Did You See the Heavy Metal Knitting Championships?

July 16, 2019 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

If you were on the Internet over the weekend you might have seen a video or news story about the Heavy Metal World Knitting Championships, which took place last week in Finland.

From the look of things, the event may have been even stranger than you would think from the name. People dressed as sumo wrestlers, in dresses that looked like wedding gowns and other wild attire banged their heads to the music while knitting.

According the AP story linked above, Finland has the highest number of heavy metal bands per capita (at more than 50 bands per 100,000 people) and there are tons of knitters, too.

The competition’s website says

Knitting to the rhythm of heavy metal music can be compared to playing air guitar – which is a Finnish way to goof around as well. In heavy metal knitting, the knitter becomes a part of the band, showing their best needlework tricks as the heavy riffs echo on the background. The knitter takes part in the jam while their balls of yarn and knitting needles swish through the air…

Competitors from nine countries took to the stage to stitch and thrash, with the Japanese team Giga Body Metal coming out the winner. I don’t know how the winner was determined or what the prize is, other than that cool trophy, and getting to say you’re a world champion of heavy metal knitting, which I guess is prize enough.

[Photo via Heavy Metal Knitting.]

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Knit a Cozy Sweater with Lots of Options

If you’re looking for a sweater knitting pattern that uses up some of your stash and allows you to make just the sweater you want, the Marlina Rib by Shay Johson might be just the thing.

It’s worked with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together to make a DK weight gauge, so you can use the same two yarns throughout or change one or both regularly for an even more colorful look.

The pattern has options to make it either a crewneck or a henley style with buttons, tapered or relaxed sleeves, and a straight hemline or a split hem with buttons (which sounds so cute if you do the henley with split hem and match the buttons on both parts).

It’s also knit from the top down so you can make the body and the sleeves as long as you want. There are 10 sizes available in the pattern, with a chest circumference ranging from 32 to 68 inches, or 81.5 to 172.5 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 4-6 inches/10-15 cm of positive ease at the chest.

The pattern page on Ravelry includes tons of measurements and yardage estimates so you can make sure you’ll get a good fit for your body before you even buy the pattern. Shay also shows a few variations of the sweater so you can see how different options look before you decide how you want to put them together.

The stitch pattern is 1×2 ribbing, which is really easy to do and gives a look almost like fisherman’s rib that’s relaxed and easy to wear.

This sweater looks like a great option for people who are somewhat new to sweater knitting or those who love to have lots of customization options (because it’s like getting multiple sweater patterns in one!).

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself at Ravelry.

[Photo: Shay Johnson]

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