The Knitted Walking Stick Cosy Competition Round #2 - a new challenge!

2007-2008

WIN £40 IN YARN VOUCHERS!

I Knit London have invited The Missability Radio Show to showcase the walking stick cosies at the London S'n'B day! So cosies sent into the competition will ALSO be part of The UK's First, Official S'n'B Day! Anything recieved before November 10th will feature at the Uk S'n'B Day. Also, Rachael Matthews - writer of Knitorama and inventor of The Cast Off Knitting Club - has invited The Missability Radio Show to decorate the window of her Haberdashery with the walking stick cosies for the Christmas Period. So... anything recieved before 20th November will be displayed in the window of Prick Your Finger from 21st November - Christmas.

The Knitted Walking Stick Cosy Competition Round #2

Inspired by the dignifying powers of health-related knitting projects everywhere, The Missability Radio Show is organising a walking stick cosy knitting competition. With your great ideas, knitting skills and visionary powers, we can create a richly diverse collection of variations on the standard appearance of an ordinary grey walking stick .

• A Basic Pattern for a cosy
• Free Kits!
• Downloads
• When is the closing date of the competition?
• How will the winner be selected?
• Will there be a gallery of submissions?
• What kind of walking stick is the cover for?
• What kind of materials can be used?
• Submission Guidelines
• Technical Details
• Can I make a crochet entry?

A Basic Knitting Pattern for a Walking Stick Cosy

I have made a pattern for a basic walking stick cosy that can be downloaded or viewed online here. It is based on the original walking stick cosy knit in self-patterning sock yarn.

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Free Kits!

I am currently making up kits which have each have enough yarn in them to make up a cosy + some extra. These kits are free to anyone who is happy to knit them up and send them back as entries to the competition. email me if you're interested!

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Downloads

You can download all the information on this page as a Word or PDF File:

Word Guidelines Doc. PDF. Guidelines

You need to download and complete a Submission form to include with your entry:

Word Submission Form Doc. PDF. Submissin Form

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Closing Date of Competition

The closing date of this competition is 1st May 2008.

To have your cosies featured in the Christmas Window Shop Display at Prick Your Finger, you need to complete and send your cosy before 20th November 2007.

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How will the winning stick be judged?

There are two categories for this competition; the winner in each category will be awarded £40 in yarn vouchers. There is no limit on submissions. The first category is Fancy Dress and the second is The Working World. Entries will be judged by The Oxford Bluestockings, a fantastically talented and accomplished bunch of knitters based here in Oxford along with input from walking-stick users. These are the winning criteria for each category:

Fancy Dress

The winning walking stick cosy design in this category...

• will be a fancy-dress must-have
• will be extremely fun and definite party-wear
• will be judged on the imaginative quality of the idea

Example ideas for this category: A cinderella walking stick cosy with glass beads at the bottom (representing the glass slippers), and/or pumpkins somewhere in the design... A halloween walking stick cosy with trick or treats attached somehow... A Jack Sparrow walking stick cosy with random pirate-ness involved in the knitting... you get the idea.

The Working World

The winning walking stick cosy design in this category...

• will show clear evidence of practical consideration
• will be appropriate for a person working in a certain context
• will be conceivably useful and desirable for a real-life situation you know about or can easily imagine
• will show a level of personalisation - the winning design will be very specific to the imagined or real end user of the cosy
• will be innovative - there is nothing to say that walking stick s cannot have pockets or attachments and so on. Consider ways of improving the functional performance of a walking stick without compromising on its performance!
• will be elegant and beautiful without compromising on usefulness or practicality

Example ideas for this category: A cosy to match a briefcase for an office job, An Artists' walking stick with attachments for pencil and paper, A college cosy, A cosy that would be good to use on a walking stick on a farm

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Will there be a Gallery?

There is a Gallery at Flickr; you can request an Invitation here and after the cosies have been shown to the public, the online gallery will become open to the public too. Photos of all or any stages of the progress of your cosy making venture can be posted to the Group.

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Walking Sticks to be covered

This competition is really intended for every kind of walking stick you can imagine; it could be a hiking stick that you use for hiking with or it could be a mobility cane. It could be made from wood or it could be made from metal. If you do not know anyone who has a walking stick or uses any kind of walking equipment then you can use the measurements of my walking stick to base your walking stick cosy design on; click on the link below to go to a larger image. These dimensions are also included in the Downloadable Competition Instructions.

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Materials

The materials you can use really depend on your cosy category. Entries made in the Fancy Dress category can really be made out of anything at all, whereas entries placed in the Working World category need to bear in mind the function of the walking stick as well as being elegant.

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Submission Guidelines

Send your completed cosy by 1st May 2008 to:

Missability Mail! | PO Box 1481 | OX4 9DL | UK

Your Submission must include:

• Your knitted walking stick cosy
• A completed submission form

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Technical points

A walking stick cosy is basically a knitted tube that can be slipped onto a walking stick and has some means of staying up.

When I made my knitted walking stick cosy I used Lana Grossa sock yarn. A 100g ball of yarn weighed 67g when I was done, so it took 33g of self-patterning sock yarn yarn to complete one knitted walking stick cosy. It took around 2 or 3 hours only. That ought to give some idea of yardage and scale of project. I used straightforward stockinette stitch and a long rib at the top and bottom of the tube so the cosy would cling to the stick.

Stitch gauge is: 24 sts = 3? / 8 sts = 1?. Row gauge isn't so important for this project as you just knit until the cosy is the length of the stick you're designing for. Make up a swatch in the round and adjust needle size accordingly.

The walking stick cosy made in this way fits both my wooden stick and my grey metal one.

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Crochet

Submissions can of course be completd in crochet and will be judged in exactly the same way as knitted submissions. 'The Missability Radio Show Knitted and Crocheted Walking Stick Cosy Competition' was just getting too bulky as a title!

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Please feel free to take any of the following buttons for your blog or site, but please be sure to link it back to this page!

 

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Missability Traffic Stats

A standard walking stick has so many possibilities; just add knitting for complete customisation!

A standard-issue walking stick with an ergonomic handle designed for use by people who have poor grip or pain in their hands. Click the picture for a diagram of measurments!

If you had unlimited supplies of yarn and time, what kind of amazing knitted walking stick cosies would you design and what difference would they make?

Two walking stick covers; One Fantastical cover made using felt-making processes; very bobbly, quickly started to wear thin in places, attracted dirt and generally got messy and tatty quickly - but looked fabulous for a few days! The other, self-patterning sock yarn, machine washable, durable and stylish.

The Knitted Walking Stick Cosy Competition is now on Facebook!

The Knitted Walking Stick Cosy Competition is also on Ravelry.