2021 Nature MAL Series

Welcome to the 2021 Nature MAL Series! This year, I’ll be hosting four two-month long make-alongs, all with nature-related themes. Crafts included in these make-alongs are knitting, crochet, spinning, and weaving. I hope you’ll join in!

Note that you can participate in the chatter component of this MAL series both here on the blog in comments area of this blog post (which will remain pinned to the top of the blog for the duration of the MAL series) and also on Ravelry in the Nature MAL thread. You’re also welcome to use the hashtag #90knaturemal on Instagram to share your projects and progress throughout the MAL series!

SCHEDULE & THEMES

March 1 – April 30: Flora – all things plants! If it grows out of the earth, it counts. For the sake of the MAL, we’ll include mushrooms and other fungi here as well.

May 1 – June 30: Fauna – Critters! Animals! Anything that walks, crawls, flies, or swims falls into this theme. Furry, scaly, finned, feathered…they all work here!

July – We’ll be taking this month off!

August 1 – September 30: Sea – Anything water related…expanding this beyond the actual oceans and seas, you can also include streams, ponds, lakes, rivers, etc. Also, plants and animals that live in these bodies of water.

October 1 – November 30: Sky – Anything that is above our heads and not rooted to the ground. Think sun, moon, stars, constellations, clouds, planets, precipitation, etc. This can also include birds and bats and other flying creatures!

GUIDELINES

All projects must be started and finished within their relevant two-month themed MAL period.

Projects must be related to the period’s theme in some way. This could be the name of the yarn/fiber colorway, the name of the pattern, the color itself, shape, etc. As long as you can tie it to the theme in a way that makes sense, it counts.

EDITED GRAMS GUIDELINE: There will be no grams requirement for FOs. As long as your FO is a complete, usable finished object on its own when you are done with it, it will qualify as an FO regardless of grams. (Example: a dishcloth that weights 20 grams – yes, this counts as it is a complete, usable FO; a granny square that weighs 20 grams to be used with other squares for a blanket – no, this doesn’t count because it isn’t a complete, usable FO on its own.)

EDITS FOR CLARIFICATION ON SPINNING: This year, you can count yarn that you’ve spun as an FO, and you can then also count the yarn if you use it to create an FO, as long as its used in a different MAL period. (In other words, the same fiber/yarn will have to work with two different themes in some way.)

You may enter as many FOs as you’d like for each MAL period. You will submit your FOs using our new Finished Object Entry Form (see below), and each form entry will be an entry for the FO prize drawing.

SUBMITTING YOUR FOs

This year, we will be using a Finished Object Entry Form to submit FOs into the prize drawings.

The link to the Finished Object Entry Form is here: https://www.fibernymphdyeworks.com/2021-nature-mals-finished-object-entry-form/

If you’d like to go in and submit a “practice” form just so you know what its asking for, feel free to do so. I will be able to discard practice forms when I’m doing the drawings later.

Note: the form asks you for your MAL User Name. This is a name YOU are creating as an identifier for yourself. It can be your Rav name if you want it to be, but it doesn’t have to be. Just please use the same MAL User Name each time you submit a form. (Eventually I may be able to put all of the names being used in a drop down menu in the form so it’ll be easy to just pick yours, but for now you’ll need to enter it each time you submit a form.) In the event you choose the same name that someone else is already using, I’ll be able to differentiate between them by your email address and I will likely ask all affected parties to add a number or symbol to their user name to avoid confusion.

The information you will need to submit for each FO will be:

• Your MAL User Name
• Your email address
• Your project’s name
• Start and finish dates of the project
• A link to where you have a photo your project and yarn/fiber information for verification. (This can be a Ravelry project page, an Instagram post*, a blog post, or wherever you want me to be able to go to see your project).
• There will also be entry information related to the Optional FDW Component, which is explained below.

OPTIONAL FDW COMPONENT

If a project is completed using all FDW yarn/fiber, it will qualify as an entry into a second drawing to be held at the end of each MAL period. (All other qualifications listed above still need to be met as well.)

To enter your project for the FDW drawing, you will include additional information in your Finished Object Entry Form telling me what yarn/fiber you used for the project.

Anyone who completes a minimum of 200 grams worth of qualifying projects made with FDW yarn/fiber in each of the MAL periods will earn a skein of yarn/braid of fiber in an exclusive colorway!

PRIZES

There will be one FO prize drawing from the submitted FO Forms and one chatter prize drawing at the end of each MAL period. The chatter winner will be drawn from all comments submitted during the MAL period on both this blog post and the Ravelry MAL thread combined. Prizes will be FDW yarn/fiber/shop-related. Winners will be announced on the first 90% Knitting podcast episode following the close of the MAL period.

QUESTIONS?

If you have questions about any of the guidelines or any component of the MAL series, please feel free to leave a comment here, PM me on Ravelry, or email me directly at [email protected]. If I’ve left out any info, I’ll add clarifications to this post as I become aware of it!