Fun
MDK March Mayhem 2020: The Champion!
Dear Knitters,
After spending time with 64 beautiful patterns . . .
After five rounds of voting . . .
After wearing out Ravelry . . .
You, the knitters of the world, have landed upon a champion for MDK March Mayhem 2020.
The Oban Cardigan by Thea Colman.
[Cue the trumpets and and noisy joy and angels dangling banners!]
Congratulations, Thea!
The Pattern
The Oban Cardigan combines so many of the beautiful elements that we think of as signatures of Thea Colman’s work: Cables that are interesting in themselves, and made more compelling by deft placement. A traditional shape for a timeless garment that dresses up or down and can be worn in a huge variety of styles. And pockets!— pockets with perfectly centered cables.
With a classic cabled sweater like this, there is no shortage of happy yarn pairings. The Oban Cardigan is perfection in the Aran weight yarn Thea chose for the sample, Bare Naked Wools Kent Worsted. We can’t help also envisioning it in the rich, saturated colors of Winterburn Aran, an Aran weight blend of two heritage breed wools made in Yorkshire.
You can see the fun that 144 knitters are having with The Oban Cardigan over on Ravelry. We love seeing all the choices, and all the knitters wearing The Oban Cardigan with flair.
In the MDK Shop
Guess what? The Oban Cardigan has a big sister:
The Oban Sweater, a worsted-weight pullover. That rolled neck detail!
Meet the Designer
We’ve been watching Thea Colman since she was a little bitty designer. Working with her on MDK Field Guide No. 8: Merry Making was a longtime wish fulfilled. Thea’s flair for simple shapes and intriguing textures, and her eye for the just-right detail, make us return again and again to the quick-knitting accessories in that little book.
Thea’s win in this year’s March Mayhem is especially gratifying because at heart, Thea is a sweater knitter’s designer. Her sweaters are perennial fan favorites, and have gone the distance in previous March Mayhems.
If this were the Oscars, the voiceover announcer would say, “This is Thea’s third nomination, and first award . . .” as her Widow’s Kiss, below, was a contender in March Mayhem 2019 . . .
And her Cranberry Gose, below, was a contender in March Mayhem 2018.
Visit with Thea
A 2019 interview by our friends at Arnall-Culliford Knitwear lets us hang out with Thea as she talks about her design process. And we talked to her ourselves, in a wacky lightning round Q & A, here.
Follow Thea on Instagram and on her website, Baby Cocktails, to keep up with the never-ending stream of beautiful things she’s designing. She has a lively group over on Ravelry.com.
You can get into a lot of Thea Colman pattern trouble on Ravelry, where she is closing in on 250 patterns to her name.
What Happens Now
While we have an inevitable case of the post-Mayhem blues, we will console ourselves by picking a few favorites from among the 64 designs in the bracket, and casting something on as soon as we can. So many to choose from! The 2020 bracket will live on right here, as an easy shopping list for you. (And remember, you can print out the PDF here for a more portable, paper shopping list.)
We’ve got a robust selection of yarns in the MDK Shop, should you feel a similar need of consolation knitting. To keep up with all the fun here at MDK, sign up for Snippets in the box below. It’s the perfect accompaniment to Saturday morning’s PJ knitting and coffee, and Snippets subscribers get special deals and are first to hear of new things and events.
Finally, thank you to everyone who spent time being a part of MDK Mayhem 2020.
Designers, we salute you!
Knitters, we embrace you!
Thea Colman, we toast you, and we hope you savor this moment.
Love,
Kay and Ann
Congratulations Thea!! And to everyone else who was nominated. The patterns were all gorgeous. It’s really us knitters who benefit though because we have more beautiful designs to pick from. Thanks as always to Ann and Kay for hosting.
Here here! Ditto.
And Kay and Ann, we thank you for giving us a distraction and the hope of knitting another day
Thank you for March Mayhem, Ann and Kay! I look forward to it each year- and especially so this year. Such a needed distraction. Congratulations to Thea and all the other designers. May we continue to support each other with love and care
Very deserving.
So excited! I was team Thea from round 1! Having knit her previous Paloma cardigan I had knowledge that her patterns are excellent! Obviously I am not alone. Thea is a charitable person through her patterns too, so this is such a well earned award!!!
I love this cardigan and I voted for it since the first round! Today I am casting on 🙂 Thank you for organizing this March Mayhem, I feel so lucky to have been a part with my Sagostad mittens!
I spent so much time trying to decide on my last vote, even looking at the FOs on Ravelry, trying to decide between the Sagostad mittens and the Oban cardigan – two exceptionally lovely patterns in a field of super-worthy contenders! I’ve already chosen yarn for both of these, and at least two other nominees. Thanks once again Kay & Ann, for alerting us to so many beautiful projects, and thank you to all the designers for giving us the chance to create them.
I too struggled between Oban and Sagostad, and selected Sagostad for both my vote and the pattern purchase. But I do want to make both! Congrats and thanks to the designers for such beautiful, difficult choices in the last rounds!
I am almost finished this beautiful cardigan.
The Oban Cardigan is very deserving, but I loved the Sagostad mittens, and was rooting for them to win top prize! Definitely in my queue for the future–
Me too! I was happy to see them in the final round.
Oh, Thea! You have created a Masterpiece for all of us, and you certainly deserve this amazing honor! Well Done, You!!!!1
Congrats to Thea! Next year you should do all designers who have never appeared in the March Mayhem, get some exposure for up and coming designers who could really use the exposure.
That’s a neat idea!
Or even two Mayhem brackets…one for never before nominated, one for never before won. Even MORE patterns for us to ooh and ahh over 😉
Such a gorgeous sweater – aspirational!
Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined myself knitting such a winner! I’ve been knitting on it for about a month, and am excited to get it done. Not boring at all, fun to watch as it grows. Thanks, These, and the MD bunch!
Congrats to all the designers!! I realized looking at the winner that I have no memory of which one I voted for in the final round. I think because I loved them all the same….
I just love this cardie! L O V E I T !!!!!!!!!!!! On release day, I said to myself “This is THE ONE.” The one that would become my go-to sweater for life, the one my kids would fight over after I was long gone, the one that would have a thousand memories knit into each stitch. I am so excited for Thea. What a great day. What a great sweater.
Well you ladies made my March ! and we all know it was a tough one. My favorite the woodland slipper did not win, but sometimes thats better! You helped me through COVID ladies. Mwah!!!! Love you !
Thank you…what fun. Congratulations to the winner, but everyone that was in the running was a winner. Love your posts.
What a beauty! I have lots of time right now for a big juicy project too. Even if I didn’t…
Thank you to Kay and Ann for all your hard work making a great bracket! March Mayhem was such a welcome diversion this year.
This was SO much fun! 🙂 And it introduced me to absolutely FABULOUS patterns. I must admit, I loved Thea’s pattern from the very start of this competition. So, I was happy to see it win. However, ALL the patterns were wonderful! Each design could have easily won. Thanks so much for hosting this FUN event — and such an inspirational one!
Thea, now how about a book of knitwear and cocktail pairings? Have MDK publish it. I’m preordering right NOW. Congrats, and thank you MDK! ❤️
thank you for March Mayhem and thanks to Thea for her skill and generosity. See her post on Ravelry:
“50% of ALL my Ravelry sales will continue to go to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy until 4/10. I’ve already been able to give them $2,000 and I am almost at another $2,000 – but maybe with this, we can round it up to a cool $5,000 total!!!”
I’m so happy to have been a part of this endeavor. The Oban Cardigan was one of my choices from the very start! Congratulations Thea and Thank you MDK for a grand event ❣️
where do I find the pattern for the woodland knit slipper?
Absolutely no surprise. This has winner written all over it.
Well congrats Thea. Good on you! I’ve bought and cast on the Woodland Loafers and i hope to knit a whole closet full of loafers. A little scared of a LARGE project like an OBAN CARDIGAN, but admiring it just the same.
Yay! I picked this one from the beginning! Congratulations to all the amazing designers
I’ve always wanted to knit a sweater and I really like this sweater. Could I do it is the question? Thanks for the fun of March Mayhem.