Talk About It Tuesday
The North Carolina State Fair is going on this week. It always makes me nostalgic for the years that I entered knitting and/or crocheted projects into their competitions. The first year, I entered a knit skirt and a crocheted skirt, but I didn’t win anything. Got some great feedback from the judges.
A few years later I hit the jackpot. I entered this shawl:
Now, to be fair, this was not an original creation, per se. I followed a pattern (“In the Pink” by IzzyKnits). The yarn did the heavy lifting. I used two balls and a just a smidgen of a third ball of Zauberball in the color Fresh Fish (that’s the English translation of the colorway name). One of the point categories is how well the yarn matches the pattern. So I think I did well matching that up.
So well that I won first place in the knit shawl category!
This was back in 2012. Two years later, I tried to reclaim my title and another $10 prize–that’s how much 1st place gets you beside a fancy blue ribbon. I entered this shawl, pattern name: “Faberge”.
I was pretty chuffed with this one because I used beads in the cross-hatch section. But I didn’t win anything that time. I got 85 out of 100 points. Which, in my mind is a B, so, not bad. I remember one of the comments from the judges was that they wanted to see “the edges cleaned up more”. The edges are indeed tricky sometimes.
Every time I start a new project, I think, “Could this be a state fair contender?” Lately, the answer has been no. But, one day I will enter something again. I’m determined to win in the shawl category again. But also, I’m not bad at sweaters and stuffed toys, so those are options too. One of the rules though, is that you have to have completed the project between the time of the last fair and the upcoming fair. I tend to get distracted and not work continuously on projects, so I’d have to really be committed to the project. We’ll see. It could happen again.
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