Tour de France KAL preparation

It might seem premature, but I’m gearing up for my fourth annual Tour de France Knit Along (KAL). Each year I come up with a shawl design that has some inspiration taken from France. I put up some lovely prizes (yarn, patterns, and perhaps more), and the KAL is run out of my Ravelry group.

This year’s inspiration came from my trip to Paris last year. We spent a few hours in the Père Lachaise cemetery and I took quite a few pictures of various gates. Here are the two gates I ended up drawing from for my pattern:

I went looking for yarn to match the gates and I found “Don’t Blink” from Indigodragonfly (3 skeins of Octobaa):

If you want to join in the KAL and use this colour too, you’ll need to act quickly and order the yarn soon. The Tour de France starts on June 29th and the yarn will need to be dyed up especially for you. So head on over and have a look at the Indigodragonfly order page. When you email in your order, do mention that it’s for my Tour de France KAL.

The pattern is a top down triangular shawl that can be knit in a variety of sizes by adjusting the repeats of one of the charts (0, 1, or 2 repeats for a small, medium, or large shawl).

To knit this shawl in the medium size, I recommend the following amounts of yarn:
Lace weight: 625 yds (so 1 skein of anything except the MCN Lace, because I want you to have enough yarn)
Fingering weight: 750 yds (so 2 skeins of any of the bases that strike your fancy)
DK/Sport weight: 800-850 yds (I *just* had enough with 3 skeins of Octobaa, which is 270 yds a skein)

If you’re not sure that “Don’t Blink” is the right colour for you, look at the special colourway to help with flood relief in Minden. And have a look at the other colours available. I’m knitting a lace version of this shawl with Merino Single Lace in “Tardis”, which is a gorgeous deep blue. I was also heavily tempted to buy “Unemployed in Greenland”, as it was also a close match for some of the gates. Well, that, plus I love The Princess Bride.

Look for more information on the KAL here in the next month or so. Hope to see you during the Tour!