MDK Gems: Norah Gaughan and Atlas Yarn

Norah Gaughan is a legend, period.

A giant among knitwear designers, she is a genius of construction, a master of cables, and a fearless innovator.

Our Field Guide No. 9: Revolution stars Norah at her finest.

These designs are an extraordinary chance to mix and match in Norah’s world. Three garment shapes. Three yokes. Pick your silhouette and yoke as you like.

Since this Field Guide launched, we invented our very own yarn, Atlas. It’s a superb mate to the beautiful swirls and twists of Norah’s Field Guide designs, and it works up at the correct gauge for all the designs in this Field Guide.

So: here’s our special deal.

Order any quantity of Atlas, and we’ll give you a free ebook download of Field Guide No. 9: Revolution, a $9.95 value. This special MDK Gems offer runs through Wednesday, October 25.

This Field Guide is such a gem! Here’s an overview of the options for your own Norah Gaughan sweater.

What are the designs?

Norah gives us three garment shapes: a sleeveless cardigan, a pullover, and a capelet. And three yoke patterns, all of which work with all three of the garments.

The three yoke patterns are interchangeable—mix and match pattern and garment as you like.

Calligraphy Cardigan

The Calligraphy Cardigan in Atlas, color Skyline.

With its short sleeves, the Calligraphy Cardigan gives us a new way of thinking about the garments we make. Wear this cardigan with a T-shirt, long sleeved or short, or button it up and wear it as shown.

The sculptural yoke shows us cable innovator Norah Gaughan playing with circles and curves, creating a yoke that looks as much like a calligraphy doodle as a knitting pattern. The scale is big—a juicy, dimensional design that is probably not like any cable you’ve worked.

You’ll need Atlas in these quantities to make the Calligraphy Cardigan as shown.

Bust Size/Skeins of Atlas: 28-30″ uses 7 skeins. 32-34″ uses 7 skeins. 36-38″ uses 8 skeins. 40-42″ uses 10 skeins. 44-46″ uses 11 skeins. 48-50″ uses 12 skeins. 52-54″ uses 12 skeins.

Take a look at the Calligraphy Cardigan we had knit up in Cork Atlas with the Elaine’s Capelet cable motif swapped in for the Calligraphy swoops.

sigh

Liberty Tree Pullover

A tree makes for a beautiful cable design. The cable’s branches intertwine, then fan out at the edge of the yoke, tipped in bobbles that are not too bobbly. They are just bobbly enough.

Bust Size/Skeins of Atlas: 28-30″ uses 8 skeins. 32-34″ uses 9 skeins. 36-38″ uses 10 skeins. 40-42″ uses 11 skeins. 44-46″ uses 12 skeins. 48-50″ uses 12 skeins. 52-54″ uses 13 skeins.

See all 23 colors of Atlas here.

Elaine’s Capelet

We had a bit of a time classifying this garment. Is it a cowl? A ruff? A neck napkin? It’s long enough, and stylish enough, that we settled on capelet. Whatever you call it, it’s just the thing to wear under a coat, for warmth without bulk. It’s a versatile addition to any wardrobe, and a gift that is sure to fit.

We proudly present the world’s first yoke sweater that is all yoke and no sweater. The yoke is the fun part of knitting a yoke sweater, especially so in this case, with pairs of cables that undulate instead of twist; they are easy to work but out of the ordinary.

Bust size/Skeins of Atlas: 32″ uses 2 skeins. 36″ uses 2 skeins. 40″ uses 3 skeins. 44″ uses 3 skeins. 48″ uses 3 skeins. 52″ uses 4 skeins. 56″ uses 4 skeins.

Choose your Atlas color here.

Ironworks Beret

This is a fantastic quick design for getting your start with Norah: 2 skeins of Atlas will get you this stylish topper. It’s delightful how clearly Norah’s cables evoke the lattice girders of the Eiffel Tower; they stand separately at the brim, and join together elegantly at the top.

To Recap

This month’s MDK Gems runs through Wednesday, October 25. We hope you hop on this Norah Gaughan bandwagon—you’ll be making yourself a beautiful thing to wear forever.