My Two Cents

There are three days left of voting in the My Mountain Hat Design Contest, thank goodness! It has been a wild ride.  I was rapidly reminded why I do not like voting competitions. Not on a public level. Though, I can't complain, because I was fully aware of what I was getting into. I got free yarn to design a hat. Free yarn, now that in and of itself was worth my time. Right? The rules were simple, request yarn, design a hat, send in a picture of said hat. Voila! said hat. (As if you don't already know what it looks like.)

Moving on...once all hats were submitted and deadline passed we got to wait while My Mountain endured the painstaking task of picking 15 finalists. They couldn't, hence the reason you are all now voting on 18 hats.  So much talent!

Next on the agenda: online voting. It was supposed to be one vote per person. I was thrilled. I can get on board with that. Because of an unexpected glitch, and to keep things fair it switched to one vote, per person, per ip address, per day. YIKES! That's more than a mouthful. 

Is it a popularity contest at this point? Well, kind of yes. Or maybe it is a who can bug your friends the most contest. Pretty sure we all got the same set of guidelines that said this was going to a vote. Has it been fun...ummm, no! I have probably had a friend or two drop me from their friends list, or at the very least hidden me from their news feeds. I have been posting about the contest daily, multiple times daily, my friends have come into it with me and they are doing the same, as are their friends. I have reached out to my community and asked them to help me. And they have. It is text message reminders for friends to vote. It has been a non stop effort on many parts since the moment they posted the top 18. 

I have managed to stay at the top, so far. Does this mean I am the most popular? Yeah, NO. Does it mean I have the best hat in the competition? Yeah, NO. Does this mean I am obtaining votes by cheating the system? Yeah, NO.  It just means right now I have the most votes. I have a lot of people in my corner who are willing to push things tirelessly. Do I believe that if this was a competition based completely on the merits of my hat I could win? Yeah, YES. But so could any of the other designs. Because they are all really good. 

I will note this, if there are contests like this in the future, might I suggest My Mountain have two categories of contestants. One for crochet designs and one for knit designs. In my humble opinion, it is like judging apples against oranges.

So....the vote and the designers. As a crocheter, I was thrilled to see 5 of the 18 designs were crochet, those patterns I can try out! Here are the other 4 crochet designs. I am glad you are able to vote for more than one hat, so I can support some fellow crocheters. 

Beautiful Ducklings
 I love the design on this and can't wait to get the pattern
so I can see how she added all those white bits in!

One Loop Shy Designs
Sadly, what you can't see in this picture is the amazing swirl
design at the top of this hat.

Loose-Enz Crochet
What a fun yarn used in this one. Loving the colors.

Misty Makes
I'm quite interested to see how the zig zag pattern was created on this one!

Crochet designs aside, there are few other hats that make me go wow, and tempt me to temporarily put my hook down for a set of needles...or maybe not. But I would certainly consider purchasing these hats if I saw them in the store. My personal favorites, and they have been since the start. I told my friends I thought they would make the final 15 before the list even came out. I vote for them every day.

Just Knots
I am a sucker for nautical! I just love this.

Mary Kubasek
Love, love, love...this is by far my most used punctuation.

I love my hat. I am not even close to the same caliber as some of these designers, but I think I came up with a fun and original design that many people will love making and adding their own personal flair to. I'm glad I entered this contest. It has really motivated me to jump start my desire to make crocheting a more integral part of my life. It has opened my eyes to some good and some bad sides to this industry, it has inspired me, it has allowed me to meet some new people, make some new friends, and did I mention I got free yarn?!

Now go, vote for the hats you love, I did!  My Mountain Hat Design Contest

Edited to add:  Seems that great minds think alike, go check out Rohn Strong's blog where guest blogger Lars Rains talks about My Mountain Contest and how they are supporting each other's designs. A Different Perspective