Fun
The Life Botanical
Time flies when you’re knitting from MDK Field Guides. In the case of Field Guide No. 25: Botanica, featuring six flora-inspired designs by Wales-based artist Dee Hardwicke, the time spent knitting turned into some of the most exquisite finished objects we’ve ever seen.
It’s been a delight to see your projects popping up in the MDK Lounge and on Instagram—one that we hope will just keep going, and going. These are designs for the ages. Their beauty will not fade, and we look forward to seeing how they continue to spark knitters’ imaginations. One thing we know for sure: knitters love to tweak and invent, and Dee’s designs seem to encourage it.
To mark the official end of this never-ending knitalong, it’s time to award a few prizes. If you see your handle here, please email us so we can get your prize to you.
For the rest of us (including the two of us, still knitting along quite happily)—seeing your beautiful work is our prize. Thank you for your enthusiasm, and for showing us the way.
The Envelope, Please
The $50 MDK Gift Cards (six in total), go to:
jacmknits, who expertly improvised a hat from the leftovers of her Treeline Cowl kit.
jennr who tweaked the Blossom Stripe Shawl to make the flowers pop (and whose stunning mirror was just waiting for its moment to shine as a knitalong prop).
hollyr. Her Climbing Vine Mitts are in Denver Broncos colors—but we’ll allow it, because they pop!
Run, don’t walk to Instagram to see labellepixie’s supersized Cottage Throw—Annie used her machine knitting skills to make a Cottage Blanket! It’s amazing.
Jflo49. We love a signature palette, and Judy’s colors really put the autumn in Autumn Garden Stole.
And last but not least, the Pacesetter Prize for Innovation Leadership in Knitting goes to iamgatt, who engineered the Autumn Garden Stole’s stitch motif into a truly beautiful pullover. (See Julie’s notes in the comments below on how she did it.)
And a round of applause for all the #helpfulknittingcats who supported yet another MDK knitalong. So helpful!
Wow, so much beauty and creativity! Each one is amazing – including that incredible blanket. I know just enough about machine knitting to know that is *not* easy! Congratulations to all!
The cats—they know the good stuff.
Beautiful works all. Bravo!
Congratulations to all of the knitters who were inspired to created their own beauty from Dee’s patterns!
Yay to all!! Beautiful and great motivation!
Creativity and beauty abounds. Thanks for the inspiration!
The sweater that imgatt made is beautiful. could she please tell us what pattern she used for inspiration.
Hiya! Thank you! The Hardwicke flower motif was the real inspiration – I wanted to knit it but needed it to be on something I would wear. I am much more likely to wear a sweater than a stole! (I’m wearing it today actually.) I used the Valdres pullover (FG 23) as a jumping off point. The body stitch count for my size worked well with the motif pattern repeat. I substituted moss stitch for all the ribbing. I also had to redo the sleeve shaping.
p.s. There is a typo in the article, my Instagram account is iamgatt.
Congratulations to all the winners! Lovely work!
Another bravo to all this beautiful talent. Lovely to see them all!
Congrats to all the winners. Beautiful beautiful beautiful!
Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful.
Wow! This is way beyond my expertise, but I do enjoy their beautiful work. Thanks for sharing.
I love to see all these creative riffs on already gorgeous designs!
I’ve been ruminating over those motifs for a while. Now I’m inspired. Lovely items all. Congratulations!
loved seeing all the variations. Such talented people.
Very inspiring and beautiful work. I enjoy seeing what people choose for color combinations.
Thank you so much! I just love Dee Hardwicke’s designs and would ideally like to knit all the things. Machine knitting gives me the opportunity to knit up ideas pretty quickly which is a lot of fun (although there is quite the pile of practice pieces before getting to a final version. Machine knitting! Make mistakes faster!). Annie