The Domestic Soundscape

Last night I went to bed with a hot-water bottle, wrapped in 2 blankets and a double-duvet, wearing 2 jumpers, a thin, long-sleeved vest, my pyjamas and a pair of woollen socks, and I was still cold and couldn’t get to sleep on account of the sound of my chattering teeth keeping me awake. I’m guessing the last gas bill here (which was around eleventy billion pounds) provoked someone else who lives here to make the Estate Agents put the heat on some really stingy setting so that even having the radiator switched to 5 still means I can practically see my own breath when I wake.

This morning I decided to take serious action. It was time to UNLEASH THE WOOL. I emptied my entire collection of FOs onto my bed and selected an outfit that would allow me to utilise as many items from it as I could colour-coordinate and fit under my waterproof shell. Thus garbed and feeling pretty pleased with myself, I headed out to Oxford to do some recording for The Hub.

As I was walking towards BBC Oxford, I realised – and I say this with some knitterly pride, dear readers – that I was in fact too hot, and so I was forced to remove my jacket along the way to the studios. Swathed in wool and wearing a ludicrous quantity of secret, concealed layers beneath, I began to wonder when I would ever again get the opportunity to showcase so much of my own handiwork in a public situation. Catching a glimpse of my reflection in a window I passed, I realised I was basically one giant advertisement for my Ravelry Projects Page.

I started to think of all the knitters who I know who must be in similar positions right now, and the thought of all those knitted projects being unleashed against the snow, en masse, filled me with such glee that I felt compelled to instantly create a blog contest around the idea of who can feasibly wear, at a single point in time, the most projects that they have handknit themselves. The basic idea of the contest is very simple and I am sure the skilled/longterm knitters amongst you can probably beat my paltry, accidental, un-premeditated score of 5 knitted items with an enormous and innovative pile of your own.

1. Cairn tea-cosy
2. Feather and fan scarf
3. Guinness Shrug
4. Fyberspates fingerless gloves
5. Layter

To enter, simply put on as many knitted items as you can sensibly* wear, get someone to take a photograph of you in said items in the snow, then upload this photo to your blog with links to all the projects you are wearing on your Ravelry Projects Page, and leave a comment here to announce that you have done so.

This is an extremely silly contest, so there aren’t really any serious rules. However, with the ever wise and sagely insights of Liz this evening at our Bluestockings meeting, we decided that it is probably not OK, for instance, to photograph yourself swathed in 16 scarves to boost your project-count. However, boot-socks on top of thinner socks, on top of a pair of tights is quite acceptable if this is how you are combatting the cold with your considerable knitted prowess during this cold spell. For each knitted item that you manage to cram into your January 2010 BIG FREEZE Ravelry Projects Snowcase Contest™ entry photograph, you will score 1 point. However, consideration will also be given to the following elements of your entry;

1. Ingenuity of layering. How ingenious is your use of different, handknitted layers?
2. Inclusion of rare/highly-specific types of garments. Snoods, cowls, shawls, mufflers, and other items probably-only-owned-by-handknitters types of garments will all be viewed highly favourably in terms of overall entry score if incorporated.

The contest stays open until the snow has all melted and the temperature has stabilised above 0 degrees Celcius. I am following all the weather-announcements I can in my twitterfeed so hopefully I will be able to confidently announce the end of the contest when it comes!

The person with the highest amount of points overall for facing the cold down with their handknitted goodness will be officially declared The winner of the January 2010 BIG FREEZE Ravelry Projects Snowcase Contest™, (AKA WOOL-FACTOR**) and will receive a collated bundle of wonderment in the post, organised by myself. This will include one knitting book, some yarn, probably a mixtape, perhaps some knitting, and definitely a lot of love. As a marvellous side-effect of this project, perhaps the wealth of woolly imagery will help to stave off the misery of all this coldness!

ETA – The inspiring Skeinqueen of Reading, Berkshire, has informed me that the contest winner will receive a skein of her beautiful yarn in the package! If you haven’t seen her yarn already, do check it out on Skeinqueen.co.uk, also the lovely Anarchy in the UK kits designed by Alabamawhirly, and knit with SQ yarn. Skilled local artists; we haz dem.

ETA – ***THE CLOSING DEADLINE FOR THE SNOWCASE HAS NOW BEEN EXTENDED AGAIN TO 10TH FEBRUARY BECAUSE THERE HAS BEEN MORE SNOW!***

*’sensibly’ in this contest is quite a loose term, open to variable interpretations
**Have you got the WOOL-FACTOR?

Tags: Add new tag, anti-cold, C.O.N.T.E.S.T., ingenuity, January 2010 BIG FREEZE Ravelry Projects Snowcase Conte, knitted goodness, knitting, layers, over-woolling it, Ravelry, silly, skeinqueen, warmth, WOOL-FACTOR

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 9:08 pm and is filed under Random, clothes, knitting, silly. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.