Tag Archives: mdk field guide

Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide No. 17: Lopi.

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The seventeenth installment of the Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide series is here!

MDK’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme, knitting technique, or designer. This newest Field Guide showcases designs by Mary Jane Mucklestone – let’s take a look inside!

All of the patterns in this collection are knit with Ístex Léttlopi, a classic Icelandic wool with 109 yards/50 g, $5.50 each. While it’s not a yarn we normally carry, we can get it for you through Berroco’s DropShip program – order from us, and Berroco will ship it directly to you. The price for shipping is just $7, and the caveat is that Berroco DropShip sales are final, no returns or exchanges. Léttlopi is a yarn we’ve often wondered about carrying here at the shop, so we’re looking forward to your feedback!

We also have more copies of Mucklestone’s recent book from Laine, the inspiring Fair Isle Weekend – pick up one or both!

MDK Field Guides are $14.95 each; order online for local pickup or shipping!

Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide No. 16: Painterly.

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The sixteenth installment of the Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide series is here! Let’s take a peek inside.

MDK’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme, knitting technique, or designer. The legendary designer Kaffe Fassett is back for his second Field Guide – let’s take a look inside Painterly.

Painterly is a colorful little book about intarsia, a colorwork technique where a separate length of yarn is used for each area of color. In stranded colorwork, the motifs go all the way around the knitted fabric, but intarsia frees up the colors and motifs for different effects – a rather underrepresented technique, and Fassett is here to demystify it.

Many of us are most familiar with intarsia from “picture” sweaters of the 1970’s and ’80’s, and associate the technique with representational forms – a sailboat, a tree, etc. Kaffe Fassett favors geometric designs, and so this booklet is full of triangles and squares, giving these unique accessories a patchwork appearance.

We also got a few more copies of Fassett’s first MDK Field Guide, Master Class – one or both would make an excellent gift for a colorwork enthusiast!

MDK Field Guides are $14.95 each; order online for local pickup or shipping, and let us know if we can recommend a yarn for any of these patterns – happy to make suggestions and send photos of what we have available!

Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide No. 15: Open.

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The fifteenth installment of the Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide series is here! Let’s take a peek inside.

Yes, Ann Shayne and Kaye Gardiner are now Modern Daily Knitting, a welcome name change that they wrote about on their blog. MDK’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme, knitting technique, or designer. This latest one, Open, features five patterns from designer Jeanette Sloan.

Open in this case refers to openwork, the eyelets and negative spaces of lace knitting. Sloan’s designs for Field Guide No. 15 are an invitation to lace knitting for knitters of all levels, building on skills from one pattern to the next.

MDK Field Guides are $14.95 each; order online for local pickup or shipping, and let us know if we can recommend a yarn for any of these patterns – happy to make suggestions and send photos of what we have available!

Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide No. 13: Master Class.

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The thirteenth installment of the Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide series is here! Let’s take a peek inside.

Ann Shayne and Kaye Gardiner’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme, knitting technique, or designer. This latest one, Master Class, features patterns and adaptations from legendary designer Kaffe Fassett.

Fassett is known for colorful knitwear, though he also paints, designs fabric, quilts, and needlepoint patterns, among other pursuits. This booklet is a great introduction to Fassett, as well as an invitation to play with color, stripes, and stranded patterns in your own knitting.

There are patterns within for striped cushions, scarves and cowls, a shawl, and a breathtaking stranded stripe throw. Fassett also offers 20 charts and 6 stripe sequences, for customizing and creating your own unique knits from these patterns.

Each copy of Master Class comes with a bookmark that doubles as a chart key – cute and practical.

Come by the shop to pick up a copy and plan your next project!

Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide No. 12: Big Joy.

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The twelfth installment of the Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide series is here! Let’s take a peek inside.

Ann Shayne and Kaye Gardiner’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme or knitting technique. This time around, the theme is Big Joy, as interpreted by Jen Geigley, a designer known for her now-classic “GAP-tastic Cowl.”

Geigley’s five designs for MDK are all knit in super-bulky yarn and designed for quick gift-knitting, the kind of instant gratification project that brings big joy to the knitter as well as the recipient.

The bakers among us will also appreciate this technique for making pie crust that looks like stockinette stitch – I will certainly be giving this a try!

Come by the shop to pick up a copy and plan your next project!

Back in stock: our favorite MDK Field Guides.

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The eleventh installment of the Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide series was a popular one – we ordered and reordered Wanderlust and on both occasions, sold out in no time. For our third order, we decided to bring back some of our other favorite MDK Field Guides, just in case anyone had missed out on them the first time around.

Ann Shayne and Kaye Gardiner’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme or knitting technique. The theme of this eleventh Field Guide is Wanderlust, interpreted by designer Wendy Bernard as a choose-your-own-adventure approach to sock knitting. Summer is a perfect time for a small, portable project like socks – no wonder this Field Guide has been so popular!

Also back in stock is MDK Field Guide No. 5: Sequences, drawing on the inspired work of designer Cecelia Campochiaro. Back in 2017, Anne knit the “Swirl Hat” from this book using Brooklyn Tweed Arbor, a larger gauge than suggested to accommodate the size of her son-in-law’s head – you can read more about that in our original blog post.

Veronik Avery’s “Hadley Pullover” in Brooklyn Tweed Shelter was part of what made MDK Field Guide No. 2 so sought-after. This one focused on Fair Isle knitting, a favorite technique of mine, and Anne’s, too; if you’re intrigued, this little book is a fine and friendly introduction.

We’ve also restocked MDK Field Guide No. 1, a meditation on stripes which features the “Breton Cowl,” knit with the decadent combination of Shibui Drift and Silk Cloud.

Look for these Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guides here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop – we hope you find inspiration here!

Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide No. 11: Wanderlust.

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The eleventh installment of the Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide series is here! Let’s take a peek inside.

Ann Shayne and Kaye Gardiner’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme or knitting technique. The theme of this eleventh Field Guide is Wanderlust, interpreted by designer Wendy Bernard as a choose-your-own-adventure approach to sock knitting.

This little book is all about hitting the road with the ultimate travel project: a pair of socks. Bernard includes instructions for socks from the cuff down or from the toe up, along with a variety of stitch patterns to play with.

We have a lot of tempting sock yarns here at the shop, the likes of CoopKnits Socks Yeah!, Malabrigo Sock, Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply, Ewe Ewe Fluffy Fingering, and of course those tempting limited edition colorways from Dream in Color and Koigu.

Maybe your stash is already bursting with sock yarns you’ve picked up as souvenirs over the years – this book is just the thing to get those yarns on your needles.

Come by the shop to pick up a copy and a skein of sock yarn for your next road trip!

Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide No. 10: Downtown.

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The tenth installment of the Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide series is here! Let’s take a peek inside.

Ann Shayne and Kaye Gardiner’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme or knitting technique. The theme of this tenth Field Guide is Downtown, celebrating urban spaces in humorous essays and striking designs by featured designer, Isabell Kraemer.

This colorwork yoke caught my eye, no surprise, and I was especially charmed that it’s named “Petula,” for the singer of 60’s pop hit “Downtown” that began playing in my head as soon as I saw the cover of this book.

Look for the Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide No. 10 on our teacart, with the latest books and magazines. See you at the shop!

Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide No. 9: Revolution.

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The ninth installment of the Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide series is here! Let’s take a peek inside.

Ann Shayne and Kaye Gardiner’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme or knitting technique. Revolution in all its forms was the inspiration behind the four cabled designs in this edition, and the featured designer with revolution in mind is Norah Gaughan.

Known for her intricate cable designs and innovative garment construction, Norah Gaughan is a knitwear designer at the top of her game. Three of the four cable patterns in this collection are interchangeable with one another, so you can yoke of the pullover above for the yoke of the cardigan or capelet, matching your favorite cable with the garment you want to make.

Look for the Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide No. 9 on our teacart, with the latest books and magazines. We still have some copies of a few of the older MDK Field Guides, too – come by the shop to complete your collection!

Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide No. 8: Merry Making.

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The eighth installment of the Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide series is here! Let’s take a peek inside.

Ann Shayne and Kaye Gardiner’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme or knitting technique. This little book is dedicated to small projects that make great gifts.

As in every Field Guide, Ann and Kaye’s ruminations on the topic at hand are featured, but they’ve also brought designer Thea Colman in for a few patterns and a cocktail recipe.

Look for the Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide No. 8 on our teacart, with the latest books and magazines. See you at the shop!