dsc02654You know that I have been spending most of my knitting time on making a blanket-sized Girasole. (I’m making it in Cascade Eco-Alpaca. I love this yarn. Mine is going to look very similar to the one James did.) I am done with all of the charts (yay!!) and am working on the 214 edging points. Really, I ought not to have figured out that total. As of last night, I had 54 edge-points done. This pattern has turned me into a chart reader and I couldn’t be happier about that. I need to be a chart reader – it’s faster than reading instructions line by line, and it opens up a lot more pattern options. It was a perfect first BIG chart project to knit. And believe it or not, I want to make another Girasole, this time in laceweight. I happen to know quite a few people who have made more than one. That ought to tell you what a great knit it is. (Edit – a few of you have asked in the comments if this is a difficult knit. The answer is no. That’s one of the beautiful things about it. It’s mostly K, K2tog, SSK, and YO. Maybe some of you who have made one can jump in on the comments below to share your experience with it. I find it relaxing to knit because each line of the chart is easily memorized – and I’m bad at memorizing – and it just goes so smoothly. That’s why I’m wanting to make another right away.)

I decided that I’d like company in this project, and am turning it into an official Loopy Knit-A-Long. Come join me! You can start now. Or if you’re in the middle of one already, join in with that one. Let’s say (for Knit-A-Long purposes) that it needs to be finished and photo-ed and up in the Loopy Photo Gallery by Oct. 1st. I predict many of you will be done in 3 weeks, because it’s addictive.  But we’ll say Oct. 1st, officially. And that’s not all. We’re going to offer you a 20% discount on the yarn to KAL with us! The discount is good on whatever yarn you want to pick out to use for your Girasole project. It’s only good on one colorway/one yarn type, so make sure that you decide on the weight/color you want to use, before you put an order in. Since Web Guy is still out of the country and can’t doodle up an automatic code thing-y for us, we will have to manually deduct the 20% discount, after you have put your order in. (We don’t collect any funds from you until your order is packed up and is shipping out, so we’ll only collect the correct, discounted amount. When you get your “shipped” email, you can log into your Loopy account and click on that order to see what the final total ended up being.) Important note: if you want free shipping on this order, be sure to mentally figure your subtotal after discount to be sure that the discount doesn’t take you under the $75 threshold when we adjust the price. If the adjusted discount drops you below that $75 amount, we’ll add the regular $5.95 shipping charge back in. (And did anyone want to ask me how I feel about the post office continuing to raise postal prices? Because I’m happy to go on and on about it….)

To take advantage of this offer, you must add an order note to your order, telling us that 1) you are joining the KAL and 2) which yarn you are planning to use for it, so we know which one to apply the discount to. Like this:

“I’ll KAL with you! I’m making my Girasole out of the 9 skeins of Cascade 220 in blue that I just bought.”

or

“I’ll KAL with you! I’m making my Girasole out of the skein of Perchance to Knit Lace in Berry Sorbet that I just bought.”

The “20% off your Girasole KAL yarn” offer is good from now until June 15th. One discount per person. Good on in-stock yarns only. (No special orders for this.) We’re keeping a list of everyone who signs up and will look forward to seeing all of the finished photos. I hope that a lot of you join me in this KAL. We’ll start two threads on the Ravelry Loopy Groupie board – one for those making a lace/fingering/dk shawl-sized version and one for those making it in the worsted blanket-sized version. (And if you already have something in your stash that will make the perfect Girasole, just hop in and join us, too.) Yardage-wise, the pattern mentions using 1150 – 1800 yds, depending on the weight. I think I will end up using 8 skeins of Cascade Eco-Alpaca for mine, with a size 9 needle. That’s 1760 yds, so that falls right where it’s supposed to be for the worsted version.

You can buy the Girasole pattern here on Ravelry, or here on Jared Flood’s blog.

Sheri sowho’supforKALingwithme?