We love a good KAL and as our summer shawl-along comes to a close, we’ve been enjoying seeing everyone’s finished shawl photos and reflecting on why we love KALs so much.
Firstly, what is a KAL?
A KAL or Knitalong is a group of people knitting a project together over a set amount of time and sharing their progress to inspire each other and keep each other motivated. They are usually organised over a thread of posts and comments online which becomes a great place to share ideas and resources, as well as for finding any knitting help or advice needed along the way. You can join in whatever your ability or skill level and post as much or as little as you like. Basically, a KAL brings knitters together and builds community around this craft we love so much.
Our summer shawl-along
At YAK we do one KAL for each season. We have just finished our summer shawl-along and it was (as ever) a friendly group full of pattern and yarn choice inspiration with lots of progress photos and beautiful finished shawls! We asked the group why they like joining a KAL and we thought we’d share their answers alongside some beautiful shawl photos to get us in the mood for our Autumn KAL.
Why we love a KAL
How beautiful is sueketley’s shawl on the far right! It’s the Alpine Sunset Shawl by Helen Stewart, knit with Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Singles. She wrote ‘I enjoy Knitalongs as it opens up conversations, gives me the opportunity to see other projects and to be inspired by them’.
jeepjelly also loved seeing the huge variety of other projects and seeing how different yarns, patterns and stitches all knit up. She wrote ‘this is all very inspiring and makes me want to cast on more and try out new yarns. And, of course, I love hanging out making with fellow knitters.’ punkmilk also wrote that she enjoys a KAL for the social aspect; ‘it is nice to work on something together and cheer each other on and see different colours and types of garments being made’.
There were also lots of comments about how Knitalongs help you to commit to finishing a project. Our summer shawl-along prompted tashalouizamc to finish not just one, but two beautiful shawls. She wrote ‘the bonkers Stephen West shawl I completed in this KAL had been hibernating for six months!’ Here are both shawls looking fabulous:
A big thank you to our shawl-alongers for sharing their photos and for contributing to this post.
Look our for our Autumn KAL by joining our YAK Ravelry group here.
No products in the basket. 