Fun
Get Ready: Bang Out a Sweater Is Coming!
Dear friends in search of February fun,
Yes, it’s true! The longest-running knitalong in MDK history returns. Bang Out a Sweater is back!
This is our cordial invitation for you to join us for a month of beautiful knitting—it’s going to be a perfect combination of pattern, designer, class, teacher, and yarn.
Mark the start date on your shiny new calendar: February 1, 2025. By the end of the month, our goal is to have a finished sweater. (Which month, of course, is entirely decided by you. The fun here is to start big and it doesn’t matter, really, when you finish.)
The Plan
We all decide to knit a sweater together during the shortest, wintriest month of the year. The collective joy involved in this is hard to overstate. Over the years, hundreds of sweaters have been banged out. Lives were changed. New skills, new friends, so much fun.
The Pattern
The Bolin Cardigan by Norah Gaughan, from Field Guide No. 28: Renewal. The minute we saw this design, we knew it would be The One official sweater to bang out.
It’s so good. Kay has already made one, and declared it a sweet ride, start to finish. (Felted Tweed in Stone with Kidsilk Haze in Rose shown.)
Norah’s skill as a designer is on full display here: this is superb design, full of clever moments that are manageable to work and beautiful in the finished sweater.
The back is stockinette, with ribbing at the hem.
The Workshop
We’ve created a brand-new workshop for this.
Bang Out a Sweater: Bolin Cardigan with Lorilee Beltman. Three Zoom sessions, two hours each, will lead you through the steps to make this sweater. Tuition includes an ebook download of Field Guide No. 28: Renewal, so you’ll have the pattern when you sign up. Class recordings are sent soon after each session, in case you need to watch later.
The Teacher
The one, the only: Lorilee Beltman.
The accolades for Lorilee Beltman last year were five stars, off the charts, wow:
- I just delighted in the class. Lorilee is an exceptional teacher. Her organization is next level.
- Lorilee is the best online teacher I’ve “met.”
- Lorilee was fantastic and how she had her camera for us to see her work was excellent!!! So much fun, learning new techniques, customizing fit and trying new yarns!!!
- Lorilee is an amazing, patient teacher. Though I am not finished yet and did not really take advantage of the sessions live, I have the wonderful security of knowing that I have the recordings to refer back to!! Thank you, it was and is great!!
The Yarn
The Bolin Cardigan calls for two of our all-time favorite yarns, held together to create a sumptuous fabric: Rowan Felted Tweed and Rowan Kidsilk Haze.
We’ve created five colorways to make it easy for you to choose your favorite.
Find yarn quantity and size information for the Bolin Cardigan here.
(As ever, if you’d like to use your own yarn, that’s totally great.)
How to Join
Register here for this class. If you’re a charter member of the MDK Society, you’ll save 10% when you use your member coupon code, emailed to you on December 20.
Finally . . .
If you’re on the fence about taking a virtual class, here are comments from last year’s Bang Out a Sweater workshop.
- Thank you so much for these sessions. Each was more than worth the price. I have watched each 2+ times and am still learning from them. I will be referring to them in the future so am glad they will be available. Lorilee is amazing and most patient.
- Excellent instruction! I watched none of videos live (west coast/Alaska person) because the timing never worked BUT being able to watch the full recordings was great. I appreciate learning so many practical tips along the way.
- Hi, your knitting class was one of the very best that I’ve ever had. I’ve never done a sweater or used this type of yarn and I know I couldn’t have done it without your class!
Hope you’ll join us—sign up here!
Love,
Ann and Kay
Want to check in with all that’s on at MDK? Head over to the MDK homepage here.
I love everything about the Bolin sweater except I’m just not sure about the big sleeves. Any chance the class will cover where to do some shaping to make them a little narrower?
Your wish is my command. I am happy to do that for you and anyone else you have helped by asking this question. I’ll work out a suggested rate but also show you how you can make your own plan, especially once the body is knit and you have solid information on your row gauge.
We will also talk about shortening the sleeves for those who like to wear 3/4 length.
Thanks so much!
Hi Elyse! Let me check with Lorilee—chances are good that she’ll have ideas for modifications.
As for me, I have 25 sweaters with narrow sleeves, and zero with big sleeves, so I’m feeling like this is going to be the sweater to wear when I’m looking for coziness, not dishwashing! ; )
I had the same reaction, immediately picturing myself knocking over glasses or dragging my sleeve through my soup.
Great question Elyse.
My plan is to go Raisinets and popcorn while watching Wolf Hall for the third time. (Thanks, Kay, for the ultimate holiday binge.) ; )
That sweater is way too oversized for me. I hope you all enjoy!
Have you seen mine? It’s much more fitted than the one shown on the model. The perfect short jacket.
Hi Sue! I stole our sample Bolin to wear during the holidays—it’s an absolute hug of a sweater, really cozy. Need to figure out what color I’m going to make mine in. And maaaaaybe return the sample …
I’ve been considering this cardigan for a bit now-so lovely in its simplicity. Looking for Kidsilk Haze recommendations to pair with Turquoise Felted Tweed, other than the obvious turquoise. Any suggestions appreciated!
What about a dark green? That could be very rich looking.
I think Navy or grey would be great.
This is such a great pattern and Bang out a Sweater may be the push I need to cast on. If I recall correctly from Kay’s posts about knitting this sweater, the sleeves are picked up and knit down. I’ll probably keep the volume of the sleeves and do a fast decease for the cuffs. Maybe also add buttons. I think this would be a relatively quick knit based on gauge.
Navy or grey would be so pretty. The trick with picking your Kidsilk Haze is to know that the mohair casts a significant color haze over the Felted Tweed, so your Turquoise could be beautifully dialed back when knit with a deeper Kidsilk Haze color. Or kept vibrant if you go with a brighter KSH. Curious to know what you choose!
Great minds… when I saw Kay’s post and lightening quick progress on this I bought the yarn, already had the field guide. Blocked swatches YESTERDAY (yes, swatches, loose knitter here and I think will be on 4 and 6 needles and was about to ask Kay about what she did). Now I have an excuse to wait a month and start in on the sale Spin Cycle that arrived yesterday. Happy New Year!
What colors are you using? And yay on scoring some Spincycle in the sale—we’re all sold out, thanks to you!
I am marling Eden in Felted Tweed with Hurricane in Kidsilk Haze– more glorious than the sum of its parts and Cecelia has made a monster out of me! I also relieved you of the remainder of your potholder loops this year. My “semi sort of trying to partially retired” brain is ahead of my 24 hour days.
What is the yarn weight equivalent of the Rowan Felted Tweed/Kid Silk Haze combo. I would like to make this as multi-seasonal as possible and would like to hold a single strand rather than 2. From the cadre of yarn offerings at MDK, what would be a suitable yarn used by itself ?
Hi Barbara! The gauge for Bolin is 18 stitches + 26 rows = 4″. Worsted weight. Our Atlas yarn would work, I think, though swatching would be in order to be sure. It would have a different feel from the Felted Tweed/Kidsilk Haze fabric–a bit crisper, maybe a little less drape to the fabric.
Here’s Atlas: https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/shop/atlas/
And here’s the pattern page for Bolin, for reference:
https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/patterns/bolin-cardigan/
I see on Ravelry that people used Rowan kid classic. Would that be ok for this class. I don’t do well holding 2 strands together.
Hi Kate! It might be worth checking in with that knitter to see. Her finished sweater looks lovely–she added quite a bit of length, which is fun to see how Bolin looks in a longer length. https://www.ravelry.com/projects/daisyknits/bolin-cardigan
This is awesome! I planned on having Bolin as my New Year’s Cast-on with my friends as I fell in love with it as soon as I got the Field Guide. So I’ve got my yarn ready to roll. Now will save it for February as Lorilee has been one of my favorite teachers for years and I love Bang out a sweater month. Looking forward to this so much. Will make the Jacobs cardigan my New Year’s Cast-on as that was already queued up for this winter.
this looks great, really like the Bolin cardigan. But – do you have by any chance a photo of the cardigan where the model does not hold the arms crossed? Like a simple standing pose, arms at the sides so it is possible to see how the garment drapes? And for bonus a photo from the back? Cheers, and a happy new year!
Hi Petra! I just added a flat shot of Bolin to the post, so you can see what’s what. It’s a drop shoulder silhouette, added another photo that shows that aspect. No pix of it with arms at the sides in the photo bin at the moment. Basically: Felted Tweed + Kidsilk Haze together make an extremely soft, drapey fabric, divine.
thank you! And a Happy New Year!
I read about this workshop a couple of weeks ago whilst musing around the website. I’m on a yarn diet so I decided against it. Then a couple of days later I came back and signed up (I mean, Lorilee Beltman!) and ordered the yarn.
Should be fun.
Hi. Virgin sweater knitter with a question. Any recommendations for doing this in cotton or linen or silk – or a combination? I get pretty itchy with wools… I assume changing the fiber might have some impact on the structure or how the sweater lays – I’m new to big projects. Thanks!
Good question–I’m thinking Lorilee will have thoughts about this, better than mine. Substituting to cellulose fibers or silk, away from a wool-based design can definitely work, but it can be a little tricky in terms of just what you say, the structure and weight and drape and all that.
Will the Lounge be back for this event? I got excited when the quick tour overview link at the bottom of today’s (1/1/25) email led to the lounge but it wouldn’t let me post. I think the Lounge would really put the Society in the new MDK Society. Please, no Facebook.
You read our minds! We are working like beavers to get the Lounge all spiffed up for the MDK Society–we want everybody to hang out with everybody, so much! It’s been a set of technical tomfoolery in there, working with our web developer to square it all up. Please stay tuned–and thank you so much for your enthusiasm!
Thank you, Ann, looking forward to it! Technology gives and technology takes away. Good luck on scoring one for the humans!
I’m a bit concerned about wrangling two yarns *and* doing my first sweater at the same time. Can anyone recommend a good resource on working with two yarns? Anything here or on KnitStars or elsewhere? Maybe I could practice ahead of time. I looked on MDK but haven’t found anything yet and it can be mind boggling to find the good content on YouTube. I took Cecelia Campochiaro’s color explosion marled shawl class but haven’t begun yet because I haven’t got this resolved.
Thank you, Elyse and Lorilee, about narrowing the sleeves. They’re beautiful as designed but I think I’d get more use out of the cardigan if the sleeves were narrower.
P.S. I do see that Lorilee will be giving tips on working with two yarns in the first session. I’m just trying to convince myself that I can do it before enrolling.
Any suggestions for a greenish pairing of the Kidsilk Haze and Felted Tweed?
I’m so excited – my first time to bang out a sweater! (I’m just finishing the Shakerag Top I intended to finish last July 😉
There are so many greens in Felted Tweed Kidsilk Haze, hard to go wrong. It just has to do with whether you want to go light or dark, vibrant or muted.