Fun
MDK March Mayhem: Bracket Preview Today!
With a giant snowstorm sweeping up the coast, we declare a snow day for everybody. To celebrate, we present a sneak preview of our first-ever, grand gesture toward group fun and celebration of excellent knitting designers.
[Read this in echoey, drag-racing announcer voice] MDK March Mayhem.
The goal: to arrive at the Champion of MDK March Mayhem on Monday, April 3, 2017. It will require five rounds of voting over three weeks.
To be clear: today is not a day for voting. That comes tomorrow. Today is a day for browsing, for admiring, for having your mind expanded a little at the cleverness of today’s knitting designers.
The Champion will be the pattern that survives a romp with 63 other patterns. The pattern that we will likely cast on as soon as possible—and as soon as we finish that one, we’ll start the next 63.
The Selection Process
Like the NCAA basketball tournament, MDK March Mayhem begins with a selection process. This is a fairly excruciating effort, where a total of 64 patterns in four categories are chosen to be entrants. The criteria are many: these patterns were published in 2016, with two wild cards as exceptions. They are all available online, with a couple of exceptions. We stuck to four categories to keep our heads from exploding at the possibilities. And none are free patterns, with one exception, because we like it when designers get paid for their work.
The committee, aka Kay and Ann and unlimited cell phone minutes, gave up precious knitting time for this effort. This was, as you can imagine, not easy. We sort of hated this process after a certain point. We grew to mutter the word bracket like an epithet. But we persevered because a) we were halfway through the bracket and b) we kept finding patterns we loved.
Love (and LaraBars) carried us through.
The ultimate measure of these patterns: we want to make them. Every single one of them. We are in awe of the innovation, creativity, and mathy brilliance of these designers.
How the Voting Will Work
This is not a head-to-head competition, at least in the first rounds. We do not want to see Amy Herzog duke it out with Kate Davies. (Or do we?) Instead, each round of online voting will require you to choose a number of patterns from each category.
For Round 1, you’ll vote for 8 patterns in each category, and the top 8 patterns will advance to the next round. Then 4, then 2, then the winners of each category will compete for the knitterly equivalent of the Westminster Dog Show’s Best of Show.
To aid in your browsing, here is the official bracket in PDF form, which is easier to read than this eye-busting graphic. Download this PDF, and you’ll be able to click to read about each pattern on Ravelry.
To see all the patterns, we’ve created Pinterest boards for each category. (Apologies if there’s any wonkiness. Pinterest is a cruel mistress.)
Sweaters
Shawls
Home, Baby, Toy
Head, Feet, Hands
We have been asked what the prize is for the Champion of MDK March Mayhem. It’s the juiciest, best prize of all: bragging rights.
We can’t wait to see what happens. So settle in, bring your knitting. Spread the word to all your knitter friends, and get ready to vote tomorrow.
Holy Moly! It’s a knitting blizzard!
I think 4 Ravelry bundles would make browsing the brackets very easy. If I (or anyone) created the bundles, could the links be shared?
What a great use of Bundles!
I did rav bundles too!
Cool idea! We can definitely share the links. Thank you so much!
For some strange reason, all the links in the hats, etc. category link to a cushion project that looks like the backs of little VWs.
correction – they all link to the 3D knitted cushion.
PS This must have been so hard to cull! I love all the patterns!:)
Thank you! Fixed this! Please have another look around the extremely competitive Head, Feet, Hands category . . .
(Sniff..) I want a snow day, mom….
You are welcome to share mine. Bring hay.
Lol so do I!
I found myself trying to figure out if there was a shortcut way to pin an entire board (I do not think there is). Ladies, you chose well in a very crowded field. Some of these designers I have loved for a while, some I love now that I have seen these boards, and very few of my favorite designers are missing (but you might want to check out Melanie Berg’s shawls for next year – gorgeousness combined with impeccable instructions).
I second this suggestion!
This is so much fun! As a basketball fan and knitter, I get to knit through all sorts of games this month. As a designer, I get to watch for a pattern of mine (sadly, no trip to the big dance this year) and cheer for a Cinderella story in the bracket. Is the EKPN (entertainment and knitting programming network) too far behind?!
OMG!!! If there were an all-day network featuring knitting and other fiber arts, I’d be in heaven!!
EKPN! Ann, Kay – your public demands it!
We have to steal that for sure!
Agreed!
Stripes Hanging links back to Dylan the Dachsund
This sounds like a metaphor but I don’t know for what.
Thank you! Dachsund and Stripes now behaving!
OK, I admit it. My knowledge of social media technology is close to zero. How does one actually vote?? If I have to do something on Pinterest, I’ll just enjoy looking at the patterns in Ravelry.
Voting begins tomorrow–it’s an online vote here on MDK. No Pinterest required! ; )
I already have a favorite in the shawl category! Now if only we got a snow day here on the west coast…
Charlotte, haven’t you noticed? It’s rain, rain, rain all day every !@#$%^& day!
I am aswirl with anticipation. I may as well have just pinned the entire baby home kids board. I thank you for your diligent perusal of the internet.
Ha! Diligent! It’s constant, that’s for sure!
Man, choosing 8 is harder than choosing 1–I could get to 9 or 10, but choosing 8? Near impossible! I am already excited to see which patterns make it to the next bracket, and we haven’t even voted yet!
Will you be like other renowned internet bracket tournaments and have an animal mascot,especially since our community has a least one really obvious candidate for mascot?
We have TWO – Kermit and Olive!
Bobbleheads!
Tincanknits Bumble sweater isn’t in your Home, Baby, Toy bracket..?? But Candle Flame Lapghan is, and not on Pinterest?
FYI….
Thank you! Bumble and Lapghan now properly placed.
What a fun idea!
Oh this will be fun.
This is my kind of bracket!!
Even though it’s a snow day, I should be working from home rather than browsing patterns….Great idea and sounds like a lot of fun!
I so love this!
Good gravy! How does one ever choose? I’ve got my little post-it with my first-round choices. Wonder how many will make it to the final four. And how many I’ll ‘accidentally’ cast on this week. Man, my needles are itching to start many of these Right. This. Minute.
GENIUS!
Say, is it possible to stuff the ballot box in any one round of voting? Just asking for a friend.
LOL. Ballot box stuffing, chad-hanging, dead voters—this thing could get very murky, very fast. We’re told that the voting will allow one vote per IP address.
We do encourage you to spread the word if there’s a pattern you really love. I mean: Look at Gonzaga in the NCAA. Best fans in the world!
It appears that only the Metronome link is working in the shawl category
I LOVE this even if it made my Rav Favs list explode. The Stripes Hanging is exactly what the bare rod over my back door has been waiting for!! If you have the entire pub it is pulled from, can you have a look at the “information page” (referenced under Making Up) and see if there is anything critical there? Like the location of the magic gnome who will weave in the ends perhaps??!?
This is so exciting! I can’t wait to get home from work so I can peruse all these patterns very carefully! The best part is I’m enjoying seeing some patterns from my favorite designers but also getting to know some new ones! Great idea! Are we going to have a KAL with the winners?
This is another fun thingy that you guys have cooked up for us to enjoy! I took a gander at the PDF and the first IG pics. Surprised not to see anything from Jenn of Knit.Love.Wool. However, I think that I want to make all of the shawls! Also, just put that Kaffe creation in my Rav Favs. This is more fun than basketball. Slam dunk!
Brilliant~
I am so excited and honored to be included! And I happen to be wearing those socks today, how weird and cool is that?
Oh, super excited! I admit my votes will be swayed by what I already own (pattern or yarn in stash) so that I don’t totally blow the budget when I cast on ALL the things!
This is so exciting! Can’t wait to browse the patterns and add a bunch to my favorites! 😀
The horror! I thought, oh, this will be easy. I’ll glance through, say, the shawls and pick a few. Fifteen minutes later, I can count out ONE, for personal preference reasons. Color me impressed.
Oh Mylanta, you guys, this is so fun but seems like such an insane amount of work to put together. Thank you!!!
Oh my gosh, this makes me so happy. I love watching all the bball games, but this is magnificent!
This is so fun! As with Westminster, I already have my favorite “breeds.” All the dogs are the best dogs, of course, and all the knits are the best knits. However, in this case I’m a sucker for the Home, Baby, Toy category, followed closely by Head, Feet, Hands. Oh, and I have a weakness for shawls. Despite all that, my guess is that a Sweater will be the Terrier equivalent of this contest, with the best odds of winning! I look forward to voting and seeing the results! Thank you!
You guys, this is brilliant. Just sayin.
What a fun idea! Thank you for including my Hashtag pattern <3
This is the mostmostmost fun! Links aren’t working for me right now, so I’m searching the patterns in Ravelry and want to mention that there the TopsyTurvy Socks are called Turvey-Topsy Socks.
psssst: I see 65 total patterns listed (one extra in Home Baby Toy group).
Bonus! Couldn’t cut it to 16 . . .
Oooooh, I get that!
I hate you. I was just settling in to do some productive work and now…..now I have to go look at ALL OF THESE.
Guys, really helpful if when you click on a pattern it would open a new window to the new sites instead of toggling back and forth between Ravelry and pinterest.
Right click on the link and click on open link in a new tab — that helps.
So many lovely designs. The Laurel sweater is a free pattern, though.
Sorry, guess you did say there was one exception. 🙂
As is Stripes Hanging…lucky us!
You girls rock. Would much rather spend my time in knitting bracket than a basketball bracket any day.
I cannot wait to print this out and hang it by my desk instead of the March Madness brackets.
Brilliant idea! I loved making my choices, and only discovered the Pinterest Boards after laboriously searching each pattern on Ravelry. I never do read all the way through the instructions.
You two are a delight. You’ve made this site the most fun to be had on the internet.
Thank you so much for including the Winter Dusk Hat pattern! There are too many beautiful designs here to choose from! <3
This was really fun today — perusing such creative patterns all in one place. Thanks for all your hard work keeping us happy.
Simply amazing how the mind works. What is next??? Food fight? Chicken joints vs pizza vs burgers vs tacos. You made me laugh,
I feel really dense but I don’t understand how to vote. Didn’t voting open on the 15th?
Never mind, I found it 🙂
I have watched Westminster for 30 yrs. but this is already more exciting.
Go Candle Flame Lapghan!!!
love this, basketball is good, but this is better.