Design Your Way to New Zealand!

Vogue Knitting is celebrating its 30th anniversary in lots of big ways, but one of the biggest was just announced. The magazine is teaming up with Zealana, a luxury New Zealand yarn company, on a design contest, the grand prize of which is a trip to New Zealand.

The contest is open to all knitters with an interest in design (there’s a separate student contest for those in high school, university or a fashion school) and is looking for hand-knit garments for women sized small to medium based on the Craft Yarn Council’s standard sizing charts. At least half of each design must be made with Zealana yarn.

Submissions in the form of color photographs are due by Nov. 30, and each designer may submit up to four projects. Finalists will have to mail their projects and the ball bands of the yarn they used to New York, and the winners will be announced at Vogue Knitting Live in New York next year. All finalists will be featured in Vogue Knitting, and the grand prize winner will receive a five-day trip to New Zealand that will include a trip to the Zealana factory and a wildlife sanctuary.

The winning design will also be styled and photographed for a feature in Vogue Knitting and to be used in promotions for Zealana. Other prizes for runners up include gift cards, gift baskets and tickets to Vogue Knitting Live events (though they are responsible for their own transportation and accommodations).

This sounds like a really cool contest. Too bad my book is due two weeks before the deadline!

If anyone decides to enter, I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo by Zealana.]

Next Pattern:

Not too long ago I was seeing a crochet pattern for a glasses holder shaped like a bear all over the Internet. It was super cute, and also useful as a place to put your glasses on your bedside table instead of just throwing them somewhere random.

This project stewed in my brain for a little while and I decided I needed to make a knit version, but I didn’t want to make a bear. If you know anything about me you might know that I’m a cat person, so of course my version had to be a cat.

The base is just a basic little basic worked from the center out to the desired size, then up the sides as long as you want them. Knit some ears and add embellishments to make it whatever kind of animal you want.

The way I figured out to work the base from the center out was to use a crochet cast on, which gives you an easier way to pick up stitches from the back of the cast on than if you worked a more traditional cast on for a knitting project. It’s kind of fun to do things in a different way from time to time.

This little project is adorable if I do say so myself, and even as a plain little basket not made into an animal it’s a cute way to keep your glasses or other little things in one place. I’m tempted to make one for my desk to hold pens or even little little scissors and sewing needles that are always on my desk but somehow always seem to get lost on my desk.

If you need a little holder for your glasses on your table, check out the pattern at Our Daily Craft.

[Photo: Our Daily Craft]

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