Brian the Yeti

I am not the sort of person who wins things. Now, this is not to say that I have never won anything - a bottle of Lambrusco in 1984, some Quality Street and other chocs in a raffle that I organised in 1997 (yes, I know!) and a t-shirt in 2006 - but I have definitely participated in far more quizzes, raffles and draws than the number of items I have won. Nevertheless, this doesn't stop me participating because without participation you can never hope to win anything, can you!

So, of the various blogs I like to follow, one of them, 'According to Matt' which belongs to Matt Farci and Dennis Marquez (who incidentally make some amazing crocheted, knitted and crafted creations) was having a yarn giveaway....and what a giveaway it was!

Copyright - 'According to Matt'

Copyright - 'According to Matt'

Copyright - 'According to Matt'

In order to win either 6 fabulous 200g cones of Merino wool or an equally wonderful 7 balls of Universal cotton, Matt and Dennis asked for people to create 'something' that incorporated the letters Y, A, R and N......be it in a collection of words, a poem, a drawing or even something out of yarn itself - see the giveaway blog entry here.

Mulling over some ideas on the way to the train station one evening, I suddenly came up with the following '....Y.A.R.N - hmmmmm....Yetis Are Rarely Narcissistic.......' and it kind of stuck, but I didn't do any more with it. The following day I thought about it again but was then wondering how I could possibly link it into anything meaningful regarding yarn, and then it came to me.... ' a poem where Matt and Dennis crochet something for the yeti using the prize being offered - that's it!

I devised a poem over the next day or so and then uploaded it to their blog.

Yeti's Are Rarely Narcissistic

They live alone in sleet and ice and snow

Bright colours and warm decorative clothing

Are not the usual things that they would know

One day, when trudging through a heavy blizzard

A Yeti (name of Brian) found some cones

Merino wool with shades just like a rainbow

And irridescent gorgeous jewel-like tones

"This looks like Yarn" thought Brian, with excitement

"My crochet skills are zero, that I know

But some colour would most definitely suit me

And I think I know the ideal place to go!"

With cones, he raced at speed to Matt & Dennis

Who crocheted whilst they sat and had a laugh

Creating an enormous Yeti tank top

With tea-cosy (plus socks and hat and scarf)

Yes, Yeti's Are Rarely Narcissistic

But now there's one exception to the rule

Cos Brian wears his Matt & Dennis tank top (with matching accessories)

And I have to say..........he looks extremely cool!

It then occurred to me that it would be a pity not to have some kind of picture to go with it and a quick scribble in my sketchbook produced the first pic of 'Brian'....

A few adaptations and a bit of colour turned him into this.......

.......which I emailed, and then all I had to do was cross my fingers and wait.....whilst I watched lots of excellent poems and pieces of work being added to the competition. There were some fabulous entries!

Matt and Dennis announced the winners on 16th April and I scrolled down their results blog entry to see that the second place prize of the Universal Cotton had been won by Kathy Gubbels, who had written a song! This made me think that I had absolutely no chance, but I continued scrolling......and got such a shock when I saw my name!

I'd won! I had ACTUALLY won!

I've not been so surprised in a long time. Lots of jumping up and down and shouting followed, mainly in disbelief. I frightened the dog and lost my glasses all in the space of a minute but when I calmed down I was so very pleased.

I can't wait to receive the lovely Merino cones in the post. I won't be knitting a tank top for Brian but there are a couple of ideas that I am looking forward to trying and the results (with hopefully a couple of tutorials) will form quite a few blog entries on here I should think.

It's going to take quite a while to get the smile off my face! Thank you Matt and Dennis!