Knitting In Public

We are lucky enough to have both a County and a State Fair. We love the County Fair because it has most of the elements of the State Fair (and a few unique to the County) - but on a smaller scale and with far less crowds!

The County Fair is usually a couple of weeks before the State Fair, so I am able to enter knitted things to both Fairs. Each fair has different categories and different prize levels, etc. I try to enter things every year, especially to the County so that they know there is continued interest in competition. Some years there has not been much submitted, and I’ve wondered if they will decide to stop having a knitting competition at all. Last year, I convinced my friend Jean to enter her knitting to the fair. We had so much fun!  When you go to the fair, you look through all the exhibits to find your entries, and see if you won any ribbons. At the County, the items are often displayed next to the competition from the same category, so you can see what items the judges liked best! The State has so much more to display, and usually they try to put the items by theme, rather than category - so often it is hard (if not impossible) to determine which items you were competing against.

Of course, the competition is subjective, and if you can’t take criticism of your work then you’re best off not entering. I’ve had some pretty strange results over the years (I’m certain in some cases they got the score cards mixed up - the comments made no sense for the item submitted), so you just have to roll with the punches and enjoy the ride.

This is a multi-directional scarf made from Patons SWS (2 or 3 skeins). It was fun and interesting to knit. The County was apparently not too impressed, I got a 3rd place ribbon. The State, however, seemed to like it a bit better (and of course, the competition is different - not everyone from the county enters the state competition, plus the county had only one category for scarves, the state had 3) and I received a 2nd place ribbon. Woohoo! The state always gives a score card and almost always has a judge’s comment. The county occasionally has a judge’s comment. Nothing from the county on this, but the state said “Nice bias work” :)   My score was 97 of 100 possible points.

This baby sweater was made from  Bernat Softee Baby acrylic yarn. Used less than one skein. It placed first at the county, and had a judge’s note “very even stitches!” It did not place at the state. My score was 95 of 100, and the comments were “Lovely color choice. Nice pattern selection. Jacket is nicely proportioned. Very well knitted.” This gives a peek at how competitive our knitting is at the State level. We have some fabulous knitters here, and we take it pretty seriously! Every September at our Guild meeting, we have the State Fair Show and Tell. We share what we entered, and the judges’ comments, and often little anecdotes about the items. Fairly frequently there are negative comments about the choice of buttons! I’ve given you a close-up here of the duckie buttons on this sweater. It’s always surprising how difficult it is to match a color!

The last item I put in the fairs this year was this pair of “Childs French Socks” from Knitting Vintage Socks in Burgundy KnitPicks Essential. They won first place at the county, and nothing at the state. No comments from the county, the state said “nice socks, but this lot was so competitive.” Score was 95 of 100.

I have fun entering the fairs, and now I have a few ribbons to add to my collection. If you aren’t entering in your local fairs, maybe you should check it out!

In other news, another pair for my SOS total (wow, I’m so behind on those). These socks are “plain jane” in KnitPicks Essential - Navy. I made the ribbing a bit longer so they can be folded over if desired. This is a pair that my DH “promised” for me - for a lovely lady we met last fall. She was hosting a surprise birthday party for a friend of ours, saw me knitting my current socks and immediately tried one on! She exclaimed how comfortable they were (I, of course, explained that hand-knitted socks were the best thing ever!), and my DH said I could knit up a pair for her. She was having another party at the end of August, so I thought I’d better pull out the yarn and get going on them. Well, obviously they weren’t finished in time, as they are still a WIP, but they’ll be done soon - they just aren’t much to look at….

Ho hum.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 7th, 2007 at 9:19 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.