FREE Prize-Winning TKGA Pattern -- Stefan's Dinosaur

This absolutely magnificent pattern was the winner of our 2008 TKGA/Yarnmarket Knitting Design Contest. We received a lot of truly wonderful designs, but this one took our breath away. You've really got to see it and feel it to appreciate the intricate patterns and superb craftsmanship.

Pat McDermott created Stefan's Dinosaur several years ago, and it has withstood dozens of washings (in the machine!) and several years of use. Still, it looks as good as the day it was completed. The pattern uses Tahki Cotton Classic, which is renowned for its spectacular color palette. As you can see, Pat used a lot of stunning colors to create her dinosaurs in a teal jungle background.

Although Pat won the contest almost a year ago, we have only introduced the pattern in the past few days through KnitchMagazine and Yarnmarket. That's because Pat had a lot of family obligations over the past year which prevented her from completing the pattern for us to test. We all know how that goes! One minute everything's going along swimmingly and you find out you've just won a $1000 Gift Certificate for Yarnmarket and the next minute you're so inundated with obligations that...well...knitting's the last thing on your mind!

Well, to the rescue came the brilliant and talented Jennifer Penney, a local knitter who loves a challenge. Armed with Pat's charts and notes -- and the sweater -- Jennifer meticulously recreated the piece to ensure that every stitch was perfect. Jennifer worked tirelessly on what proved to be long, if not very rewarding, process. It was only once we had Jennifer and Pat's assurance that the pattern was exactly the way they thought it ought to be could we post it online for our knitters.


Now, it's available to you for free!

I'd like to thank Pat and Jennifer for all their work to recreate the pattern so we could offer it to Yarnmarket shoppers. We really appreciate your extraordinary efforts and awe-inspiring creativity. I was so delighted with this piece that I showed it to Diane Friedman and Stacy Charles when they visited us a few weeks ago. They were impressed to see what had been so imaginatively created with their Cotton Classic yarn. (Oh, yes...I know what you're thinking. It takes 16 skeins. The sweater Pat sent to us was 10 years old and that yarn held up like new!)

Oh...I'd really like to thank those of you who wrote notes to me to say you were interested in the pattern, and that you couldn't wait to get your hands on it. Well, here it is. Enjoy!