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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.]

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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 and Felt Some Tabi Style Slippers

The felted slipper craze that began last year doesn’t seem like it’s fading away. The Sailor Slippers, often striped knit and felted slippers made with super bulky yarn, because the project of the moment late last year (check out more knit slipper options in this post all about sailor slippers) and they’re still consistently popular with knitters.

Which makes sense because they are fun and fast to knit, and seeing them go from this giant thing to something that actually fits a foot feels a little magical. 

I have always loved felting (in fact my first book was about felting knitting) and it’s always fun for me to see people rediscover this technique. 

If you’ve knit enough plain slippers to fit all the feet you know, maybe it’s time to stitch up some tabi style slippers instead. 

Maymade Knits has designed these cute tabi ballerina slippers, made with bulky yarn and felted. They’re worked flat at first and then in rounds, and are available in 10 EU sizes (the Internet tells me add 31 to your American shoe size to get your EU size). The designer says the slippers are meant to have a close fit and you should choose a size a little smaller than your foot for the ideal fit. 

The pattern includes a video tutorial along with the written pattern. 

You can grab this pattern on Ravelry. The same designer has her own version of the striped felted slipper as well, called Sarah’s Striped Slippers. These are worked in super bulky yarn and have a contrasting foot and a striped body. These are knit flat and seamed and there are 7 size options available. Check that pattern out here if you’re looking for a more traditional slipper shape. They also look roomier so you can wear them with socks if you like. 

[Photo: Maymade Knits]