Knit Madness Day 3: Color Work/Christmas

We’re now on Day 3, which might just include some of the most cheerful non-Nanny pieces of knitwear so far.

And if you’re a newsletter subscriber and got a 404 error on yesterday’s roundup page, that’s on me: I screwed up the slug and changed it soon after I sent it out. But since I’m still fairly new to beehiiv, I haven’t found a way to send everyone an update with the proper link. So that’s linked to here throughout this page.

Recap: Day 2, Textured/Miscellaneous

What’s honestly been so exciting about this so far is that, apart from the upsets, a lot of these matchups have been fairly close so far! But what I realized when Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Wheel of Time were tied at 10 votes each with only a few hours to go last night, I realized that…I didn’t have a contingency plan in place for a tie. Having never done one of these things before, does anyone have any recommendations?

• Matchup: (1) The Nanny (68.2%) vs (16) Empire Records (31.8%)

• Matchup: (2) Coraline (68.4%) vs (15) The Way We Were (31.6%)

• Matchup: (3) Only Murders in the Building (70.6%) vs (14) The Santa Clause (29.4%)

• Matchup: (4) The Wrong Trousers (47.6%) vs (13) A Fish Called Wanda (52.4%)

• Matchup: (5) Home Alone (28.6%) vs (12) While You Were Sleeping (71.4%)

• Matchup: (6) No Time to Die (31.3%) vs (11) Penny Dreadful (68.8%)

• Matchup: (7) My So-Called Life (57.1%) vs (10) Bonnie and Clyde (42.9%)

• Matchup: (8) Buffy the Vampire Slayer (43.4%) vs (9) The Wheel of Time (56.6%)

You can find a detailed rundown of Knit Madness here.

Today’s Matchups

Matchup: (1) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone¹ vs (16) Anna and the Apocalypse

(1) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

The Sweater: A lumpy, hand-knitted burgundy pullover (or knitted with magic) with the letter “R” in gold.

Who Wore It: Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), one-third of Harry Potter’s dynamic trio.

Replica: Yes

Notes: There’s an official Harry Potter knitting pattern book that includes the Weasley sweater pattern (and a plethora of others), but fans have been making replicas for over 20 years. A deleted scene features Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) wearing his blue Weasley sweater. Also, all of the usual caveats around anything Harry Potter-related these days, thanks to its author.

(16) Anna and the Apocalypse

The Sweater: A navy pullover with white polka dots and a green Christmas tree featuring red and blue ornaments that light up.

Who Wore It: John (Malcolm Cumming), one of several Scottish Sixth Formers (I think) who gets caught up in a zombie apocalypse around the Christmas holidays.

Replica: No

Notes: I love whoever thought to combine zombies, musicals, and Christmas into a movie. I haven’t seen it yet, but apparently, it’s good.

Who has the better sweater?

Matchup: (2) Murder, She Wrote vs (15) Finding Mr. Christmas

(2) Murder, She Wrote (1×02, “Deadly Lady”²)

The Sweater: A cream-colored zippered cardigan with several fish stitched together in black yarn on the front and sleeves. (Not seen: Even more fish on the back.)

Who Wore It: Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), who’s perhaps the greatest detective that Cabot Cove has ever seen. Or she should be.

Replica: Yes

Notes: A different version of Jessica’s sweater would later show up in Gossip Girl season courtesy of Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), a fact brought to me by a Murder, She Wrote fan—hence the leading photo of this post. And I cannot stress how difficult it was to pick only one of Jessica’s sweaters for this prompt; I’ve never seen the show, but solely based on photos, I’m a big fan of her “Home Sweet Home” pullover.

(15) Finding Mr. Christmas (1×01, “The Hunt for Mr. Christmas”)

The Sweater: A green sweater with a red brick wall. Santa is waving and holding a stocking, and above him are the words “Holiday Cheers.” Paired with silver tinsel.

Who Wore It: Jonathan Bennett, a man on a mission to find the Hallmark Channel’s next leading man.

Replica: No

Notes: This sweater was recommended to me by a Bluesky user. Thought Finding Mr. Christmas was the name of a Hallmark Channel original movie until I Googled it and learned it’s a reality competition to win the leading role in a Hallmark Christmas Movie.

Who has the better sweater?

Matchup: (3) Gravity Falls seasons 1-2 vs (14) What We Do in the Shadows season 1

(3) Gravity Falls (five instances across both seasons, including 1×01, “Tourist Trapped,” and the title sequence)

The Sweater: A pink turtleneck sweater with a shooting star on it.

Who Wore It: Mabel Pines (Kristen Schaal), one-half of Gravity Falls’ newest residents—and as close to a ray of sunshine as you can find.

Replica: Yes

Notes: Mabel wears an astounding 107 sweaters across the show’s 40 episodes.

(14) What We Do in the Shadows (1×02, “City Council,” and 1×07, “The Trial”)

The Sweater: A multicolored geometric fair isle sweater that features several rows of birds.

Who Wore It: Vastly overworked and underappreciated familiar (and Van Helsing descendant) Guillermo de la Cruz (Harvey Guillén).

Replica: No

Notes: Guillermo is another TV character with a ton of sweaters, but at least he might have a place to put them.

Who has the better sweater?

Matchup: (4) The O.C. season 1 vs (13) Schitt’s Creek season 3

(4) The O.C. (1×13, "The Best Chrismukkah Ever")

The Sweater: A white, blue, and red pullover. It’s mainly white with red trimming with blue reindeer and blue around the neck.

Who Wore It: Inclusive winter holiday king Seth Cohen (Adam Brody).

Replica: No

Notes: It’s not often you portmanteau a word on a TV show, and it becomes a whole thing.

(13) Schitt’s Creek (3×01, “Opening Night”)

The Sweater: A black and gray pullover. The sweater has a gray yoke near the neck with star-like shapes, none of which look like perfect stars.

Who Wore It: David Rose (Dan Levy), a sheltered former gallerist who acclimates to Schitt’s Creek almost better than anyone in his family.

Replica: Yes/No

Notes: Previously mentioned in a feature. David’s lightning bolt top from season 5 is more well-known Schitt’s Creek top, but since that’s a sweatshirt (and not a sweater), it’s ineligible for this contest. Also, you can view every single one of David’s shirts, sweatshirts, and sweaters here.

Who has the better sweater?

Matchup: (5) The Shining vs (12) A Close Shave

(5) The Shining

The Sweater: A light blue sweater with a white Apollo rocket.

Who Wore It: Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd), a kid with a telepathic connection who’s stuck in an isolated hotel in the middle of winter with his murderous dad.

Replica: Yes

Notes: Not just a pattern for kids!

(12) A Close Shave

The Sweater: A white turtleneck sweater with pink stripes made from his own wool.

Who Wore It: Shaun the Sheep, a Wallace and Gromit character cool enough to get his own films.

Replica: No

Notes: Unlike everyone else in this tournament, Shaun knows exactly where that wool came from.

Who has the better sweater?

Matchup: (6) Saturday Night Live season 24 vs (11) Arthur Christmas

(6) Saturday Night Live (24×09, “Alec Baldwin”)

The Sweater: A multicolored cardigan with various Christmas illustrations.

Who Wore It: Oversharing NPR host Terry Rialto (Molly Shannon).

Replica: No, but you can buy a version of it on eBay for $149.98. (Thanks, Leah!)

Notes: Granted, the sweater might be the least funny thing about this all-time classic sketch, but it’s a very ugly sweater (complimentary).

(11) Arthur Christmas

The Sweater: A bright green pullover with “HO HO HO” stitched across the shoulder and different colored ornaments dangling down.

Who Wore It: Arthur Claus (James McAvoy), the clumsy and eccentric younger son of the current Santa who ends up having to save Christmas.

Replica: No

Notes: I have somehow never heard of this film before this tournament, but it’s a really fun sweater.

Who has the better sweater?

Matchup: (7) Bridget Jones’s Diary vs (10) How the Grinch Stole Christmas

(7) Bridget Jones’s Diary

The Sweater: A dark green turtleneck sweater with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the center.

Who Wore It: A very grumpy modern-day Darcy—Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).

Replica: No

Notes: Kinda love how only Colin Firth could get specifically type-cast to play Darcy.

(10) How the Grinch Stole Christmas

The Sweater: A white sweater with candy cane-striped sleeves, “HO HO HO” written near the bottom trim, and a lit-up Christmas tree that says, “I ❤️ Christmas” in the middle.

Who Wore It: A very grumpy live-action Grinch (Jim Carrey).

Replica: No

Notes: His heart shriveled up two sizes that day.

Who has the better sweater?

Matchup: (8) The Killing season 1 vs (9) A Nightmare on Elm Street

(8) The Killing (1×08, “Episode 8,” and every other one of season 1’s 20 episodes)

The Sweater: A white and white Faroe Island vón star sweater.

Who Wore It: Inspector Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl), who’s about to immigrate to Sweden before a season-long murder mystery keeps her right in Denmark.

Replica: Yes

Notes: People went wild over this sweater almost as much as they did over the show.

(9) A Nightmare on Elm Street

The Sweater: A dark red and green striped sweater straight from your nightmares.

Who Wore It: Malevolent spirit Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund).

Replica: Yes

Notes: One of the lasting images of a horror legend.

Who has the better sweater?

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1  I’m American (sorry), so I’m going with Sorcerer’s vs Philosopher’s for the title. But you know what I mean.

2  There is some discrepancy online about what number episode “Deadly Lady” actually is (I’ve seen 1×01, 1×02, and 1×03), but I’m going with the Murder, She Wrote Wiki’s episode page for now.