I love colour gradients and big balls of yarn, and when I searched on Etsy for those two things, available from a Canadian company, Monsoon Calamity came up. Her colourways are amazing, and I ordered several in both fingering weight and DK.
Pattern: Migration Shawl by The Blue Brick
Yarn: Moca Cotton by Monsoon Calamity, Haisley colourway, 1,050 yards
Weight: Fingering
Yards used: ~ 975
Cost of yarn: $49.25
I started knitting with the brightest of the colourways I ordered, completely out of my regular colour scheme. It was also the first time knitting a top-down shawl with a garder tap cast-on, which was surprisingly easy {yay for YouTube tutorials!}. I used a 32" needle, a 40" probably would have been more comfortable, because the stitches added up fast and it got pretty crowded. As I'm writing this I realize I could have switched to a 40" needle anytime, so duh.
It was cool to see the colours unfold, but it's definitely a bit more stripes and little less gradient than I thought it would be.
I had to cut the last section a bit short because I did too many pattern repeats in the beginning, not knowing how many I could do to use up most of the yarn; it turned out great anyway. The shawl blocked nicely, without pinning it down, and the unmercerized cotton is soft and squishy.
One thing that was a bit tricky is that the yarn is made up of 4 strings of cotton, so I had to make sure I always have all four strings on my needle. I also paid attention to the way I was holding and pulling the yarn to knit, because the four threads tend to separate easily and I sometimes ended up with one thread being much looser than the others.
Overall it was a great knit that stayed interesting with the pattern and having to pay attention. With knitting from the top down you don't see the finished product until it's done, and I was very happy with the result after binding off. With our move coming up in less than a week I didn't have as much time as usual to knit, the whole project took 3 weeks to complete.
I'm already thinking about what to knit in the other colourways - Tunisian Crochet might be neat to try?
What are you working on right now? Leave me a link in the comments, I'd love to check it out!
P.S. This post is not sponsored or endorsed by the pattern designer or yarn company.