Skip to content

Dear Everybody,

It’s a brand-new year, and we’re ready for a deep, refreshing dive into Kaffe Fassett’s designs for MDK Field Guide No. 16: Painterly.  

We got a good start back in November, but those first projects left us longing for MORE. Now, free of the distractions of the holidays, we’re ready for big intarsia fun.

Yes—we said “intarsia” and we also said “fun.”

If you’re new to intarsia, or if intarsia has seemed scary, this is the knitalong that is going to reveal to you the joy of painting with wool.

You know how would-be runners do training programs called “Couch to 5K” and “Couch to 10K?” We think of this as the first-ever “Couch to Couch” knitalong. You start on the couch, and you end on the couch, but in the middle (yes, on the couch) you master Kaffe’s liberating way to intarsia colorwork.

Today, we begin a short, intense, delirious romp through this sublime colorist’s accessible, geometric intarsia designs. Like last year’s festival of Kaffe Fassett stranded colorwork, we’re calling this knitalong the Kaffe-along. Pick a colorwork chart, pick one of the Field Guide’s simple templates—scarf, cushion, cowl, or throw—grab some jolly colors of Felted Tweed, and off we go!

Village Scarf. It takes a village to get a knitter started on intarsia.

Since the launch of Field Guide No. 16 in November, we’ve reveled in the outpouring of knitterly love for intarsia.  The big news: knitters are loving the freshness, simplicity, and joy of Kaffe’s geometric designs, and they’re finding his no-nonsense techniques for knitting intarsia—chief among them his “pull from the tangle,” bobbin-free method—to be as do-able as we say they are.

The Watercolor Cowl is a great project if you’re an intarsia newbie, and also if you have a lot of Felted Tweed leftovers in your stash.

Kaffe Fassett is a master, to be sure. But in Field Guide No. 16, we see a master at play. Kaffe is applying his surefooted color sense and evolved patterning in a way that is very of-the-moment. Like the year, it’s brand new.

Rhapsody in blues: the Cityscape Scarf.

It’s so fun to knit with Kaffe. Where else but in knitting could we get to share an artist’s vision, so directly and personally? It’s the most exhilarating knitting we know. 

A tale of three I-cushions. Top to bottom, the patterns are Kites (Bright), Kites (Cool), and Cityscape.

The big one you’ll cherish forever: the Kites Throw. The MDK Shop has bundles for this project in two glorious Kaffe palettes: cool and bright.

C’mon! It’ll Be Fun!

Will you join us? The fun of this knitalong is that there really is a Kaffe for every knitter. Field Guide No. 16 provides charts that range from satisfyingly quick knitting candy—cushions, cowls, and scarves—to full-on, love-of-your-life projects that will bring delight in the knitting, and reward you with an heirloom at the end of the road. It’s an adventure that will be more fun together.

The Details

The knitalong will officially end on Friday, February 12—though everybody knows that a good knitalong just keeps going and going. There is no time pressure.

The Instagram hashtag is #KaffealongMDK. Go on ahead and follow it on Instagram. Or if you prefer, post your progress photos in the MDK Lounge. We are keeping our eyes on both places.

Posting a photo, either on the Instagram hashtag or in the MDK Lounge, will put you in the running for juicy prizes from our friends at Rowan Yarns, with winners to be announced shortly after the knitalong officially ends.

You do not have to finish your project to be eligible for prizes. Like we said: no time pressure. It’s about inspiration, learning, and fun, and sharing that with each other.

Any project from MDK Field Guide No. 16 is eligible. Also eligible are projects using any of the charted motifs from the Field Guide on a project of your choice. (There’s already a Villages sweater version happening out there, and we love to see it.)

As with all MDK knitalongs, all yarns are welcome. You do not have to knit your Kaffealong project in Rowan Felted Tweed, although it’s Kaffe’s favorite, and ours, for its rich, flecked colors and long-wearing, well-behaved ways. If you’ve been wanting to try Felted Tweed, this is the universe inviting you to do it now.

That’s our knitalong policy here at MDK: the more the merrier. The goal is to have a good time together, sharing the joy of knitting designs by one of the all-time great knitwear designers, spurring each other on with inspiration and ideas, and learning a few neat knitting tricks along the way.

We would tell you what the criteria for prizes are, but we don’t know a prize winner until we see it. If you’ve followed our knitalongs in the past, you probably know that we are suckers for a gorgeous photo, a sassy caption, a good story, or a heartwarming moment. Any one of these, or something else entirely, can capture our imagination and make us say, “This wins a prize!”

Need Provisions? 10% Savings on Felted Tweed Kits and Bundles

With Kaffe’s designs, color is everything, and more colors equals more fun. To help get everyone’s Felted Tweed palette in shape, the MDK Shop is stocked way up on this favorite yarn.  

And if you order one of our kits or bundles for Kaffe’s designs in Field Guide No. 16 or Field Guide No. 13, the bundled price is at a 10 percent savings off the single-skein price.

See all the kits at the one-stop shop page for Field Guide No. 16.

Resources

Is this your first foray into intarsia? It’s easier than you might think. Jen Arnall-Culliford has made some super-useful short video tutorials to get you started:

Little Lessons: Intarsia 101

Little Lessons: Getting in the Intarsi-Swing

Stay tuned—there will be more to come.

Now let’s get out there and get this color party started!

Love,

Ann and Kay

Photos by Elysa Weitala

17 Comments

  • Good morning! I’ve been going through field guide 16 and it’s really lovely. I was thinking I would make one of the scarves, but it seems the kits for the scarves are sold out? Will you be getting them back in stock? I’m particularly interested in the village scarf

  • Thanks for this Kaffealong, I’ve just been waiting. I’ve got my field guide and collected some Rowan Felted Tweed! Now for those little houses!

  • Color me crazy! I have three projects going on simultaneously, but I can’t resist a kaffe anything. I love both your #13 and #16 booklets covering Kaffe’s colorful world, so I will dive in and joyfully come out with something to join the party. Color on!!

  • I have been swatching little houses, in preparation for casting on today, but I’ve hit an intarsia stumbling block. When you do the door/window, do you treat those as fair isle, ie just carry a float along, or treat it as intarsia, meaning yet more yarns to tangle up? With all the little houses Kay has done, I’m sure there’s a ready answer!

    • That’s totally up to you. On my little houses, I treated the windows as intarsia. I’ve seen others strand the windows with good results. It doesn’t make much of a difference to the tangle.

  • I’m in! But I’m not making any promises. Going to do a City Scape pillow using my 10 pack that I bought and still haven’t started. In theory, I shouldn’t be finishing things right now but, in reality, it’s just me and my knitting in my house and we’ll do whatever we want.

    See you all in the lounge.

  • Thinking about doing my first ever KAL…..one question that I can’t seem to find the answer to: how many cushions does one get out of 9 balls of yarn? Is it just one or more?

    • We haven’t done any calculation of how many cushions you can get out of a number of balls of Felted Tweed, Just in terms of yardage, and depending on the cushion size of course, you can expect to get several cushions out of 9 balls of yarn. If you want a solid-color cushion back, you may need to get another ball of that color (or you may not), or you can stripe or color-block the backs. But on these multi-color charts, you end up using relatively little of each color, so 9 balls would go a long way.

  • I’m so in, I’ve two projects going from Field Guide 13 and completed 3. Do I dare start another? Of course!!! This knit along is the perfect opportunity to start my first intarsia project of Kaffe’s designs from #16. I was gifted the kite throw kit and today’s the the day for my new challenge to begin.

  • Well timed! I had set myself a challenge for holiday knitting in the stranded throw in Field Guide 13 as I have never knitted a blanket. Why not a Kaffe one to keep me interested? So I’m in….

  • Any tips on converting the cowl or village scarf into a throw? Will there be too many ends to weave in? Thank you

  • I have gotten two rows of the cowl finished How do I post a photo?

  • Where do I find the knit along in the mdk lounge? I’ve looked and can’t seem to find it. Thanks.

  • Can’t wait for my kit to come!!! Have been watching the tips – and my hands are just itching to get started!!

Come Shop With Us

My Cart0
There are no products in the cart!
Continue shopping