Elann's Design Challenge – November/December 2006

How would you like to win a US$100.00 elann.com shopping spree?

Elann is looking for new project designs for our own line of yarns, so on the heels of our five previous successful design challenges of this year, in January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, and September/October, we're extending a new design challenge to talented knitters everywhere!

The Challenge

In step with your holiday gift knitting, we're offering a wide open challenge that's all about scarves! Pictured above is the fabulous Woven Trellis Scarf, designed by Kristen TenDyke, and featured on the cover of the new Holiday 2006 Issue of Vogue Knitting. This cleverly constructed, fully reversible, and dramatically long scarf is made of knitted strips, woven into a trellis pattern!

Are you up to the challenge of designing a fabulous knitted scarf that rises above the ordinary and into the extraordinary?
Only two rules must guide you:

1. Your scarf, like Kristen's, must rise above the ordinary and into the extraordinary! Do you know of a show-stopping knitting technique or a novel way to tie and thus showcase a scarf? What's your unique twist on this traditional garment?

2. Your scarf must be designed for and hand knit in a yarn spun exclusively for elann.com and purchased from the elann.com website. Please note that only the yarns listed when you follow this elann.com yarn link can be used. If you have colors of these yarns that are currently out of stock, please feel free to use them. Once again, size and shape, not gauge, are the essence of this design challenge, so it can be knit in any elann.com yarn. The stitch and color patterning can be anything you wish.

Part of the fun of the challenge is that these rules must be interpreted literally - e.g. "hand knit" does not allow for machine knitting or crocheting . . . . This particular competition gives you plenty of latitude, but your design must meet the above criteria. The challenge is akin to the challenge of writing a good sonnet – it's a challenge to create something beautiful within the constraints of a fixed form – to express your creativity by following the rules well! If a completely literal reading of the rules still has you pondering an ambiguity, questions can be directed to Lorill and Diane at customerservice@elann.com:-)

Our Prizes

Depending on the quantity and quality of entries, up to 6 prizes of US$100.00 in Elann Dollars will be awarded. Elann dollars are not cash; Elann Dollars are credits to an Elann account to spend on Elann purchases. Elann credits awarded as prizes for this contest and spent on Elann merchandise do not count toward an elann customer's US$500 accumulated purchases total.

Our Submission Rules and Guidelines:

1. To ensure this contest in completely impartial, all submissions will be judged "blindly" by a panel of elann.com judges who do not know the names or email addresses of those who submit. To this end, please ensure that if you submit via email, you send your submission to gil@elann.com, or that you mail your submission, Attention: Gil Valencia, to elann.com inc. PO Box 18125, 1215C-56th Street, Delta, BC V4L 2M4 Canada, or elann.com inc. PO Box 1018, Point Roberts, WA 98281-1018 USA.

Gil will email you to let you know he has received your submission, and he will keep a log of all submissions, and ensure that all entries sent to the judging panel remain anonymous. In the event that you do not receive a confirmation from Gil within 48 hours that he has received your submission, please send him a follow-up email.

2. Submissions must include a photograph of your finished knitted piece, along with a typed version of your pattern instructions and charts, where applicable. Email submissions are preferred (MS Word .doc for instructions and .tif, .jpg, or .gif files for charts and photographs). Snail mail submissions of photographs, charts, and instructions will also be accepted (see our mailing addresses above). From these submissions, judges will choose up to 10 designs to be considered as "finalists", and if your design is one of these, you will be asked to mail in your garment for final judgment. In this case, postage both ways will be reimbursed by elann.com.

3. Winning garments will be photographed by elann.com and displayed on the elann.com website and/or elann.com promotional materials. After they are photographed, garments will be returned to their designers.

4. Winning designs will be posted in the free patterns section of the elann.com website, naming their designers. Copyright and all future rights to the winning patterns will be the property of elann.com. Copyright and all future rights to elann.com photographs of the winning garments will also be the property of elann.com.

Our Submission Deadlines:

Submissions will be received up to and including Friday, December 29th, 2006 at midnight, Pacific Time. Winners will be announced on Thursday, February 1st, 2007.