Fun
Knitalong Prizes: The Bangies
Dear readers,
Bang Out a Sweater, and all good knitalongs, are like the Academy Awards. It’s an honor just to be nominated, or in this case, to enjoy the friendly challenge and camaraderie of knitting something significant, together with like-minded people.
But we also think it would be fun to dispense a bit of recognition for Exemplary Performance in a Knitalong.
In the four Februaries we’ve been doing this crazy knitalong, this has been our most ambitious Bang Out a Sweater yet.
Choice can be bewildering, and this knitalong had so much choice that it could very well stop a knitter in her swatch. Which magnificent Norah Gaughan cable? And which shape: cardigan, pullover, or the neck napkin aka the capelet? Long sleeves, short sleeves, no sleeves, longer back hem? And then, which yarn? Of all the worsted weights and DKs in all the knit joints and all the stashes out there, not to mention the stunning original yarns for these sweaters in the MDK Shop, which one was a knitter to choose?
Yet, y’all did amazing. Our intrepid social media maven, Cristina Shiffman, had quite a time keeping up with you, sticking ormolu frames on photos and running them in MDK’s Instagram Stories.
Such fast knitters! Such perseverance! And yes, such love!
In the end, we had 5 prizes ($100 gift certificates to the MDK shop) to award. We put our heads together, looked long and lovingly at all the photos, and made tough calls.
We humbly present the 2019 Bangers of Merit Awards: the Bangies.
Tracy
Tracy banged out a perfect Calligraphy Cardigan, and added 3/4 sleeves. Really nice buttons. Looks great in this flat lay, right?
But there’s a kicker:
She made it for her mom.
Sweaters for moms are kryptonite to your Bangie Judges. We go weak in the knees. We want to cast on a sweater for the nearest available mom.
Lisa
Lisa, who is a mom, firefighter, fire police, and safety officer, made an intrepid modification to Norah Gaughan’s Swirl Topper cable that blew our minds.
Do you see it?
She modified the cable chart to extend the bottom tips of the swirls into tapering tendrils, as in Norah’s Calligraphy cable design.
All we can say is, wow. Such a nice detail.
Christine
New Jersey’s own Christine chose a deep green shade of Periwinkle DK to bang out a perfect fit for her Liberty Tree Pullover.
Christine radiates the contentment that comes when you knit a Norah Gaughan masterpiece in 28 days. It’s hard to believe that she’s fairly new to sweater knitting.
Bonus: we can check “get a Field Guide sweater featured in one of Christine’s signature kitchen FO shots” off our bucket list.
Courtney
Courtney took Norah’s Swirl Topper cable, garter-stitched the insides of the swirls, and topped a cardigan with it. The deep garter hem is so jacket-y.
We were also smitten to bits with this in-progress layout showing a possible cardi-tunic combo. Get busy and sew that tunic, Courtney! Such a good outfit.
Jamie
Jamie went for Norah’s Ladybug cable in a dreamy pink, and it turned out magnificently.
A cool thing about the Ladybug cable is that it really does look like an entomologically correct ladybug, but it’s kind of an undercover ladybug. If you don’t know what it is, it looks like a geometric medallion. Appropriate for all occasions.
So that’s all, folks! The orchestra is playing over the end of our remarks, but let us just shout that we are sending each of the winners a message so that they can claim their $100 gift certificates to the MDK Shop.
To our prize winners, congrats! Can’t wait to see what each of you makes next.
Love,
Ann and Kay
OMG! I am so excited! Thank you for hosting such an amazing KAL and for creating such a wonderful community. Congrats to all of the winners! P.S. I am from NJ. NJ All Day, as my brother would say.
Congratulations Christine! I I knew you could do it! You go girl!
Thanks, Diane! Thanks for cheering me on!
Woohoo!!!!!! Congratulations!!!
Thank you for creating such beautiful yarn! I am going to use my KAL winnings to buy more of it. 🙂
So happy to see you in the winner list – very richly deserved, especially as you had to start over, and still made the deadline!!!
Thanks, Victoria! That starting over made me nervous!
I feel you are a bi-State citizen and a New Yorker whether you want to be or not but I will make the correction!
Thanks, Kay! This is true, I am very bi-State.
What amazing work by the winners! By contrast, I’m still working on a Carbeth 🙂
Well, I’m still working (finally, and still working) on the Eddy Wrap! It may be practically vintage by MDK standards.
Great fun to see all of the variations on the theme(s) here and in other posts.
“Orchestra playing over our comments” — you two always win in the comedy and laughing-out-loud category!
The hashtag still welcomes you! Pretty sure you are not alone.
Well deserved accolades for these knitters- their FO’s are gorgeous!
Amazing creations by all the winners. Such an inspiration
Congratulations to the winners! It was so much fun and such an education to participate:)!
Oops! Need to add a big Than you to MDK and Norah Gaughan!!
You’re welcome, Patricia. We had a blast.
What an inspiring group of winners! Congrats to all of you. How nice to be recognized for your talent. So interesting to see the variations and possibilities this event produced.
Love Lisa’s modification, and the colour she chose really shows the cabling well. I am filled with admiration for your five fast knitters and for all the knitters who managed to complete a complex sweater project, some cardigans, in just one month! Wow, what perseverance and what efficient work!
Thanks MDK and congratulations to the winners. They are all gorgeous and inspiring. I love the colors, blue and green are my favorite to knit with.
MDK is the 1st email I open, so much fun and information.
Congrats to all of the winners! I’ve enjoyed watching their progress and seeing the final results. Every single one is so inspiring.
I am so impressed! I am not even done with a simple Cowl I started last month!
Such beautiful, inspiring sweaters. This is my first cable sweater and my first adult sweater. Until now I’ve only made baby sweaters. It takes me a long time to do each row but I’m determined! I’m making the calligraphy sweater. Looking at all the pictures of the beautiful sweaters helps to keep me motivated to keep going!
It will be great, Judy!
Wow! What beautiful work by such beautiful knitters. Y’all must have had a really difficult time choosing the winners
Congrats to all!!
Congratulations to everyone! I’m so inspired by your work.
Well done all! Very inspirational!! The possibility of this only taking a month … makes me re-think my aversion to sweater knitting.
All so beautiful, and so beautifully made! I only watched this Bang Out from the sidelines, but I am loving the organic root-y look of the Swirl design. I think that would make such a lovely capelet, in a nice semi-solid brown. Maybe Madeline Tosh Whiskey Barrel?
I’m so inspired!!!! Congratulations to the winners … your sweaters are GORGEOUS!!!
Congratulations to all the winners! So much great knitting here 🙂 While every one of you intrepid Bangers were (or still are) banging out bigger things, I was knitting my first colorwork mitts, which is why my enthusiastic applause may be sounding a bit muffled!
Trying to insert laughing with tears in eyes emoji….
They all look amazing!