Vote for the Best in British Knits

Voting for the British Knitting Awards for 2014 is now open. There are 20 categories ranging from favorite yarns and companies to the best book of the year and favorite designer.

Two new categories this year are Best Brand for British Yarn and Best Yarn Shop Day Experience.

I’m pretty sure you can vote even if you don’t live in the UK, if you happen to be a big fan of British knitting brands. The voting is taking place in a Survey Monkey survey.

To encourage people to vote, Let’s Knit (a British knitting magazine that puts on the contest) is giving one person a £500 stash of goodies from the winning companies to include yarn, needles, books and knitting accessories.

I’m not seeing that the site says when voting is done, but the results will be announced in the November issue of Let’s Knit, which hits newsstands Oct. 24, so vote soon if you want your thoughts included!

Check out the winners from last year.

[Photo via Let’s Knit.]

Next Pattern:

If you’re looking for a sweater knitting pattern that uses up some of your stash and allows you to make just the sweater you want, the Marlina Rib by Shay Johson might be just the thing.

It’s worked with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together to make a DK weight gauge, so you can use the same two yarns throughout or change one or both regularly for an even more colorful look.

The pattern has options to make it either a crewneck or a henley style with buttons, tapered or relaxed sleeves, and a straight hemline or a split hem with buttons (which sounds so cute if you do the henley with split hem and match the buttons on both parts).

It’s also knit from the top down so you can make the body and the sleeves as long as you want. There are 10 sizes available in the pattern, with a chest circumference ranging from 32 to 68 inches, or 81.5 to 172.5 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 4-6 inches/10-15 cm of positive ease at the chest.

The pattern page on Ravelry includes tons of measurements and yardage estimates so you can make sure you’ll get a good fit for your body before you even buy the pattern. Shay also shows a few variations of the sweater so you can see how different options look before you decide how you want to put them together.

The stitch pattern is 1×2 ribbing, which is really easy to do and gives a look almost like fisherman’s rib that’s relaxed and easy to wear.

This sweater looks like a great option for people who are somewhat new to sweater knitting or those who love to have lots of customization options (because it’s like getting multiple sweater patterns in one!).

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself at Ravelry.

[Photo: Shay Johnson]

Next Pattern:

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