Cherry Tree Hill Yarn Contest

Hi Knitters,

This post is a heartfelt thank you to all the friends, family, and fellow knitters who encouraged me along the way and then voted for my "Sasha" design in the Cherry Tree Hill 2009 Design Contest.  I was so excited to enter the contest and I enjoyed the whole process so much that winning was just major icing on the cake.  For those of you who know me personally I am sure there were times when you got very tired of hearing me talk about Sasha.  If you were burned out I thank you for hiding it so well!  I thank you for your patience in listening to me over the months that I worked on it and I thank you for taking the time to vote after the finalists were announced. 

In case you didn't hear about the contest, CTH announced a design competition in spring of 2009. They were accepting original designs made out of their Supersock Select with an emphasis on their new Semi-Solid colors.  I had never designed a single garment from start to finish and it sounded like a great challenge (little did I know!).  There were very few guidelines other than the project had to use at least six and no more than ten skeins of yarn.  It's no hardship buying CTH yarn so I thought: Worst scenario -- I would end up with a handknit sweater to keep for myself, or I might actually win and end up with $1000 and ten more skeins of replacement yarn.  It was a win-win deal, no worst-case scenario.  

Fortunately Margaret (owner of GYC and my knitting mentor) had already ordered all the new semi-solids in every color.  Here is what I brought home:

Six skeins of the Supersock semi-solids, one each of Black, Mauve, Loden, Aubergine, Wheat, and Rosewood

Then the design process began.  Perhaps twenty sketches and nearly as many knitted swatches later I began the actual knitting later that summer.  In the end I went with some pretty simple stitches and just four colors.

It was a good thing that CTH gave us several months to come up with and finish our projects! It was like being in school again.  I bought books on designing your own sweaters, knitting techniques, etc.  Margaret gave me some very valuable out-of-print materials on determining sizes, how to allow ease, how to transpose a pattern into all the different sizes, etc.  Although I have been knitting most of my life, I learned more in the last six months of 2009 than in all years previous.  And it helped to have a master knitter, the aforementioned Margaret, on hand for technical help here and there.  She was invaluable when I had questions (such as how to make increases in knitted lace without having ugly stitches anywhere and keeping the multiples on track).  But even more than the technical help Margaret's enthusiasm for the project made it even more fun.  I don't know which of us was happier when we found out that "Sasha" had made the final four.  She told so many others in the shop about the contest and my entry that I felt like I had a team of supporters behind me, many of whom I hadn't met yet.  Thank you, thank you family, friends, and fellow knitters for warming my heart with your encouragement and for taking the time to cast your votes. 

A few pics of the progress along the way:

The four colors I finally went with were Black, Mauve, Loden, and Aubergine.  I bought six more skeins of Black to finish the skirt. 

Because the "Sasha" design and sweater now belong to Cherry Tree Hill they have copyright on the finished pattern and project so here is the link to see their professional picture of the final project and another link to see the Cherry Tree Hill yarn selection.  I have only knit with their Supersock yarn so far but I will definitely try other CTH yarns in the future.  It never splits, stitches come out incredible even, the dyes are consistent throughout. 

I am waiting somewhat impatiently for the mailman's arrival Friday because I am getting my shipment of replacement yarn.  It took me three weeks to decide on the new colors I wanted.  I will be knitting "Sasha" again but in a whole new color scheme.  It was just a touch sad to part with my sweater but I will be able to re-knit it much more quickly this time.  Having the pattern to follow, I hope it will only be a two or three week project.  This was my first venture into knitted lace (which just last week I learned is a whole different thing than lace knitting) and I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly lace knits up.  I guess it's all the holes that take up space.

My love and gratitude to all of you.

Happy knitting,  Josey