Monday, November 28, 2016

A Year of Knitting and Crocheting by KAL/CAL

It's been a while since I posted.  I'm sorry about that.  I had a church bazaar to work on and company for Thanksgiving.  The church Christmas bazaar is something I have been working on for the last 10 or so years at the chance booth.  My hardest part is what to choose to put there.  Luckily, I have some standards that are guaranteed to draw.  Everything else is usually hit or miss.  Our company came at the same time as the bazaar and happily they could help me and the ladies with the end of the chance booth chaos.  I also have not posted a new calendar for a while.  I'm looking into other ideas for classes. 

And now back to the regularly scheduled content.

I listen to many podcasts.  They keep my mind learning while I do the mundane chores needed for daily life.  They provide background noise when I'm working on patterns or classes.  I'm not much for the video podcasts, but the audio do a lot for me.  They sometimes inspire a pattern idea based on a half-heard project someone is talking about.  Mine never look like what the inspiration was.

One thing that is almost a staple among them all are the periodic KAL and CAL.  Some are a specific time of the year.  Below is a partial year list of what I have heard being done, I'm sure there are more but they didn't stand out in my mind while I was writing.  Others are when the podcaster gets requests to do one or has an interest in doing a certain designer's work (Big Bad Berg A Long) or a specific pattern and are not done during a pre-determined time of year.  This post will be a year long look at how you can participate in many different KALs and CALs.  For those who don't know, KAL is Knit A Long and CAL is Crochet A Long.  If I have missed your favorite KAL/CAL that is held at a specific time of year, please let me know.

An ongoing KAL/CAL is the SwAMo, Sweater A Month.  There is the 16-or-12-sweaters-in-2016 group.  Others are held as Instagram or twitter KAL/CAL and use hashtags like #operationsweaterchest and #operationsockdrawer

A quick search of Ravelry shows there are KAL/CAL opportunities galore throughout the year.  Some are dishcloth/blanket square related.  There are cowls and sweaters being done.

January:  Typically January is selfish knitting/crocheting month.  Many have spent December and probably November knitting for everyone else for gifts.  Thus is born the idea to spend a month on yourself. 

February:

March:

April:

May:  This month is the start of Stash Dash as proposed by the Knit Girllls.   This starts when the school year ends mid-May and ends when the new school year starts mid-August.  Can you tell one is a teacher?  The object is to finish as many things as possible during the summer vacation from school.  The rules can be found here.
 
June:

July:  This month sees something a little different, a SPAL, spin a long.  It's Tour de Fleece and follows the Tour de France bicycle race.  There's a Ravelry group for this here.

August:

September:  Those who go to wool shows or yarn conventions, Rhinebeck leaps to mind.  This is the month many knit their Rhinebeck sweater.

October:  This month is called by some Socktober.  There is a Ravelry group for this.  They love to see your socks year round.

November:

December:  This is the month that the Knitmore girls run their yearly KAL named the Grinch a long.  This is named because they have seen or heard for many years the "complaints" of having to do X big present for so and so or so many small presents for this group and always with a deadline.  They are having none of that.  December is for enjoying the season and the activities that bring you joy.  You can't do that if you are working to a deadline according to them.  And to a point I can see it.  So December is for working on the things you enjoy and taking time out to go to the parties of all kinds, children's functions (who doesn't enjoy a pageant when your child or grandchild is participating), and the activities you enjoy.