Little Joe's Wins National Contest [Video]

took first prize in a national yarn contest—beating out entrants from Austin, TX, Petaluma, CA and Cincinatti, OH—and winning a hand-drawn illustration of the Katonah Avenue shop by renowned children's book illustrator, Jon Klassen.

Invented by the creators of the children's book Extra Yarn, Klassen and author Mac Barnett, the contest invited bookstores nationwide to decorate themselves with yarn and knitted items and submit photos of the results.

The story is about a girl who finds an extraordinary box of yarn and begins to knit sweaters for things that do not typically wear sweaters. The contest had no parameters other than to "pretty up bookshops by knitting a sweater (or sweaters) for something (or things) in the store.” 

Bookstore owner Jennifer Cook decided to enter the contest and immediately enlisted the help of Jennifer Ceisler, owner of .

The two led a community effort and collected 200 hand-knitted items and over 1,000 balls of yarn, spinning a metaphorical web of support for the two stores and the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, which would receive the donated yarn.

"The nicest aspect of this contest is that the whole community came out to help us," said Cook. "One of the things that [author] Mac Barnett said to me is that they were so touched that the themes of the book—bringing a community together with yarn—were echoed in our project."

Barnett said they chose Little Joe's for the beauty of the store display but also because of where the yarn is going—to women in prison who will knit for their children, make layettes for new babies and hats to give away at the annual

For its part, the owners and staff of Katonah Yarn posted their thanks to the extended knitting community on its website and said the win was "not just about the yarn." Here's an excerpt:

While knitting and Katonah Yarn is how the particular community was formed, the many people who contributed from our shop did so in the spirit of helping out.  They may have loved the idea or simply knew the people asking, but they wanted the effort to succeed.

Cook agreed and said the feeling of pulling together with the community exceeded her expectations of what she would get from the contest. Throughout the waiting period, they both heard from many customers and friends who wanted to know if they won.

After hearing author Mac Barnett say he was "blown away" by their effort—which left Cook a bit starstruck, she said—she sent out an email to all who had been involved, resulting in a slew of supportive emails back.

Check out the video posted with this story, created by r of , which served as the winning entry in the contest.