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.]

If your family is the sort to do a turkey trot for Thanksgiving, or even just to take family pictures, you’ll want to get started knitting up some Turkey Sack Hats with this pattern from Underground Crafter.

The pattern uses super bulky yarn and is rated easy. It’s knit flat but there are a few skills in here around the shaping of the eyes, which includes changing colors, working bobbles and doing a wicked purl 3 together decrease. Twice.

But that’s all in one row, and the rest of it is pretty simple. The beak is worked separately and sewn on, and the side of the hat is stitched up to make it into a hat.

What’s great about this one is that it comes in 10 sizes, ranging from newborn to adult large, so you really can make one for everyone in the family. And because it uses super bulky yarn you can knit a bunch pretty quickly if that’s a thing you’d like to do.

It’s also fun because you could use this base pattern to make different animals or for different holidays. Make it all in orange and stitch on a jack o’lantern face for Halloween, or make a white one that’s a snowman, for example.

In any style this would also be a fun gag gift for that person in your life who has everything or doesn’t want gifts, or if you do a secret Santa or white elephant gift exchange at work or elsewhere.

And make sure whether you’re making it a turkey or some other character that you include the pom poms at the top! They’re just so cure and a great way to add a bit more color to the project, and they’re easy to make. (See also: ways to make a pompom with yarn.)

You can grab the free pattern at the Underground Crafter website.

[Photo: Underground Crafter]

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