Field Guide No. 3: Wild Yarns

Every knitter we know loves the wild yarns. We fall in love with these skeins again and again, for their sheer beauty as objects. But we also want to knit with them, and wear them, and enjoy them every day.

MDK Field Guide No. 3: Wild Yarns celebrates the individuality and artistry of hand-dyed and multicolor skeins, and demonstrates how to show them off in projects that are fun to knit and lovely to wear.

With creative director Melanie Falick guiding the way, we sought out designers who embrace the quirkiness of these yarns, and know how to make them shine and charm. There’s a knack to it, and these designers have it: Dianna Walla, Kristen Kapur, Sue McCain. Together, this dream team came up with three designs that we are dying to knit and wear, using yarns that are in each case perfectly suited to the project.

Leif: A stranded colorwork cowl that plays with the subtle shifts of color in two different shades of Dyed in the Wool by Spincycle Yarns.

Colorwash: An airy, ample mesh scarf that captures the breathless handpainted color of Lichen and Lace merino.

Easel: An everyday pullover with absolutely-not-everyday splashes of color on the sleeves, combining both the vibrant semi-solids and cockeyed handpainting that Jill Draper does so well in her Mohonk wool.

These inspiring patterns and yarns also lead us on side trips to other ways—yarny and not-yarny—to dive headlong into color play, all photographed with palpable joy by Sara Remington.

Our overarching goal in this Field Guide was to express how pure the pleasure of color can be, whether it’s in cherishing a few beautiful one-off skeins of yarn, in printing wildflowers directly onto fabric, or in simply watching colors change in our hands as we knit.