We’re woolly winners! Hundreds of you entered the Mail’s lockdown knitting competition

Knitting needles at the ready! Back in 1932, the Daily Mail Knitting Contest was one of our most popular competitions ever, and during lockdown earlier this year, we relaunched it — challenging readers in 2020 to unleash their creativity and design their own jumper.

Judged by a panel including TV crafting queen Kirstie Allsopp, acclaimed knitwear designer Jacinta Bowie and Daily Mail editor Geordie Greig, the prize was to see your woolly brought to life on these pages and have your design made into a professional knitting pattern by Jacinta.

It could be any colour, size or shape, but had to be a totally original concept, and only amateur knitters could enter.

Today, after hundreds of fantastic entries and months of intensive judging, we are excited to announce the winner: Rebecca Myers, 57, a beauty therapist from Lincolnshire.

‘I’ve been knitting for fun for 50 years, since I was a little girl, when my grandmother and then my mother taught me everything they knew,’ she says. ‘Sadly, Mum died last year, but she would have been over the moon to hear I’d won this competition, and it’s lovely knowing she’s had a hand in my success.’

Rebecca’s design — a white, jacket-style cardigan with a pink leopard leaping across it — was inspired by a favourite jumper she knitted a couple of years ago, which had a black panther on it.

Her knitting needles get a lot of practice, as Rebecca regularly makes clothes for herself and for her growing extended family.

‘I have eight nieces and nephews, six godchildren in their 20s and 30s, and one grandchild so far, so I’m always making things such as baby blankets,’ she says. ‘I’ve never been one to knit plain items. I love knitting with colour.’

One of her nieces, Laurel Nicholson, 28, who was staying with Rebecca during the first lockdown, encouraged her to enter the competition.

‘My beauty therapy business was on pause, so she asked me what else I was going to do with myself!’ says Rebecca.

Amazingly, despite decades of knitting, her winning cardigan is the first garment she has ever fully designed herself. ‘I’d never drawn a pattern up from scratch before,’ she says. ‘Luckily, Laurel helped me with the technical side, finding a suitable picture of a leopard on the internet before I transferred it to graph paper.

‘I intended my design to work as either a cardigan or a jumper. While there are some tricky bits, such as the stitching round the neck, I hope it’s something most fairly confident knitters could recreate.

‘You could, of course, pick a different background colour, or have a more traditional gold and black leopard.’

The versatility of the design is just one of the reasons Rebecca’s cardigan leapt out at the judges.

Daily Mail editor Geordie Greig says: ‘Rebecca did a lovely job. We thought the design was delightful and stylish — something readers would enjoy both making and wearing.’

Celebrated knitwear designer Jacinta Bowie, who has translated Rebecca’s design into a pattern for Mail readers to work from, adds: ‘The lovely, colourful, pink leopard makes a real impact.

‘It stood out because of its freshness — it’s a very clever, modern-looking cardigan, with a well-proportioned shape.

‘Rebecca obviously has artistic skills, as the design uses intarsia — “painting” with coloured wool to make patterns. There are a few slightly more complicated bits for intermediate knitters to get their teeth into, but the plain areas should be easy to whizz through and I hope readers will find it fun to make.’

Fellow judge Kirstie Allsopp adds: ‘There’s a lot of research into the benefits of knitting and crafting in general. It’s very therapeutic to have a connection between your hands and your brain, so when the Daily Mail embarked on a lockdown knitting competition, I was all for it.

‘The response was overwhelming and the standard of entries was incredibly high. It was a daunting task to pick just one winner, but I loved the use of leopard print, the pink and green colour combination and the bomber-style trim is very on trend.’

Now, as well as the excitement of modelling her winning creation in the pages of the Daily Mail, Rebecca is still reeling from the idea her design could soon be spotted all over the UK.

‘I’ve always only ever knitted just for myself, or for gifts, so I was speechless to hear I’d won such a prestigious competition,’ she says. ‘I’m definitely going to design more things in future.

‘I’m just incredibly proud that other people across the country will hopefully soon be knitting and wearing something I created. I still can’t believe it!’