KAL Fail

How shameful is it to not complete my very own KAL?Starting in early May, I hosted my first very own knit along. The concept was simple - find the oldest yarn in your stash and help it graduate to become and FO by June 30. I encouraged people to post pictures of their work with #GraduateYourStashKAL and offered prizes for finished projects posted to the Kino Knits Ravelry group page. I also cast on my own project, the Green River Shawl, using a skein and a half of yarn I bought at MD Sheep and Wool in 2005.I worked on the shawl during daily life in Nairobi, on a trip to Madagascar, a safari in Samburu (check out #knittingonsafari on Instagram), and, appropriately, at my own son's preschool "graduation." And here I am, on July 1, with an incomplete shawl. Oops.The only way I can explain it is to say that I was trying to finish two big projects by basically the same deadline - this 700-yard shawl by June 30 and a men's sweater by June 28. The end result being... neither got finished. My shawl still has a little ways to go, and the sweater has no sleeves or collar.In my defense, I will say that the shawl pattern has you repeat rows 49-96 twice, and I'm in my fourth repeat of that in an effort to use all my yarn. Because that was the point of this KAL - get that ancient yarn out of your stash! I will finish the shawl sometime in the next few weeks, so the KAL has served its purpose, though it does feel somewhat tacky not to have completed my own KAL. I think several others were in the same boat - but at least the KAL got them thinking about (and perhaps even casting on) that old yarn.However, Ravelry user blessedspeedy did complete her project. She knit a lovely Downtown Cowl out of yarn a friend had spun for her. As a result, she wins a prize of some lovely alpaca yarn and a Kino Knits pattern of her choice. Congratulations to blessedspeedy and thanks to everyone to played along!