The Great British Baking Shawl by Mary Annarella

The Great British Baking Shawl

Knitting
October 2019
Fingering (14 wpi) ?
18 stitches and 32 rows = 4 inches
in Garter (after blocking the dickens out of it)
US 5 - 3.75 mm
1400 yards (1280 m)
Two Sizes: Long and Shorter
Flag of English English
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12 mini skeins of yarn, 4 clues, 1 designer with a really bad fake British accent….

An homage to The Great British Baking Show, this Mystery Knit-A-Long is calorie-free, campy, and lots of fun! We’ll pop on our Wellies, pull out our needles, and enjoy knitting a shawl with many layers and no soggy bottom. Everyone will be welcome to share favorite recipes, too, so we’ll all have plenty of new ideas for the holiday baking season.

Care to see an upper crust, incredibly serious-minded intro to the MKAL? View this video at your peril! (you have been warned…)

Dates of the Clues:
October 29th (clue 1), Nov. 5th (clue 2), Nov. 12th (clue 3), and Nov. 19th (final clue).

Looking for threads where we chat about the KAL? . All GBBO/GBBS mkal threads are right here in the Lyrical Knits Group

Yarn requirements are as follows:
12 skeins of yarn that are 133 yards each. This is a collaboration with Miss Babs Yarn, and they will be providing kits. Miss Babs will have kits listed here in late September Crown Wool kits will work nicely as will 2 of Babs’ gradient kits (choose 2 gradients where you like the colors together), or one of the 2-ply Quartets.

Other dyers are welcome to provide kits as well--if you are a dyer and would like to join in, please contact me via pm or email to be added to the list. Dyers are listed in the description at the top of The Planning Thread.

A 4 full-size skein version will also work and the pattern will include directions for this--either in 4 different colors or in a 4-color Fade--but be aware that this isn’t specifically a Fade pattern. If you work it with a 4 color Fade, you’ll have your colors mixed every now and then which will still be gorgeous, but not exactly a “fade”.

Detailed yardage estimates for the 12 skein version can be found right here

Gauge: 21 sts & 40 rows/4” (before blocking), and 18 sts & 32 rows/4” (after blocking the dickens out of it) in pattern (on the bias).

The shape of the shawl is part of the surprise, but i will say that it’s not a crescent. You will end up with a wearable wrap that works as a shawl, scarf, or even a lap blanket.

Skills Needed:
Without spoiling the mystery, I’ll let you know that there is no stranded colorwork and no brioche. You’ll only ever work with one strand of yarn at a time, but you’ll get a wonderfully colorful shawl. I hesitate to call this is pattern for a “beginner” or “intermediate” since we all have different ideas for what each of those means, but you basically need to be able to:
Knit, purl, increase, decrease, yarn over, slip a stitch. Stuff like that. There will be a few things here and there that you may consider a bit tricky, but there’s nothing over the top at all.
And most of all--no soggy bottom!