About two months ago, I signed up for my first mystery knit-a-long (MKAL): the Beyond the Wall MKAL (Ravelry link).  I honestly didn’t know what I was getting into; I’m so used to being able to check my progress against provided photographs that I found that the hardest part of the whole thing.

So, the good parts.  First of all, the yarn (a custom dyeing of Lorna’s Laces Solemate) was perfectly lovely to work with.  Soft, squishy, and a pleasure to knit.  And the project was a relatively quick one – about a month to a completed shawl.  And then for the less-good: bobbles.  Bobbles bobbles bobbles.  And I’m not particularly partial to the end result.  For a theme like “beyond the wall”, I’d hoped for something a bit more involved than what it is.  But that part was really my own fault: I could have, and should have, reviewed the designer’s other patterns.  A quick look at those would have told me what I needed to know, mostly that this designer isn’t big on lace, and I love lace in my shawls.

Overall, I’m glad I did it, though unsure whether I would do it again.