Stevie Nicks is Looking for an Awesome New Shawl

Stevie Nicks is well known for her bohemian style, flowing clothes and shawls that accentuate her movement on stage, and now she’s looking for a new, handcrafted shawl to use in a photography shoot.

The singer has taken to Talenthouse, a sort of job board for artists, to put out her call for submissions. Interested designers can submit a sketch or a finished shawl as well as a description of why this is the perfect shawl for her.

The winner, who will be chosen by Nicks, will receive $2,000 to help them produce their final shawl, which Nicks will wear in photographs that will be posted on her website and on social media. The shawl will then be returned to the designer.

In her brief for the contest, which was also shared on Rolling Stone, Nicks said she started wearing shawls on stage in the late 1960s.

In 1968, a very handsome boy brought me a poncho from South America. I knew it was magic and that someday I would copy it in chiffon or leather or beaded material. I realized that wearing a poncho or a long shawl gave me something to work with up on the stage. Big movements, big twirls, you need to be seen from far away. So I made that a big part of my stage clothes. It became totally intertwined in my fashion style.

The competition is open through Sept. 22. Participants will also be eligible for a $500 prize based on the community’s choice of favorite shawl. Voting for that honor will take place between Sept. 22 and 29, and the winners will be announced Oct. 14.

[Photo via Talenthouse.]

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Looking for more amazing shawl patterns? Check out these Knitting patterns we found on Etsy.

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I feel like I haven’t shared many knitting machine patterns lately, probably because I haven’t been using my knitting machines much lately. (I finally made space for them to live on the bookshelf in my office, and now that they have a “place” it’s almost like I forgot they existed for a while.)

But I did recently make a little cat bed, that surely would work for a small dog, too.

This one uses two different sizes of knitting machine: a larger one (it could be any in the 40-48 needle range) and a 22 pin.

The larger machine is used in flat panel mode to make the bottom pillow like part of the bed, while the smaller machine makes a long tube that is used around the edges as the sort of walls of the cat bed.

For stuffing I used a bit of leftover quilt batting for the pillow, and some cut up old T-shirts for the tube.

You can use any worsted weight yarn you like (I used two colors of Big Twist Pound+, which comes in huge skeins that weigh more than a pound). Acrylic or cotton yarn is nice for washablity, but you’ll be cranking for a while so make sure you use a yarn your machine likes so it’s not too much of a struggle.

You can grab the pattern for this cat bed over at Our Daily Craft. I’m sorry to report the pictured is as close as a cat has gotten to it so far, but maybe your cats like to be cozy more than mine do?

If you’re looking for more options for cute handmade places for your cats and little dogs to rest, check out this roundup of knit pet beds. I still want to knit one by hand but the machine version was definitely a faster option (especially good since my cats are ungrateful).

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