Once upon a time, there was a young panda who loved to knit. She knit and she knit and she knit, and filled her drawers with colorful socks and her coat closet with lovely scarves, but had only just embraced knitting clothing items for herself. She looked far and wide for knitting patterns for cardigans, sweaters, skirts, and everything in between.
One day, when searching in the magical land of Ravelry, our young panda came across an adorable tank top pattern, which used two lovely colors and the mystical skill of entrelac to form an attractive upper body covering (and you know those pandas are modest creatures). Our panda pined the days away, hoping against hope to save up the shiny to buy both the pattern and the yarn (because she knew that one without the other would result in torture for herself). But other projects and evil work deadlines kept getting in the way of the Panda’s dream.
Then lo! A shining beacon appeared on the horizon. A good lady from the land of Facebook appeared, and our Panda discovered that this lady was the very designer of her much longed for pattern. And the good lady said, “Yea, leave a comment below and you could win any pattern from my new pattern store and be glad!” And our heroine, ever an optimistic panda, thought “Yes, I shall leave a mature, unexcited comment that expresses my interest in this competition,”* and thus, she did.
HOURS passed, and our heroine paced the halls of her office, and bit her nails in anticipation, and crossed and uncrossed her fingers until the clock struck the appointed hour, and with bated breath, inquired of the good lady of Facebook about her fate. And lo! Our panda’s was selected as the recipient of a pattern, any pattern, from the good lady’s pattern store, and thus it came to be that our panda is in possession of her much longed for pattern. Now if only a handsome knight on a gallant steed (or is the other way around?) will show up on her doorstep with the necessary yarn.
To celebrate her joy, and because our panda believes in karma just a smidgen, she is holding her own contest for her gentle readers of this scroll.
READ: Because I’m feeling very grateful to the yarn gods who plucked my name from the Random Number Generator (or the equivalent), I want to pay it forward and let you win something! Go check out Allyson’s new pattern shop at The Sweatshop of Love, pick out a pattern that you most want to make for yourself, and leave a comment here, telling me about the pattern, what yarn you envision, what colors, where you’d wear it, what you’d wear it with, something, anything, and on Friday, August 20 at 3pm EST, I’ll select a winner and buy you the pattern! You don’t have to tell me all of those things I listed, I’m just trying to generate ideas of things for you to talk about.
P.S. The yarn is all on you. I’m not feeling that lucky. 😉
*You know how fairytales sometimes exaggerate or gloss over the truth? Yeah… there was much caps lock abuse and punctuated exultations. No maturity here, folks!
Knitters are the best people in the whole wide world! You are why people give things away. I can’t wait to read these comments and see who wins one of my patterns! Good luck everyone!
Thank you for holding your contest and for helping me figure out how to make this one happen. 😀
So hard to choose! I think I would go with the Twin Cities Headband. I have some gorgeous Berroco Pure Pima in my stash, sent to me by a dear friend, that would be perfect for it! =)
Oooh that would look lovely on you! If you don’t buy the pattern soon, maybe it will magically show up in your inbox for your birthday… 😉
Such great patterns! I’d pick the Hyde Park Legwarmers. I’ve got some Plymouth Happy Feet stashed where the colors are evocative of a stained glass window. I think these would look great with some tights and black flats under a gray sweater dress I own!
Oh I love this idea! Those legwarmers are super cute, and the vision of your outfit is just perfect!
ooh! I would most like Caitlin’s Cardi. I bought four balls of superwash Cascade in the hopes of turning them into a sweater/cardigan of some sort. I think this would be scrumptious in the rich, chocolate shade I have. It would look great over a tank with jeans or even a long sleeved tee. I’ve never done a project with cables, and I think this would be a fun foray into Cableland. Alas! I do not already have buttons.
Buttons are always the hardest part of a project for me. But you’re absolutely right, that cardi would be a great adventure in learning to cable!
I, too, have been in love with the Loop Entrelac tank since you posted a kink to The Sweatshop of Love on your twitter page last month. Entrelac is a technique I have yet to try in a garment but I love the use of it’s texture in this fantastic top. I would love to use a silk/merino blend in a charcoal grey for the bottom half and a sapphire or teal for the top. The Loop would be a perfect wardrobe piece to wear to work with a skirt or tailored pants or with cigarette jeans and flats for a night out. I love multi functional knitwear! 🙂
I’ve never tried entrelac at all, but I can’t wait! And you’re right, this tank is incredibly versatile! I love your ideas of grey and a bright blue, that will be phenomenal. 😀
My original plan was to simply steal your Loop Entrelac Top when you finished it, but I guess this works too. Perhaps I can be the villainess who is reformed through the generosity and kindness of the heroine in your fairytale. I would make in a chocolatey brown on the bottom and Crest toothpaste blue on the top, maybe with fuschia as the contrasting entrelac bit.
Let’s go with the transformative nature of knitting, and you go make your own. 😀 I love your color ideas, very Breakfast at Tiffany’s!
Well, these are just adorable patterns! I would choose the Baby Sweater Buffet- not because I like to eat baby sweaters until I can’t move but because I have a little niece named Gracie Lulu who would appreciate multiple and awesome variations on the bland baby sweater patterns you see everywhere. And I also have a very good friend who is due in November- that baby is going to be cold! It needs some hand-knit sweaters with stripes and hoods to make the other babies in the neighborhood jealous. So…this pattern would get a lot of use and make a lot of babies happy. And if you do not like to see happy babies I do not know what is wrong with you :).
I love to see happy babies, and I love folks who knit for babies! I always have intentions of doing so, but they really come to any fruition. 😀
I have the perfect dusty rose handspun from Little Red Bicycle for the Baby Sweater! Our 2yr old granddaughter needs a hand-knit hoodie for sure. This pattern is perfect, because I love circular needles and hate seaming.
Aww, grandbabies are perfect knitting recipients! I hope you make this, I’d love to see a modeled shot on the little darling. 😀
Hoom, so hard! I would pick the Traverse City Tube Top, bc secretly, in my innermost heart, I want to believe there is a knit tube top I could actually wear. And this pattern, with its adorable smockiness and button-back, could be the one. Also, I heart that it’s knitted using cotton blend – something actually wearable in Hades–I mean, Florida! It would be quite a challenge. ^_^
A.
I love that you used “hoom” in your comment. That is all.
I think you could totally rock this tube top, darling! You’re right, a cotton blend would be perfect for this pattern and for Florida, though I’d suggest looking for one with some elastic in it, because cotton stretches (not immediately, but over time) and well, that could just lead to an awkward situation. 😀
I would love the The Door County Wooden Handle Bag pattern. I have some tweedy, blue cascade 200 that would make a nice bag for my Mom who loves blue. I know she’d use it as she just asked me about knitting her a bag.
You know how I love Cascade 220, and I also love folks who plan to knit for their mothers! That’s so sweet. What a great idea.