What is a KAL?

When i discovered the world of modern knitting last year, i kept bumping into a strange abbreviation - KAL. Turned out it meant "knit-a-long". Folks choose a pettern, colour, theme etc, a timeframe, and all of them knit it, sharing pictures, knowledge and stories during the process.

I am not that much into collective crafting actually, but found those useful (for learning new techniques that might be difficult) and especially for sharing with others - both with giving and receiving feedback.

I was very joyful when i discovered a few days ago that a group of knitters has chosen one of my patterns for a KAL - as it was completely unexpected and i never heard of any of them, it was especially nice. They are kind folks and are doing it on ravelry, so if you are (or plan to) become a member: the pattern is 41g scarflet (also available free on this blog - the first link is for its Ravelry page) and the thread for the KAL is here. It runs thru the end of September but you will not be frowned upon if you happen to join them later, methinks. One of the members is now making her second scarflet already and plans for a third one.

Scotland

Just came back from Edinburgh. A few quick notes.

The city is beautiful and i was amazed how many houses - even pretty ordinary houses - are made of stone, or at least covered in stone plates.

The Scottish National Gallery has some very beautiful paintings.

The castle and its surroundings are picturesque and kind of noble.

Of course i went yarn shopping. Department stores such as Jenners and John Lewis have some yarn, but not a very wide selection and especially John Lewis have too much acrylic stuff for my liking.

The folks at ravelry.com pointed me to a local "knitting boutique" called K1 that ich much, much better. Beautiful, antural yarns, some local, some imported. Loved the colours and the whole experience. God myself a sweater quantity of this beautiful laceweight teal-coloured merino wool  plus two balls of alpaca which are intended as presents. Could buy the whole K1 stash though - and they are open 7 days a week and very friendly.