Photo by Aroha Knits

A few months ago, on a whim, I signed up for Francoise Danoy’s Initiate Knit Design Challenge.  She goes by Frenchie and is the designer behind Aroha Knits.  I went into that challenge knowing nothing about knitwear design, and after the five days she had me hooked.  Throughout the course of the challenge, from the chatter on the Facebook group, I heard so many wonderful things about Frenchie’s 5 shawls in 5 days challenge.  So when I saw that she was doing another one, I didn’t hesitate to sign up!  It starts July 25th and it is completely free, so you still have time to sign up, and no reason not to!

Here’s how it works:  Every day for five days starting Monday, July 25th, you will get an email from Frenchie.  For this challenge (although it is really more of a course than a challenge) the email will include that day’s shawl pattern along with instructions for how to knit it and Frenchie’s tips and tricks.  The purpose is to teach you the construction for a variety of shawl styles, but I can guarantee you’ll walk away from this with a lot more information!  You then knit a mini version of that shawl during the day and post a picture to Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #5shawls5days – at the very least post it to special Facebook group’s page (you get an invite link to that group when you sign up for the challenge!).  Then you repeat that each day!

Also, Frenchie will post a Facebook video in the group page each day where she will talk about the day’s assignment and any suggestions, resources, or tricks.  Having the videos during the Initiate Knit Design challenge really helped me feel like I got to know her, like we were friends and she was teaching me some new things about knitting – even though she was recording from Japan where she and her husband lived at the time!  I looked forward to those videos everyday, and I picked up a lot of useful information about knitting, yarn, designers, etc.   By doing everything on the Facebook videos and through emails, you can always go back and watch and read the information later, at a time that is convenient for you.  You can even keep those emails as a valuable resource for future knitting!  Posting the daily pictures with the hashtag #5shawls5days makes you eligible for any prizes, but there is certainly no negative consequences if you don’t, so there’s no pressure!

I’m particularly excited about this because the math behind various shawls shapes is currently over my head, even though I’ve knit quite a few shawls!  Understanding shawl construction, especially for unique shapes, will not only help me in knitting up any shawl pattern I want to, but it will also open doors for me to design my own patterns.  I have so many ideas in my head after the Initiate Knit Design challenge that I can’t wait to get started!

Someone suggested how cute all the little mini shawls would look in a frame together as wall art for a craft room or yarn studio, and I think that’s such a cute idea!

So, if you are a knitter and interested in learning more about making shawls and how various shawl shapes are constructed, join me for this!  You can sign up here and you’ll get your welcome email right away!