For the second year in a row, I joined hundreds, if not thousands, of knitters worldwide in what an event affectionately called MadMay. Not to be confused with MMM, that is Malabrigo March Madness, MadMay is an annual event held during the month of May, duh, where knitters work on projects using only Madelinetosh yarn. Hence, MadMay.

If there were yarn brands that rhyme well with other months of the year I am sure we will have them already. Although I am quite sure there is a Wollmeise Withdrawal Madness Month which happens from August until mid-October. Okay so it’s not just a month of madness. It actually happens during the European summer when Claudia, dyer extraordinaire and shop owner of Wollmeise, goes away on holiday and stops dyeing yarn (gasp!).

Alright so without further delay, here is my official MadMay 2013 project which I in fact started and finished, i.e. blocked, all within the month of May: Guernsey Wrap by Jared Flood. The original was designed using non-superwash worsted weight American wool but with a very light feel to it. I have two skeins of this, Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, but I haven’t used it yet. I’m thinking an earflap hat or a pair of mittens for possible travel to colder climes might be a good idea.


Thanks to Eliza for modelling this for me, despite the apparent warmth on the day. Even if we were indoors, it could not have been very pleasant getting wrapped up in wool, even if it is superwash. Yes, it’s one of my sweater quantities of Vintage in Tart. Almost all of it now gone. I’m so pleased with this project. I didn’t think I would have the stamina to pull this off before the deadline, but the pattern is fun and keeps you interested with the texture changing every few rows.

Like most knitters who made this wrap, I added more stitches for a bit more width, 70 stitches t0 be precise. It’s wide enough to give a good coverage, but not so wide to bore me to death. I think a baby blanket version is in the cards soon. Just need to decide on the yarn. You can find my project notes here.

In the spirit of MadMay as well as stashdown, and oh well, peer pressure I guess, I decided to use up the remainder of the Vintage and cast on a Renfrew. Peer pressure courtesy of Stephanie and Mel – not so much pressure, but trend, you know. I love this hat because 1) stashbuster!, 2) almost no purling, you knit it inside out then turn it in and voila!, the hat is the right way out with the purl side showing and 3) Tart! Well I ran out of the Vintage before the crown decreases so I pulled out a skein of MCN Worsted to complete it. I think the change is not very noticeable, unless you look really closely or if you know your Tart very well. (link: http://ravel.me/Jhocy/r3)

And so I had this skein of MCN Worsted bouncing around one of the projects bags practically begging to be used up! And who was I to deny it it’s destiny? So I quickly looked at the patterns I have on iBooks and settled for Super Cupcake, the hat version, which has been in my library for a while. It’s super fun to knit! I had to frog once back to the end of the ribbing because my Shaker Rib pattern was not aligning. It wasn’t too painful and I was back to knitting after a few minutes.

I don’t have a lot of hair so I didn’t make this as slouchy as the pattern, but it stretches plenty enough to accommodate someone with big hair too. Oh and I love how the hat is actually reversible. Maybe it’s not meant to be worn inside out but it looks okay that way. Ruth, my awesomely gorgeous friend modelled both hats for me. She loves Tart (and cherries!) like I do and her colouring offsets Tart very very well. Thanks, Ruth!

I’m almost all set for a good long winter. I hope it comes here this time.