State Fair

In honour of my blog silence for all of September so far, I present you with, "Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, I've just been so busy..."



I just wonder--is life ever not busy?  Not that I would ever know.

As in other years, the end of summer means time for the State Fair. I had intended to enter my Jeanie in the fair, but that fell apart. So I opened up my Ravelry project page and looked over my last year of knitting accomplishments. I decided to submit my herbivore and my stripey gothy hat-heel knee socks. The socks have gotten a lot of wear in the last year, and so they weren't in pristine condition, but they were clean and neat, and I liked their unusual construction features, including the garter toe, the reinforced pad-of-foot area, and the hat-heel.

Attending the fair has cemented into a bit of a tradition with my daughter. We attend with my knitting coworker and her son, who this year is 4. We also bring along one of her ballet carpool buddies. The girls enjoy taking care of a little boy, and he likes hanging with big kids. We tour the Home Arts building, and the girls keep an eye on the boy, while we two adults run around looking at everything. It's not just the knitting that impresses us. We linger at crochet, quilts, baby christening gowns, table cloths, embroidery, and so much more. This year we ventured into the food-side of the building and oohed at the cakes and breads and preserves, too.  We never get enough time, what with the patience of a 4-year-old being our limiting factor, but we thoroughly enjoy the visit.

Now, on to my results. My stripey knee socks received a red second place ribbon! The judge wrote on the back, "Fun stuff" and "loved the graduation to fit calf".  In the picture, you can see a lovely set of monkeys (I think?) beside my socks with a blue ribbon, although they were submitted by a different category of knitter, so they weren't in direct competition. This year, the socks were stuffed a little for display, which gave them some body in the presentation.

And my herbivore received a third place ribbon in the scarf category. The judge wrote "Interesting concept". Well, I can't take any credit for the concept, other than choosing that lovely pattern to knit.

 

I also was quite delighted to find a Shipwreck entry displayed.  I have been gathering supplies to knit my own Shipwreck, and thought this one was very lovely. I felt like it could have been displayed better, and was surprised to see it only took fourth place. Because of the nature of the chaotic displays, it was not worth my limited time to hunt down and see what three items placed above it, although I'm certain they were also very impressive. I did try to find this on Ravelry, but with so many shipwrecks listed, I gave up. But to the Shipwreck knitter out there, "Lovely job! I think it rocks!"

This year, I let my daughter spend her babysitting money on a wristband for rides. She and her ballet friend toured all the animal sheds with us, and then they were let loose on the rides. Soon I left with my coworker, and the ballet girl's mother took over for the rest of the afternoon.  When she came home exhausted at dinner time, the grrl admitted, 'My favourite part is really the Home Arts building and the animals." But I do think she got her money's worth on that wristband.