Inspiration
It’s Here! Field Guide No. 26: Moss
Dear friends,
Many months ago, we put a red circle around February 9 and have been anticipating this day ever since. It’s finally here!
After a swirl of yarns and ideas flying from Iceland and France to Nashville to New York, today’s the day we introduce a new collection of utterly captivating designs by Hélène Magnússon.
Please give a big hello to Field Guide No. 26: Moss. Order your copy right here. It’s available in a print + ebook edition and an ebook-only edition.
We have frankly outdone ourselves in terms of cool stuff related to this divine little book. You gotta join us—there’s excellent diversion ahead.
The Designs
Hélène Magnússon lives and knits in the Icelandic landscape. She has an artist’s eye for color and texture. We’re already hearing from Field Guide subscribers who are knocked out by the beauty of what Hélène has given us.
A sweater, a shawl, a throw, mittens, and a tam all capture colors and textures that you will love to make.
Special for this Field Guide are yarns that we’ve never carried before—we’re lucky to have them in stock, and we think you are going to love working with them.
Scroll down to see them all. Clicking on the pattern name takes you to size information and yarn information too.
Crowberry Sweater. The loveliest of yokes. Crowberries are small and dark, a common sight in Arctic landscapes, and with Hélène’s artful eye, they become dimensional bobbles.
Worked in the Icelandic wool yarns Plotulopi and Love Story Einband (Hélène’s own rare laceweight yarn), this design knits up quickly on US size 10.5 (6.5 mm) needles.
Moss Field Throw. Our first look at this design took our breath away.
This masterful design is as close to a field in Iceland as you can get without leaving home. Hélène created this design even as she was taking a group of knitters on a trip through the mountains of Iceland. The colors are straight out of the Icelandic landscape.
The yarns here combine in a variety of ways to create a spectacular work of art—one that will keep you very warm. And it’s entirely a great idea to knit one of the three strips to wear as a scarf.
Love Story Shawl. Hélène is fascinated by the long tradition of Icelandic lace knitting, so with this design she brings us the exquisite openwork that is a counterpoint to the woolly Icelandic sweaters we love.
Her own yarn, Love Story Einband, is designed especially for this sort of project. Icelandic lambswool, delicate yet sturdy, in a beautiful palette. Our yarn bundle for this design is here.
To knit in stripes as shown, or in one color for a completely different effect. Love Story Einband is available by the skein here if you want to make a one-color version, or your own stripe palette.
Reindeer Moss Mittens and Tam. Abundant in the lava fields of Iceland, reindeer moss is a white texture in the landscape. Hélène brings it to us in a pair of stranded colorwork designs that are deliciously warm—Plotulopi yarn held with Love Story Einband.
The Yarns
They’re made with wool from Icelandic sheep. They are not like other yarns. We’re so fascinated.
Plotulopi comes in a big plate. It’s unspun roving, as light as air.
Love Story Einband is the fruit of Hélène’s imagination: a laceweight yarn, in Icelandic lambswool. She worked for years to develop this yarn. It’s superb in every way.
Our brand-new lookbook for Field Guide No. 26: Moss shows you all the yarns, including four MDK-exclusive yarn bundles for four of the projects.
What’s Ahead?
So much. It’s going to be a season of mossy good times.
Launch party on Zoom! This Monday, February 12, noon Eastern time. Hélène Magnússon will join us from Iceland to celebrate the publication of this Field Guide. Expect a great conversation, a fair amount of questions from Ann about lava, and the giving of door prizes—must be present to win, as they say. This event is free; register here and we’ll email a link to you on Monday.
Bang Out a Sweater 2024! Beginning March 1, our epic knit-a-whole-sweater-in-a-month extravaganza is back, starring the Crowberry Sweater. It’s taking every bit of willpower to keep us from jumping the gun on this thing. Stay tuned for details on this exhilarating MDK tradition.
An in-depth virtual class with Lorilee Beltman! Bang Out a Sweater just got a whole lot more bangin’. During March, the superb teacher whose mere voice lowers our blood pressure by ten points will teach three in-depth sessions on the making of a sweater, in particular the Crowberry Sweater. Lorilee is a dream of a teacher, and you’ll leave this class with tons of wisdom and new skills. Even if you’re already a sweater knitter, you’ll gain a lot from this class. Sign up here: Bang Out a Sweater Virtual Class.
Love,
Ann and Kay
Beautiful designs.
Speechless with wonder! Love every bit of this! xoxo
Lovely work! I am excited to participate!!
This is nothing short of spectacular. What I love about these sweaters, is that they are super warm without the bulk or weight of some “winter warm” designs. And Helene’s work is amazing.
I keep coming back to the Moss Field Throw. May try modifying to lap robe size.
I succumbed at the thought of Icelandic lambswool laceweight, and using my subscriber discount pressed buy on the kit for the Love Story shawl. The colors are lovelier in real life. Looks like perfect travel knitting, so I’d better buy a plane ticket to somewhere!
This is a classic “if you give a mouse a cookie” situation — may I suggest Iceland?
Will you have a kit for the throw? Please say yes!
Never mind, found it!
I’m interested to know how the Crowberry sweater is constructed. Is it knit top down on circular needles or bottom up in the round?
It starts with the hem (in the round) and you knit up to the yoke. I am hoping to cast on this weekend!
Given that Icelandic sweaters are typically top down in the round starting at the yoke, that would be my guess.
Can’t wait to cast on a Crowberry!
I’m going on a 10 day cruise on Cunard to Scandinavia in August and this book came out at a perfect time
Was it really seven years ago that Ann and Kay were calling one of the yarns “plutoloopy”? How time flies…
When in Iceland in 2021, I purchased a kit from Helene at her studio for Frjokorn. It used plutolopi and Love Story held together, along with lettlopi for the colorwork. It is a beautiful sweater and one of my favorites…so warm while being incredibly light. The Love Story strand provides strength to the otherwise fragile plutolopi. It worked up fast and I love it. Highly recommend this yarn and Helene’s beautiful designs!
Where are the corrections for ALL of the mistakes in field guide 26 ??
I am VERY concerned about your lack of attention to this problem !!