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Winner: Snow White's Runaway Hobby
By Temperance Blackthorne
Snow White was putting the finishing touches on the last of seven pairs of slippers. She carefully arranged her surprise on the hearth once she was done and waited for the dwarfs' return that night.
Ever since the dwarfs had taken her in she had been looking for a way to show her appreciation. When she noticed their lack of slippers (and the resulting dirty, holey socks), inspiration struck her.
She would make them slippers, like she had made her father. They had been all the rage at court and she had received many requests for more. They had elegantly pointed toes with silver bells that chimed melodiously as you walked.
To Snow White's disappointment the dwarfs did not appreciate the slippers at all; they grumbled something about elves and bells and frowned.
After the slipper debacle Snow White was reluctant to knit anything for the dwarfs, but she was still grateful and eventually she decided that jackets would be a safe bet. After all, everyone wears jackets and she wouldn't put any bells on them. What could go wrong?
Once again Snow White laid her surprise out to await the dwarfs' return. Each jacket had a hood with a long point to act as scarf and the same embellishments as the slippers. In her unbiased opinion they were charming.
Snow White did not understand what the dwarfs' obsession with elfs was about. Once again they had arrived home, seen the jackets and started muttering about elves. Obviously dwarfs had no fashion sense, she decided, and she would not be knitting them anything else to wear.
As the dwarfs walked away from Snow White's briar they all agreed, the pickaxe had definitely been the last nail in the coffin as it were.
They had been more then happy to allow Snow White to stay with them after they found her. It was nice to have someone else to take care of the house and cook for them, she even did laundry. And they were more than happy to allow her to use some of the yarn they had acquired over the years. Until she started knitting for them, that is.
First had been the slippers. Granted they were warm enough, but — and it was a big but — they had pointed toes and bells. They were dwarfs, not elves, and there was no way they were wearing pointy-toed slippers with bells on them. But they were gracious; after all she had just been trying to be nice, and they explained to her that dwarves did not wear pointy toes and bells.
Next had been the coats. No bells this time, but there was a pointy hood and even worse, they matched the shoes. This time they had been a little more direct in telling Snow White that they were not elves, and not to be ungrateful but could she please restrain herself in future?
It was all cosies after that. The dwarfs all agreed that the tea cosy shaped like an acorn was practical and functional, even if it was a bit whimsical and had a tassel. The cosies Snow White made for all their old Kitchen chairs were a bit bright (garish even), but they did make the kitchen feel more welcoming. And when she knit a cozy for the broom it didn't bother them too much; after all they didn't use it too often.
But when she started making cosies for their tools, that was too much. You don't mess with a man's tools, especially when that man is a dwarf. And there was no power on this earth that was going to convince them to put cosies on their pickaxes.
So when the dwarfs came home that night and found Snow White on the floor with a half-eaten apple in her hand, they did the only sensible thing: packed her and all her knitting up and laid her to rest in a clearing close by, with her most recent project laid across her chest as a warning. They had removed the poisoned comb from her hair and cut the enchanted lace from her bodice, but some other fool could remove the apple from her throat and find out what the monstrosity currently on her needles was supposed to be.
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