Fun
We Banged It Out Again
Greetings, fans of sweater knitting and also of overachieving whenever possible.
You’ve probably noticed that March has arrived. That’s all well and good, and we’re happily anticipating the transition to spring in the northern hemisphere and autumn in the southern. Even in times as tumultuous as these, nature keeps at it, and that is a blessing.
But this post is not about March, it’s about February, which we’re a little sad to wave goodbye. In February 2022, knitters embraced the notion of banging out a sweater, start to finish, in the shortest month of the year—as never before. Our Bang Out a Daytripper knitalong was a joyride, with so many knitters and so many cardigans it made our heads spin. MDK’s social media eminence, Cristina Shiffman, wore her fingers to the bone and used up nearly every cheerful tune in the Instagram music library, just to share the beauty coming off our collective needles.
Here’s a new rule for this knitalong: whenever there’s a chance of running into one of us, you must wear your Daytripper Cardigan so we can see it in person. Is that asking so much?
Up top is a gallery that shows a fair sampling of the many gorgeous Daytripper Cardigans knitters banged out last month. Every single image brought us joy, inspiration, and the strength to carry on. You can find more inspiration over on Instagram, in the MDK Lounge, and on Ravelry.com—and we hope you’ll keep adding your photos. We’ll keep sharing!
Well done, everyone! And if you haven’t quite finished your Daytripper yet, we hope the many finished beauties will inspire you to keep your foot on the gas for the final miles. It’s such a great sweater—you know you want to wear it!
Prize Winners, Come on Down!
It’s time to award the final two of the four lopi-centric prizes that our friends at Berroco so kindly provided. (The first two winners, Deb and Silvana, appear in the gallery, together with MDK’s own Nell Ziroli, who went to the head of the knitalong with two genius riffs on the Daytripper Cardigan design: (1) a colorwork body, and (2) pockets!)
Our two final winners are:
Virginia, aka @lakesaltknit on Instagram
And:
Kelly! From the MDK Lounge.
We send our thanks to the good people at Berroco, where we get our beloved Léttlopi. And we also thank everyone who joined us for Bang Out a Sweater this year, whether as a participant or a spectator. Isn’t knitting just the best?
Love,
Ann and Kay
Wow! They are all wonderful!!
What a beautiful parade of sweaters. I’m not done, my yoke looks lumpy and the whole thing looks like it’s going to be 2 sizes too small but I’m going to finish because it’s such a fun knit. As Kay says, it’ll fit someone.
Fear not, I felt like mine was too small also. When I soaked and locked I blocked to about the next size up and that did give me a good fit.
I did use Ann’s tip to steam out the yoke to make it lay better while you knit.
Don’t give up hope! It blocks out larger.
I’m right there with you!
Congratulations to all the Banger Outers
Well done!
Oh the colors! I keep scrolling through those photos. This is the perfect non-violent answer to someone who says ‘Isn’t it boring if you all knit the same sweater?’
Such fun! And looking forward to February again next year!!!
Life sidetracked me in February so I’ve set a new goal of having mine done by Easter. We’ll see how it goes.
Let’s all do another round of finishing by Easter! A new goal!!
Joining you on this! Started mid-February and just finished the yoke after doing a little frogging and re-starting.
The array of color choices is stunning.
Beautiful work!
I’m on the bottom of my last sleeve, so almost there!
All beautiful. Congratulations!
how lovely they all look, the colours are spectacular and I wondered about the fuzzy steeks so I went to the lounge and watched the zoom where you showed how to do it, magic. I am learning so much and feel that I am going from someone who can knit to being a knitter!
I had so much fun participating in this, thank you MDK for throwing down the challenge. it was so inspiring to see all the different variations that I am going to embark on a second one.
Congrats to all! So fun! I have one question – now that I have 2 daytrippers, do I have to layer them when I might bump into one of you or does one cover it?
Wear one as normal, the other over your shoulders. “Double Daytripper” will be the new rage!
I think we are going to insist on Allison’s layering suggestion. I love this lewk for us! Double Daytrippin!
You could wear one and carry the other in your Knitter’s Tote. You will always be prepared and true to the Girl Scout Motto. Enjoy your sweaters.
well done everyone! and so fun, a wonderful Feb diversion
Just BEAUTIFUL!!! Congratulations everyone!!! This is my favorite sweater!! Everyone wear it in good health!! (That’s a lot of exclamation points but it IS exciting)
So much fun to see all the color combinations. I ran out of yarn for my button bands (and now it is out of stock) and my yoke is enough too tight that I will do it over — changing the color at the collar so it matches my button bands. But I am getting the hang of it and maybe next year I’ll bang out in February!!!
If you are looking for lettlopi & can’t get your color on MDK, you might check Ingebretson’s of Minneapolis. Their website had a good selection of lettlopi and the order arrived fast.
thank you Kathleen!!
These are so beautiful! Wow wow wow.
Gotta say,I was reluctant to knit this because I have had only few occasions to wear the #BangoutAStopover. But then I weakens and had almost enough stash yarn looking for a life and jumped in in the pool. It has turned out to be the perfect sweater i. e. coat-not-a-coat for “false spring”. Thanks for the challenge.
Loved helping a friend pick out yarn for her sweater. Think this will be a fall ‘22 challenge for me – serious knitting sweater phobia will be faced down! Thanks for the inspiration.
Very Retro!
Going to Stitches West this Friday – will wear mine with the hopes that I will see another!
It’s a secret handshake that you have to knit!
Almost finished with mine! Decided to lengthen body a bit … so there will be a bit of tinking. One sleeve almost done … the other next … and it will be the perfect weather (still) here in the Greater Tri-State area to wear it out.
So many beautiful color combinations and glows on many happy faces as well. Thank you for the wonderful show and tell. I hope to participate next time around.
After seeing all these beautiful sweaters I just HAVE to cast on! How can one resist!
Love my Stopover and look forward to joining the next bunch finishing.
Luckily I have my sample pack to decide on the colors.
They all look great! I started mine yesterday, finished the yoke colorwork today, and followed the zooms in February while trying to finish another project. I plan to complete the sweater by March 28 (in honor of the February goal). Except for the body color, the yarn is all single skeins I purchased in Iceland on a trip some years back. So glad I got a bunch of different colors – and glad to find the perfect pattern to use my lovely yarn. This is my first sweater KAL… Thanks, MDK and Mary Jane!!
PS – you all are an inspiration!!
The Daytripper was really fun to knit! I’ll definitely be making another sweater with lettlopi yarn.I had a great time seeing everyone’s progress. Thank you for leading us along!
I’m grateful to see Virginia as a winner. I never knit sweaters because of my size, but her sweater is stunning and gives me incentive to go for it!
WOW!!! So many of the sweaters and blocked-out yokes made me gasp out loud because they were so beautiful, perfectly colored, and gorgeously knit! I loved the innovative henley placket (I’m a true fan of henleys) and the pics of the steeks in progress were inspiring! Oh my goodness! I needed this visual “kick in the butt” to encourage me to persevere! I have real limitations that keep me from knitting fast (our beloved Cat Bordhi told me knitting slowly meant more knitting time to enjoy ) but I need to find reasons to keep on keeping on! Bang outs with wonderful FO pics really help! Thanks to all of you intrepid knitters and especially to Ann and Kay! MDK Forever!
This has been fun. I still have a sleeve to finish, then the dreaded steeking to do, but I will be brave! Thank you, MDK for the jolly good time!
What a blast! Thanks for the weekly video meetings. They were very useful. I knit the body by the end of February. I have knit most of first sleeve by today. I am going to try Patty Lyons’ anti-flip tips for the body ribbing (yes I will do it again)..So curious about the steek!
It really was a mood-booster in February, which was cold and snowy here in Toronto.