Emma Wright is Britan’s Next Top Knitwear Designer

I’d been on the lookout for this one but somehow missed the official announcement. Back in March I told you about the knitwear design contest being held by LoveKnitting looking for the next great knitwear designer in the UK. Hopefuls had to design a project using yarn that LoveKnitting sells, and their creations were judged by a panel of experts including Debbie Bliss.

The winner is Emma Wright, from Sheffield, who wowed the judges with her bulky tie-back sweater with a textured body, polka-dotted sleeves and bold teal accents.

It’s a really fun design, and because she won the contest she will have the chance to professionally finish her design and make it available for sale at LoveKnitting. She’ll also get work experience with Emilio de la Morena in advance of his S/S London Fashion Week show in September and a cash prize of £1000.

Congratulations, Emma!

Check out the other finalists and see if you think the judges made the right choice.

[Photo via LoveKnitting.]

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A Terry’s Chocolate Orange is a classic Christmas gift in the UK that has become more popular in America as well. And if you know knitters, you know they’re going to cover something in knitting if they can, so there are lots of different Christmas themed chocolate orange knitting patterns out there (which you could use for an actual orange as well if that’s in your traditions).

Chocolate orange covers seem to be one of those projects where a designer makes a lot of variations on the theme, so we’ll just touch on a few here but you can further explore the designer’s works if you like what you see.

Wild Welsh Knitting has a cute little set of orange covers that look like little drawstring bags. There’s a snowman, a Christmas tree and a robing, and they are all worked in DK weight yarn. This designer has lots of cute little Christmas projects, not just for oranges.

Wendy Morgan has a bunch of chocolate orange cover knitting patterns, not just for Christmas, but for our purposes I wanted to point out the set that includes a Santa, reindeer and Christmas pudding. It’s available on Ravelry, and the pieces are worked flat using DK weight yarn.

Rebecca Roberts is another designer on Ravelry who does a bunch of Christmas chocolate orange cover knitting patterns, but I wanted to share this post box one because I think it’s really cute and not a design I’ve seen from others. It has a little bird on top and you could change up the colors to make it a TARDIS (yes I know that’s a phone box, not a mail box, but still) if you wanted.

Made by Marianna has a great set of her Christmas orange cover knitting patterns available on Etsy if you want to make a bunch of different designs. This collection includes six patterns: a Christmas pudding, Santa hat, snowman, Christmas trees, elf hat and Santa’s belt. The Christmas tree is shown above. All of the patterns use DK yarn.

Secret Garden England has a bunch of cute holiday patterns, too, but if you’re stitching for someone who doesn’t have a lot of Christmas cheer, you’ll want to make this Grinch one. The details are so cute, and while you’ll need more supplies to add all those things, it’s well worth the effort!

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