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MDK Gems: Parallelogram Scarf and Shawl Balls
Hey there, it’s MDK Gems time—a quick moment when we cook up a special deal for you in celebration of a great Field Guide design and yarn.
This one is such a fan fave, one of MDK’s most popular designs ever. Kay and I have made at least six of these, and writing this post has got me in the mood again.
It’s Cecelia Campochiaro’s Parallelogram Scarf from Field Guide No. 5: Sequences.
So brilliant. In this slim volume, Cecelia introduces us to sequence knitting, where knits and purls combine in literally endless ways to form exquisite textures.
For the Parallelogram Scarf, the use of Freia Shawl Balls adds a mesmerizing color play to the textures.
You knit it to find out what color is next. This is weirdly and totally compelling.
What’s the Special Deal?
Order any quantity of Freia Shawl Balls, and we’ll include a free ebook edition of Field Guide No. 5: Sequences, a $9.95 value. We are not joking when we say this book will change your knitting life. It’s amazing.
Here are the colors used in the samples above. From the top:
We have 12 additional colors available if you’re the pick-your-own-colors type.
Pretty much any two colors will make a beautiful result. My only advice is to avoid getting too matchy about it—the color contrasts are the fun here.
Our quantity of Tina Whitmore’s hand-dyed wonder yarn is limited, so definitely hop on this one fast. Order through Tuesday, September 12.
Your Parallelogram Scarf will be one of a kind, thanks to this hand-dyed Freia yarn. And you will truly love making it, wearing it, treasuring it.
For the Truly Ambitious
If you really want to go for it, we have in stock maybe a dozen Freia Yarn Bombs, the same yarn but double the yardage as a Shawl Ball. Pick two colors, cast on 201 stitches, and follow the pattern. You will end up with a stupendously beautiful shawl. The Double Wide, we call it. You’ll receive the Sequences Field Guide ebook—and our undying respect. (The colors below are mostly gone, but you can see what the color play is across this version.)
This is a fun easy relaxing knit. The color combos are fun and I’ve found mine goes with so many outfits, I wear it in constant repeat.
Thanks for the suggestion of what to knit. I have been kinda in a muddle, have yarn, but no idea what to make.
Thanks for redirecting me back to Field Guide #5–I’m looking forward to taking on a beautiful project for the fall!
This one is indeed a classic. So much fun to make and wear – I love mine. A double wide version has been on my to knit list for a while.
Sooooo, I decided to make this scarf while I was at the beach last week. Knitting away, hit the midpoint, and started to think that 6’ must be longer than I remembered or else the last 3/4 of the skein was going to go much more quickly than the first 1/4. Read today’s post, checked my order, and realized I had ordered Yarn Bombs rather than Shawl Balls. Back to stitch one. ♀️️
Oh, dear. Frog pond?
Sequences is my #1 favorite of all the wonderful Field Guides! I’ve certainly used it the most. While I didn’t use the yarn balls, I did use disparate variegated yarns and loved the totally unexpected results. It’s really hard to predict what’ll happen and the surprises are delightful.
I made one earlier this year. Great yarn, interesting pattern, couldn’t put it down w/excitement of the color xgs. However, it came out way too long, used up both skeins (wanted to see how the colors came out). This pattern grows longer especially after soaking! Unraveled at least 3 feet to end at mid-calf instead of dragging on the floor. Ultimately I wasn’t in love with finished scarf so unraveled all of it then used each Freia ball w/a solid yarn color (dif brand) and a different sequence pattern to make two scarves I love and actually wear a lot.
The top shawl example with the blue to green variation is that still available? I would love to do the scarf with that color variation.