKALs is that I always learn heaps of new things!

Had to fudge my way through the last quarter of clue 1. I had been following the video b/c the original pattern for clue 1 was (understandably) rescinded. I really enjoyed learning the modular knitting, which I’ve never done b/f, and I prefer the retro, angular, directional, stripy square to the centre-out square that is the replacement clue 1. Also, there is a large stubborn streak to my nature that refuses to let the purveyors of hate steal even one more instant of time or one minute thing that is good about the world. I feel I have to concede that their theft of the ancient symbol that is the swastika has been successful, and it still remains in their hands, as is evidenced by the automatic rejection of the image that seems to occur by decent people, as well as the fact that hate groups continue to display a swastika as their emblem. I am hopeful that it will one day be released from the awful connotations - but that day would be quite a way off in the future. Stephen’s original clue 1 for this MKAL does NOT belong to those people, and I refuse to let them have it! I completely understand his need to replace the original pattern and, later, to take down the video that could be viewed by some people (or misappropriated) as having him delighting in his creation of a symbol of hate. This is completely the opposite of what he represents, though! Unfortunately, people can’t be trusted not to misinterpret things nor can they be counted on to not use media in whatever way they see fit … so, in reality, there really wasn’t a choice. The whole lot had to be removed.

As for me, I refuse to let awful people, as represented in hate groups, gobble up all of the time, money, effort, creativity, good will and excitement that the original clue directions represented. I won’t let them have it. With every stitch of my first clue I was thinking of Stephen and how, by just changing around the colour order, the original design and the instructions for creating it still represent a thing of beauty, a thing of creativity, a thing of goodness. I fully realise that my insistence on using those instructions could well forfeit my ability to actively participate in the MKAL. I am fine with that! My stance in refusing to let hate groups steal even only one more tiny good thing from the world, as represented by the clues in Stephen’s MKAL, is more important to me than being part of the excitement and chatter and in the line up for prizes. By utilising the (modified)original clue to make something lovely, I feel that I have somehow reclaimed a standard that was lost in battle, or stormed a castle keep to retake something that was stolen, and brought it back out into the light (that was me waxing lyrical and overusing dramatic metaphors, sorry). If Stephen ever needs reminding that his original clue was a thing of beauty, not a thing of strife and unrest and grief and hate, then my project will be here!

… I love that my clue 1 has a strong cross image . I also love that it is quite windmill-ish, taking all of that hot air full of strife and using the energy to create some beauty …

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Clue 2

I have chosen not to embellish my clue 2. As nice as it would be to join in all of the fun and creative colour popping, fluff-adding, and bead depositing, I am really appreciating the basic design at the moment. Also, I like my knitting to be actually used, and the reality is that it is probably more likely to be used without too much in the line of embellishment … plus, I don’t think that I currently possess any beads or fluffy yarn (would have to be alpaca b/c we can’t use mohair in our household) that I would like to add to my project so far …

After knitting the first half of clue 2, I have to say that I really like the simplicity and I really appreciate how the uncomplicated textures are contrasting with the relative homogeneity of the texture of my clue 1.

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Clue 3

This clue is proving interesting! For the first half of the clue, I employed my usual “elongated” yo technique for the slipped stitches, completing them on the following row by dropping the long strand to the correct side of the fabric. This technique gives just a smidgeon more length to the strand (if you are careful not to pull too tight), which is great if you are a tight knitter like me, and is also (usually) a time-saver b/c you don’t bring the yarn back to the correct side of the knitting after slipping the stitches, you just start working again, letting the yarn come over the needle. However, I found the first half of this clue bizarrely tough going. The techniques used are actually quite simple! A couple of times I even found that I had one more stitch than needed and I was completely unable to find why - so I fudged with an extra decrease at the end.

For the second half of the clue, I decided to experiment by changing back to the traditional way of handling the yarn for slipped stitch knitting - ie, moving the yarn back around to the correct side after slipping stitches in order to continue working. What do you know!?!?!? This half of the clue is proving much less taxing and, I think, is moving along faster, too! I am thinking that the way that the pattern moves along the rows stepwise in one direction and then the other direction might somehow have been stressing my brain out with counting and automatic pattern recognition etc by requiring it also to recognise when a yo needed to be dropped … maybe??? In any case, I’ve done around a third of the second part and it has been smooth sailing so far …

So, definitely “less haste, more speed” was true for me during clue 3!

Apart from teaching me the technique of creating patterns using floats on the right side of the work, this clue has also taught me that there is a lot of benefit in having a think about how to treat your ends b/f diving in. The first half of the clue, I wove in my ends using the doubled Weavin’ Stephen technique (when I remembered) which resulted in some floats across the wrong side b/c the ends couldn’t be woven into the stitches that were slipped during working. I actually ended up weaving in most of those ends through a few more stitches via a yarn needle, just to be sure they were secure enough. The wrong side floats do look a bit decorative, I suppose, but they really don’t fit my idea of “securing the tails” because they actually create more opportunities for the strands of yarn to get caught on something. Prior to starting the second half of clue 3, I had decided that I would only do the doubled Weavin’ Stephen for a few initial stitches and then leave enough to weave in via a yarn needle. This would have been better than what I did in the first half of the clue, I think, and it definitely went ok for the few stripes where I did it. Not too far into this second half of clue 3, though, I decided to “bite the bullet” and figured out in my head how to run the non-working yarn up the inside of the icord, and that is what I did for the rest of the clue. Not only did this result in a much tidier wrong side of the fabric, it also saved yarn b/c no length had to be given over to creating tails for starting or finishing a new colour, and it saved time b/c there is next to zero weaving in required.

… running the yarn up inside the icord also means it is easier to appreciate the lovely, pebbly-textured undulation of the colours on the wrong side of this clue!

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Clue 4

Goodness me! That is a LOT of stitches to pick up!
… I’m not quite sure that I like the finish, to be honest, but it will do me good to learn a new stitch (dip stitch)…
…maybe if there was just a tiny bit more of a flare in the fabric???
…or maybe if it wasn’t quite as solid???

It is unlikely that I will add the fringe, but I do like how it adds shape to the icord bind-off

I’m considering adding just a few more stitches into the fabric, so I experimented with ways to do this when I did my swatch. In the end, I tried to create extra motifs by adding single stitches every row, starting with the p2tog. row, in between two motifs. In the end, I don’t think it really matters what kind increase you use b/c the fabric created by these increases will be covered by the elongated loops. Backward loop cast on and normal m1 increases probably create the tidiest finish …

I’m also considering adding a stripe of eyelets b/w the last dip stitch row and the bind off, in order to create more light, interest and movement, and tie it to clue two in the body of the shawl …

In the end, to create the four extra dip motifs, I laid my shawl out flat and put a marker at approximately each of the bottom corners, making sure to be between motifs, and then another marker halfway between those two (which happened to be in the middle of a motif). On the p2tog tbl row, I added a single backwards loop cast on at the two corner markers and another single backwards loop cast on on either side of the motif that is halfway between them. On the subsequent rows, I added a further single backwards loop cast on in each of these places, always ensuring that the cast on was placed immediately next to the space where the elongated stitches would be pulled through rather than along the other edge of the increased stitches or in the middle of them. This meant that by the time the next dip row came along, there was a very tidy increase triangle that could be integrated into the dip pattern seamlessly. If you know what to look for, it is quite obvious, but otherwise I think these increases work in fairly unnoticeably.

…I think I will create a project for dip stitch ideas and swatching. There has been a bit of a frenzy in my brain about variations to try, for some reason …

Oh my Lordy, there must be something exceptionally wrong with me!!! After obsessing with getting the first couple of dip stitch rows perfect so that they pretty much lay flat, and then doing a plain p2tog on the way back of the second one instead of p2tog tbl (to create a beaded kind of subtle horizontal interest), I had the “brilliant” thought that it would look great if I could have the little plain horizontal “beaded” row (which is actually created b/c the normal stitches in the dip row are flipped in front of the elongated stitches when the following purl row is plain instead of tbl) as a bit of a colour popping horizontal feature … sure that wouldn’t be too difficult, right!?!? Oh dear - it probably would be really really simple for someone with lots of stranded colourwork experience - but that is not me! There has been a bit of experimentation that has revealed quite a few different ways of achieving the required alternate stitch colourwork for the dip row, to my surprise. This even includes a few ways where the elongated stitches are done separately (on a different needle, even)to the plain knit stitches and then arranging them appropriately on the same needle. You could probably even wait until the ws row b/f putting them together, if you wanted to. In any case, after a couple of goes through the motif where the two colours were kind of woven or knitted around each other, I eventually settled on a method where both the elongated and knit stitches were done simultaneously, holding the dark yarn (for the elongated stitches)in my left hand, and the lighter yarn (for the knit stitches) in my right hand, and alternating which stitch is done (as per the pattern). It actually occurred to me that some of these different methods might be helpful for some people who are finding this particular stitch difficult …

Anyway, so I did the plain p2tog for the ws row, then a plain knit row. The dip stitch colour pop worked a treat!
Now, I had enough of creating multilayer fabric. It doesn’t even get cold enough to frost where I live, so even though the plush, snuggly, somehow “fitted”-looking finish to Stephen’s design is gorgeous, I wanted my project to have a bit more movement, drape, stretch and lightness to it, because that is more likely to be a good fit for my own shawl wearing. I decided that adding in some rows from clue 2 would probably be a good way to create the kind of fabric I wanted whilst also creating some unity in my finished project, so a reverse stockinette welt and some eyelets were planned. I knew that I wanted to do the bind off in my darkest colour for both aesthetic and practical reasons, but there was a real danger of making the shawl look too dark and kind of drab if I didn’t find some way of adding the lighter colours.After having a good think about what I would like the shawl to end up looking like, I decided to kind of colour block the eyelets in groups of around 40sts. I did this via intarsia, but having thought about it further, there is no reason why it couldn’t be done modularly, or even just in sections without joining the sections together (unlikely to matter b/c there are eyelets anyway and the whole thing is only a few rows vertically). If you did it modularly or separate sections, you wouldn’t need to worry about how much yarn to wind off for each section, nor would you need to worry about the great big knot of bits of yarn at the back, as I did with intarsia. The intarsia does look very neat and seamless, though. After coming back across the ws to complete the eyelets, I decided that the eyelets needed another knit row so that they didn’t become a bit swamped b/w the reverse stockinette welt and the bind off. I didn’t want the edge to curl and nor did I want the colour from the body of the shawl to be visible in the bind off, so I decided a couple of rows of garter (both rows knit stitch) in my bind off colour was the solution. To do this, I needed to start at the opposite end of the row from where I just finished. Then I just needed to bind off …

The bind off:
I love icord bind offs! For this project, I wanted to have some little flashes of my lighter three colours occasionally along the length of the icord, and I had decided that I wanted to do this via single rows here and there. Years ago, I had accidentally discovered a way of making the icord stitches spiral and I thought that this would be great - but I couldn’t quite remember how to achieve that, so I had to do some experimenting. After a couple of false starts, I did this:

• With the stitches to be bound off plus three icord stitches on the left needle, cable cast on one stitch
• K2, k3tog tbl
• Return the 3 sts on the right needle back to the left
• Cable cast on one st
• K2, k3tog tbl
• Return stitches to left needle
• Etc etc etc … I hadn’t rediscovered my spiralling icord, but I HAD discovered a really nice-looking bind off!!! At that gauge, it was stretchy, didn’t seem to roll, had a wonderful, unusual raised “spine” along where it joins the project, and was really complemented well by the garter ridge that it sat against. I soon discovered, though, that it was going to flare. In some projects I probably wouldn’t mind the ruffle that that would create. It might even be helpful when the fabric is something like lace. I really didn’t want a ruffle on this project, though. I had 3mm needles handy so gave that a try (the other needles were 3.75mm). These were much better. The bind off isn’t anywhere near as stretchy but it does still have some give and seems to allow the project stitches to lay quite naturally. The single row lighter colour stripes are easy to add and it is extremely easy to get the yarn tails held nicely along the back of the bind off without showing through. It will be very interesting to see what happens to it with blocking, particularly in relation to tension …

Blocking
See photos
Soaked in Soak for a few hours then carefully squeezed, placed in a towel, rolled up and squished, unrolled, rolled in other direction and squished. Repeated in a fresh towel.
Placed in the centre of four blocking mats. I was hoping that it might fit diagonally, but it doesn’t. Gently arranged clue 1 approximately where it would finish up and pinned the centre top. Pinned the centre bottom of clue 1. Arranged the top of clue 2 on one side how I wanted it (not much stretch in order to retain the 3D welts, but enough to open the eyelets). Pinned top of clue 2. Then did the rest of clue 2. Note: clue 2 needs a reasonable number of pins if you want to preserve the welts so that enough tension can be placed on the pins to open out clues 3 and 4. I used my knit blockers for the first time - will be buying more!!! It was difficult to know what to do with clue 4. I wanted to apply enough stretch to even out the dip stitch, but I would have liked to preserve the welt. I wanted to open out the eyelets, too. In the end, I basically decided not to worry too much about the clue 4 welt and just gently stretched everything out and pinned it.
The points were coming off the mats. This actually made things easier b/c the mats were placed in an elevated position and a somewhat heft coat hanger hung from each wingtip. Seems to have worked very well!!!

Now I just need to decide if I want to put an official MKAL tag on it or not