Projects
What a Kaffe-Along We Had
Dear Ann,
It’s February, but in my world, January’s knitalong—the Kaffe-along—is still shining bright, even as I put in the (very few, very short) hours to complete my Main Squeeze Pullover (the Main Squeeze Cardigan, with Cristina’s brilliant modifications).
I bet you’re dying to see the progress I’ve made on my epically dotty all-Coins version of the Stranded Stripe Throw, but first, we’ve got prizes to award, woman!
Kaffe-Along Prize Squad
The Kaffe-Along Prize Squad has convened, and dithered, and deliberated. It was not easy work. Y’all outdid yourselves, going to town on Kaffe Fassett’s glorious colorwork designs in MDK Field Guide No. 13: Master Class.
After all that, here was where we ended up.
The winners are:
As if Sue Carney’s scrappy, dotty socks weren’t charming enough on their own, she had to go and make a stop-action video. I for one plan to imitate her, using my hoard of sock yarn scraps and Kaffe’s Coins motif to enliven a loved one’s feet. Seriously, check out the wee video.
A dog in a cowl surely is prize-winner material. But Nancy made sure, by deploying…
…a backup dog. This time in a scarf. We see patterns from Field Guide 13, of course, but do we also see a few other Kaffe motifs? The more the merrier—it’s divine!
Meanwhile, back at the Lounge, Patti applied Kaffe’s Coins in graphic black and white to a basic beanie, and sealed the deal by harking back to our very first Bang Out a Sweater knitalong with her Stopover pullover.
Also in the Lounge, Debi took Kaffe’s patterns and painted them on a vest, which she aptly named the Chocolate Box Vest.
A theme has emerged: you can stick Kaffe’s stripes and stranded colorwork motifs onto anything that’s stockinette and knit in the round, with terrific results.
Winners, look for a note from us so you can send in your mailing details.
What are the prizes, you ask?
Each winner will receive a box o’ love that includes:
An Also Full of Yarn Bag, a skein of Jill Draper’s Windham, and a copy of MDK Field Guide No. 8: Merry Making, which just happens to have one-skein projects for this marvelous yarn, by Thea Colman. After an epic multi-color stranded Kaffe project, a pair of mitts, a chewy hat, or a set of coasters might be just the palate cleanser (or palette cleanser) a knitter craves to knit while resting on her laurels.
Congratulations to everyone, and thanks for the huge grins you gave us with your glorious knitting. From here on out, whenever I need a blast of joy, I’m heading straight to the Kaffealong hashtag, which hopefully will keep growing forever.
The Knitalong That Won’t Quit (In My House)
I’m arriving at the halfway point on this rambunctious ode to joy—I’m on my 18th row of coins. I’ll do another row in Color 19, then start working my way backward through the first 18 colors until I arrive back where I started.
Pattern: Stranded Stripe Throw. Enlarged to 254 stitches wide, and using the Coins motif exclusively. The background shade is stone.
My enthusiasm for working on this thing, now that it has reached Officially Unwieldy proportions, is undimmed. I can tell you one thing: it attracts attention on the subway.
My passion for Kaffe’s Coins motif, and his chosen palette of Felted Tweed shades, has increased, if anything. The juxtapositions are fresh, surprising, and endlessly entertaining. More is more!
Love,
Kay
ALL are gobsmackingly beautiful!
I love them all but the socks have me itching to cast on. I also gotta have that hat.
Gorgeous!!
Love love love the socks!!
I may be the only one saying this, but all that color makes my eyes go crazy. I like the background of the throw (stone) but If I were to knit it, and I just might, I would keep the coins to maybe three shades of one color family. However, I’m working on a completely different sofa blanket that should take a year or two to finish. I love the fact that I can save your web pages for future reference. I will buy the field guide before they are all gone.
Aw Kay! I was just coming out from under the grip of my coins and Felted Tweed obsession, and now I want to cast on MORE stranded projects… 😀
That’s how we get you, Jen. Ha!
Y’all are having too much fun and I’m impressed with all the results of the Kaffe-along! Congratulations to the winners!!
At first glance I thought Patti had knitted that “coin” rug by the door!!! This Field Guide has been especially enjoyable. So much fun to see how creative everyone is. Congratulations to the “winners” — but really we are all winners just to see this stuff. A happy soul is exactly the energy our world needs right now. Thanks to everyone who participated and to everyone who cheered from the sidelines.
And Kay — I am anxiously awaiting to see the boarder of that coin scarf.
Oh I just LOVE all the posts – what a terrific book #13 is! My Coins Poncho with only 4 colors (use the Stash first, dontchya know) is only half-done – not to say rare – but the pattern has become my RELAX knitting. I have really enjoyed this KAL.
Congratulations to the winners! I’m still working on the coin scarf and loving it. I was still stuck in the sock along. Just finished my #12 pair. This has been so enjoyable. Thanks MDK.
These are all fabulous! I stopped knitting Fair Isles because I didn’t really have the Fair Isle aesthetic anymore (I always think of the poor Shetlanders “starving in finery”. You may imagine your ancestors as Kings and Queens but I am of mostly UK heritage, with the fine bones of near starvation handed down to me). No problem with the cheerful Kaffe coins! I love Patti’s hat and would like to know more about her rug, which goes so well with it.
Wow I’ve never heard of a Kaffe along but these items are just stunning.
“Starving in finery” is such an arresting turn of phrase. Oh my gosh. My UK forebears were most certainly working in sculleries and ditches if they were lucky.
You may have me running to an Alice Starmore disposition on Wedding Ring Shawls to pin down that phrase…compelling, yes. Here’s to all who sacrificed and then, as my brother says, “I just woke up here.”
Beautiful knitting, one and all. That video, tho!
Beautiful!
You knit on the subway? I’m always standing and reading.
On the PATH trains there no room to even move one’s arms.
One day I will improve my stranded knitting … it’s art with string.
Yes, I do, but I’m mostly a counter-commuter so I get a seat.
Since I became aware of Faffe and that first incredible knitting book, I have been in love. Imagine my surprise when I walked into my LYS and he was visiting ! People were showing him how they had used his patterns as I stood in awe. What was he doing in this little store in Denver ! A moment to remember
He does have a habit of just turning up! What a delightful memory.
Where can I find that wonderful black and white hat pattern?
I am working on a coins scarf and loving it. Question: what about the floats if you make socks with coins??!
Alice- When making the socks, I captured floats if there were more than five stitches in the coins, trying to remember (not always successfully) to change position in each row. That seemed to secure the floats well enough.
With all those floats how do you get your foot in without catching your toes in the floats?
Below, June, shared a pattern that may help with your float question. I only can speak for myself. Good luck.
I just tried them on again just to make sure that they didn’t catch. I have a few guesses as to why they don’t I used US1.5 needles and sock yarn and made sure I didn’t have any floats more than five stitches long and most were captured every three or four stitches. Short answer: Lots of capturing!
Yea! My absolute favorite part of this post was the palate pun! Thanks everyone for the fun times and great treats. Sue
Same! I love a good homonym.
Twins
So much beauty!! I love all of these, but the sock video just about did me in. And those gorgeous dogs in gorgeous knits. And the hat… ok, I can’t pick a favorite. 🙂 The knitting shared here surely is a soothing balm from the rest of the world’s terrible news; thank you for that.
The Kaffe socks!! OMG!! —AND wee video!!!
The socks are just as cute as the ones that appear in the early fall 2014 issue of Vogue Knitting that differ only in the placement of the coin rows. Check it out. Original design by John Brinegar, right down to the stripes on the feet, coins on top.
June, thanks so much for pointing me in the direction of the Brinegar socks. Love! I’ve had one or two people ask what pattern I used, so if the Kaffe coin shape and placement isn’t a deal breaker, I’ll point them in that direction. Thanks again for the info.
Dots and stripes are always a winning combination!
What a great post! So fun! So colorful! The socks are absolutely wonderful (and that video!). The cowls and the dogs are neck and heart-warming (“back-up dog,” hee hee.) I also love the unexpected black and white hat, with its interesting photo staging, and the “chocolate box vest” combines two of my favorite things. Finally, I love that your throw gets the attention of famously blasé and jaded New Yorkers! Here’s to Kaffe and joyous color!
“Epically dotty”! Sounds like Aunt Clara from the TV show Bewitched!
I will be taking a Fair Isle class this weekend, which will be my first exposure to knitting with two colors. Despite my lack of experience, I ordered ten skeins of yarn from you in the Dusty colorway and am ready and not-so-able to cast on immediately! I think I’ll begin with the coin cowl, which is one of my favorites from the #13 Field Guide. How in the world did so many of you begin and finish these complex projects in just one month? Any advice for a rank beginner? Inspired and impressed by the skill and beauty!
You’ll see, Linda, once you pick up the basic skills, which are easily accessible, some of these motifs are the kind of knitting that you just can’t put down. For me it’s Coins, obviously. You get in the rhythm and want to do the next color, and the next and the next and before you know it you’ve watched an entire season of All Creatures Great and Small and it’s almost time for breakfast….
Linda totally agree and Kay- Tristan all the way.
These projects are awesome. I have finished two coin cowls my self but now the socks…oh the socks!!! I can’t wait to cast on!
I knitted this Kaffe cushion cover a few years ago. Just getting around to sewing it to a cushion.It was in the book, the Color Boys.
Love all the Kaffe projects.
The knitting is beautiful but Nancy’s Border Collies are the best of all! Maybe it was just the best place for light, but I wonder if she had to get them into the car so they would sit still long enough to be photographed in their finery?
Wow! It’s all so beautiful and appears so complicated!