two weeks ago was the bloomsburg fair. i entered the same things that went to our county fair. we didn't get to fair this year due to busy schedules, so i didn't know how i faired out until i picked up my knitting last sunday.
not a bad showing! i got second place for gram's socks, freddie's sweater, and my mittens. my shawl got third place - i would love to know what placed ahead of sweet william, becos seriously people, nupps and beads! i hope whoever won knit a pi shawl or evenstar, becos those are the only shawls i could expect to beat sweet william.
poor dead fish hat didn't place at all. not surprising. i'm guessing cabled hats probably won. fish hat is a bit of a loose cannon.
i think i've mentioned before that entering projects for exhibition is a bit like playing the lottery. you never know what is going to win, or what the judges are looking for. reading threads in the county fair group on ravelry (and even the exhibition thread in the MDS&W group) show examples of the simplest projects winning a blue ribbon and more complicated works not placing at all. heck, i remember going to farm show a few years ago and a pair of fun fur bedecked flip flops won best of show over beautiful fair isle sweaters or cabled scarves. haba wha?!
then mom and dad brought me a page from their paper which listed the winners of the fair - just about every category had first prize going to sister so and so, sister this and that, sister whosit and whatsit. as mom pointed out, nuns who probably don't have anything to do other than knit or crochet and pray. when i dropped off my stuff a few weeks ago, there was a lady there who had two large cardboard boxes, several large shopping bags from the disney store, and several large ziploc tote bags full of crocheted goods. she had blankets of all sizes, sweaters of all sizes, toys, dishcloths, and everything else in between that was crocheted. i couldn't help but think it must be nice to have that much time on your hands and can craft so much. i know. i need some cheese with that whine.
part of me feels like not bothering entering the fairs next year. i always think that the judges are looking for projects like cables, fair isle and beaded. obviously nicely crafted pieces of complicated work. but...i can't stand doing cables (i can do them but they just slow down my knitting), i'm just learning fair isle and i've done beading and want to do more but...i feel like i can't do complicated work. it's so hard to focus on a complicated chart when the kiddos are vying for my attention, and my attention span is such that working on a large project makes me want to cry. i can barely work a few rows on petunia's sweater without putting it down in boredom. clearly, that's fodder for another post.
anyway, i did very well at fair, considering how many entries were there. adding the awards from our county fair, i'm very proud!
not a bad showing! i got second place for gram's socks, freddie's sweater, and my mittens. my shawl got third place - i would love to know what placed ahead of sweet william, becos seriously people, nupps and beads! i hope whoever won knit a pi shawl or evenstar, becos those are the only shawls i could expect to beat sweet william.
poor dead fish hat didn't place at all. not surprising. i'm guessing cabled hats probably won. fish hat is a bit of a loose cannon.
i think i've mentioned before that entering projects for exhibition is a bit like playing the lottery. you never know what is going to win, or what the judges are looking for. reading threads in the county fair group on ravelry (and even the exhibition thread in the MDS&W group) show examples of the simplest projects winning a blue ribbon and more complicated works not placing at all. heck, i remember going to farm show a few years ago and a pair of fun fur bedecked flip flops won best of show over beautiful fair isle sweaters or cabled scarves. haba wha?!
then mom and dad brought me a page from their paper which listed the winners of the fair - just about every category had first prize going to sister so and so, sister this and that, sister whosit and whatsit. as mom pointed out, nuns who probably don't have anything to do other than knit or crochet and pray. when i dropped off my stuff a few weeks ago, there was a lady there who had two large cardboard boxes, several large shopping bags from the disney store, and several large ziploc tote bags full of crocheted goods. she had blankets of all sizes, sweaters of all sizes, toys, dishcloths, and everything else in between that was crocheted. i couldn't help but think it must be nice to have that much time on your hands and can craft so much. i know. i need some cheese with that whine.
part of me feels like not bothering entering the fairs next year. i always think that the judges are looking for projects like cables, fair isle and beaded. obviously nicely crafted pieces of complicated work. but...i can't stand doing cables (i can do them but they just slow down my knitting), i'm just learning fair isle and i've done beading and want to do more but...i feel like i can't do complicated work. it's so hard to focus on a complicated chart when the kiddos are vying for my attention, and my attention span is such that working on a large project makes me want to cry. i can barely work a few rows on petunia's sweater without putting it down in boredom. clearly, that's fodder for another post.
anyway, i did very well at fair, considering how many entries were there. adding the awards from our county fair, i'm very proud!
i consider my awards to be a sort of annual evaluation. i don't work where i get a real evaluation, and nobody gives evals to moms or wives, so i consider my knitting awards to be, in a weird sort of way, validation that i can do something well.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments? Questions? Feel free drop me a line!