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Try Your Hand at Design for Free Yarn, Cool Prizes

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my mountain design contestThe German yarn company Schachenmayr is celebrating the release of its new yarn line in North America with a very cool design contest.

The line is called My Mountain, so the contest is about your personal design mountain, something you’ve always wanted to try but haven’t felt up to the challenge yet.

This is a pretty fast-moving contest, in that you can put in a request to receive free yarn for your design (how cool is that?) between now and August 17 and a photo of your design needs to be emailed by August 30. Fifteen semifinalists will be chosen by Sept. 6 and will be promoted as part of a Facebook contest. It’s not clear (to me, anyway) if all 15 get $150, or just the winner.

In addition, five finalists will each receive an iPad mini, promotion in social media and be featured in an ad on Ravelry. What’s more, everyone who submits a design gets a free T-shirt. That’s a pretty sweet contest.

The one caveat is that designs become the property of Westminster Fibers, so even if you don’t win, you can’t publish your design elsewhere. But it still sounds like a pretty fun design exercise and a cool chance to get to play with some new yarn.

If you decide to take part, I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Schachenmayr Yarns.]

Comments

  1. I have my pattern pretty much finished. I’m wondering where you saw the part that the designs become their property? I didn’t find that anywhere. Are you entering?

Have you read?

Knit a Classic Aran Cardigan with this Free Knitting Pattern

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time. 

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring. 

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn. 

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row. 

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves. 

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body. 

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy. 

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn. 

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]