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With our enthusiasm dialed up to 11, we present MDK March Mayhem 2019.

The tournament of patterns.

The world’s only bracket for knitters. Which, really, is the only bracket anybody needs, right?

Throughout 2018, we have been scouring the internet in search of the most amazing patterns we could find. Our task was daunting: we had to choose only 64 from the thousands of patterns published during the past year.

Here is the bracket.

Our hearty congratulations to all the designers whose patterns appear in the MDK March Mayhem bracket. We are slack-jawed in awe at your work, and grateful for all the beauty, challenge, and fun you bring to knitters.

The Categories

There are four: Pullovers, Cardigans, Neck & Shoulders, and Head & Hands. Though the patterns settled themselves into familiar categories, in our upcoming category previews you’ll see the trends and inventiveness that made these patterns of 2018 stand out.

The voting begins next Thursday, March 21.

We are announcing the bracket now so that you can really spend time with these patterns.

We are really proud of this superfancy bracket. Be sure to click on each pattern name, which opens up our thoughts on each pattern, a link to the Ravelry pattern page, and yarn ideas from the MDK Shop. It’s a great chance to think about how these clever designers do what they do. And it may give you some insight into why you like to knit what you knit.

Our Criteria

What does it take to land in MDK March Mayhem?

  • Published in 2018.
  • Available directly from the designer via Ravelry or the designer’s website.
  • Not free. We’re trying to help designers flourish.
  • Aesthetic considerations: Inventive, surprising, elegant, cool.
  • Most of all, and it’s the thing that is most difficult to explain: knittability. We asked ourselves, a thousand times, “Do I want to knit that?” For a design to be included, it has to be something we are dying to make. Every one of these 64 patterns meets that standard.

When you look at the list of designers included in this group of 64, you will see familiar names and new ones. Reputation and length of time in the knitting world are not factors for us. It’s all about the pattern. You will see more BIPOC designers in this bracket than in years past. MDK readers and the #diversknitty hashtag led us to exciting work by designers we hadn’t seen before. We’re very grateful.

A special thank you to all the readers who responded to our call for nominations. You showed us loads of beautiful patterns, some of which we hadn’t yet seen. Your love for your favorite designers is contagious.

As you spend time with these patterns, we encourage you to buy them, favorite them, queue them, and tell your friends and followers about them. We would love nothing more than to have designers discover heaps of new customers in their Ravelry accounts. We would love to see all these designs knitted a million times. This is a celebration, and there’s so much to celebrate.

The Vote

There will be five rounds of voting, each round taking the top vote-getters to the next round.

Voting begins on Thursday, March 21 with Round 1, where you will choose your eight favorite patterns from each of four categories. Subsequent rounds will require voting again, so be sure to keep up with the voting dates for each round.

As in Mayhems past, we’re using Survey Monkey. He is robust, and he worked well last year.

The last round, the Big Four, will put the four category winners up against each other to determine the Champion of MDK March Mayhem 2019. The champion will be announced on  Tuesday, April 9.

Let the browsing begin—and be ready to cast your first votes on Thursday, March 21.

We are dying of curiosity to see which pattern prevails.

A Paper Bracket

As we did last year, we have cooked up a PDF of the bracket that you can download and print out.

Here’s the MDK March Mayhem 2019 printable bracket.

Print out a bunch for your knitting group. Make your picks and keep track of how they’re doing, just like the sportsball fans do. We do not condone wagering. But we do condone heartfelt opinion!

Congratulations to the designers. Now let’s all dive in and start to make some tough decisions.

60 Comments

  • Ooh, fun, fun, fun.
    Quick question, are there links to the patterns?

    • Hi! Click on the heading “here is the bracket“. This will take you to their website. And you’ll see all the patterns and you can click on each one and they’ve got a huge amount of data on each one and it will take you to the ravelry pattern. Hope that helps!

  • When I click on the patterns in your link, they do not open. Are they supposed to?

    • Please ignore–the link worked for me now.

    • When you click on the pattern name a window opens which has a wonderful description and a Ravelry link.
      The link is just under the designers name.

  • This is SO EXCITING!! (I’m sorry that I yelled, but this is gonna be so great!)

    • We will not stand for all-capsing, Laura. Oh well just this one time.

  • Thank you for the beauty, both in the patterns and in the sentiment of MM. Your desire to celebrate makers of all kinds, and to find joy in what our hands can do, moved me to tears. Still a novice knitter here, but I look forward to a deep dive into all this deliciousness!

  • I am so excited! I love how we can click on the patterns and see why you love them, yarn suggestions, and links to Rav. My weekend shall be booked with looking at all of these patterns – some familiar, some new to me. Yay! This is a great curated collection of patterns.

  • I see 4 items that are on my needles right now and they are wonderful knitting projects – such great choices for the mayhem!!

  • I’m psyched! This has become a beloved part of my knitting year; I wait all year for it! Thank you so much.

  • WOW!! You have not made this easy!! Thank you. Some of the patterns are already in favorites but so many that I hadn’t yet discovered .this will be another fun year!

  • . . . just a trivia thing here . . . I must clear my mind . . . I thought Survey Monkey was female???????

  • Goodness. I think I want to knit Every. Single. One. of the cardigans. And I haven’t even looked at the other categories yet!

  • Thank you for everything here, but thank you the most for the rule of not free. Thank you for helping designers flourish <3

  • Just curious – why no socks?

    • The bracket categories get formed largely based on what we get nominations for, and what designers are designing in large numbers. Maybe next year!

      • I’d love to see a bracket for baby things some time. Lots of us are mothers and/or grandmothers, and we love us some baby handknits!

        • The TinCanKnits hat starts at ‘baby’ size (like almost all of their patterns do), so that might sway your vote in the Head and Hands category…

      • Ah, thanks so much for the explanation. Now, back to my dilemma of making four choices . . .

  • As I was clicking through all the lovely patterns and making mental notes (too many of which will be forgotten, necessitating another stroll through the patterns), I thought about all the work that compiling this wonderfully curated and annotated list must have entailed. Clearly a labor of love and such a gift to knitters and the designers. Thank you so much for this!

    • I so agree. All hail the tournament managers!

  • Woohoo!

  • I am so far behind on all things current – this will at least allow me to see what the cool kids are liking!! FUN!

  • THANK YOU! I love these brackets. This is so much fun.

  • The choices are too fabulous! Thank you for putting this together. Just one quick question. It looks like the new 2019 bracket now lives at the same URL that used to work for referring back to the 2018 bracket. Are the brackets for previous years’ March Mayhem still available on your site?

    • Yay! Elaine found the link to the 2018 bracket: https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/march-mayhem-2018/

      We will replace the links in the 2018 posts but it will take a week as we are both heading toward Edinburgh.

    • Yikes, I just lost my link to the 2018 bracket. But I had saved 2017 as the pdf url, so that is still there and I now am saving 2019 as a pdf. Please, please show has how to recover the 2018 bracket/pdf.

      • Elaine,

        Here’s a link to the pdf of the 2018 bracket:

        https://d3dhonw61gpwhq.cloudfront.net/marchmayhem/2018/MDK-March-Mayhem-2018.pdf

        When we get back from Edinburgh we will figure out if we can restore the live 2018 bracket to the links in last year’s post.

        Also, if you go back to March 2018, there are 4 category previews that cover the entire bracket with live links to the patterns on Ravelry.

        All best,
        Kay

  • Aaaawww sad ☹ My favorite designer, Jennifer Wood, Wood House Knits, isn’t among the nominees

    • I just looked her up on IG, gorgeous stuff! And already I like her Feb 12 release.

      • She is such a helpful person too. I’m currently knitting her “Fall River” pullover and she answers & encourages every time I msg her on Ravelry!

  • I’ve been waiting for this! I’ve already figured out my top 5, and there are 2 or 3 that I want to make Right Now. Of course, the bracket will go its own way, and that will be the fun part. I really appreciate the variety and uniqueness of these selections.

  • It’s here! Kudos to you all for the work and thoughtfulness you have put into it. Off to the printer now.

  • Hear, hear!

  • I made a bundle on Ravelry, if that helps anyone https://www.ravelry.com/bundles/mdk-march-mayhem-2019

    • Thank you!!

    • Great job Sheryl!! Thx so much for the bundle 😉

    • Thanks!

    • Thanks so much!

    • Thank you Sheryl! I was just coming here to ask whether there was a bundle

    • Thankyou to MDK for putting this together for us and to Sheryl for bundling. The last two hours have just flown by as I explored many different knitted wormholes!

  • March Mayhem is the best! It’s such fun to vote and see how my favorites advance but best of all, I discover new patterns and new designers! And inspiration galore! Thanks to all of you for all the work that goes into this! Such a spirit lifter!

  • Like everything you do, this is so well done! It’s the perfect complement to viewing the March Madness games and something to cheer us up until Spring arrives! Thank you!

  • SO. MUCH. FUN! Thank you for reminding me to actually take a lunch break so I could fill this out. I can hardly wait till voting!

  • When I open the bracket it will not allow me to click on a pattern or designer name to open it. How do I access information about the patterns/

    • I had trouble with this for awhile too (it was very early in the morning) Click on the red letters that say “Here is the bracket” that is near the top of the page , not the one near the bottom for the “printable bracket”. Have fun with it!

  • Too bad I have to do my taxes this wee. Must resist time suck!

  • So much fun! Spent a lovely afternoon looking and choosing. Ravelry queue has doubled…..

  • I’m doing something wrong over here at my house. I’ve printed out my bracket three times and they keep coming out microscopic. I had the same problem last year. My print preview even showed each page nice and big on the page. I even put in a new ink cartridge for this so all the pictures won’t be purple. 😉

  • I have had a glorious time this morning! I have been ogling all the patterns and I printed the brackets to write in my faves for when voting starts. I’m also saving plenty in my Ravelry favorites! Thanks for the treasure-trove of wonderful patterns!

  • I voted some last year, but I didn’t actually “play” because I don’t know how to. On the bracket pdf you have lines for names and email addresses. Is that just for us so we can pass them around at our knitting groups? There’s no participant winner, right? It’s just the grand champion pattern designer who wins worldwide fame and wealth because we all buy their pattern? Thank you.

  • What an awesome selection! For Fox Sake & Dissent are in my Ravelry shopping cart, waiting for payday…

  • Can you please explain the term ‘bracket’ in this context? Seems like it means something in the USA which it doesn’t in the UK!

    • In the US, March is the month of college basketball championships, referred to as March Madness. People fill out their brackets to predict the results of championship games, often in an office pool situation, for money. I don’t understand any of that stuff, but the MDK version is simple enough for me.

      They’re starting out with 16 patterns in four categories. If this was basketball, the brackets would show the first round as being pairs of teams that are going against each other. Winners would advance to the next bracket. Rather than pitting one particular sweater against another, we are finding the first round winners by voting on them overall. The top 8 vote winners in each category advance to Round two.

      Wikipedia says we use the word bracket in a sort of math-y way, putting games into categories separated by ( ), [ ], { }, etc. News to me. 🙂

  • What does BIPOC mean?

    • It’s short for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

  • ok, I’m an idiot. WHERE and HOW do we vote? Do we fill out the paper bracket, scan it, then email it? Is there a link for online voting? I read somewhere, something about survey monkey. Is there a link to vote? Help!

  • Please ignore my comment. It’s only Wednesday… I haven’t even filled out my NCAA bracket yet. I guess I’m more excited about the knitting!

  • As you know, I knitted the HECK out of last year’s sweater possibilities! This is my favorite thing, your March Mayhem. <3

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