Fair Time

It's fair time again. I resisted and did not come home with a bunny. That is so hard. I love bunnies.

I put in two 4 hour days demonstrating and came home exhausted and sore. I love demonstrating but that is a lot of hours talking to the public about how spinning wheels work or why I spin. Those are the fun questions. Then there are the not fun questions. "Are you married?" irritated me the most. Why, stranger, do you care? Why does it matter? Why are you the 3rd person to ask?
I love going to the fair. I love how the children there are so polite, so well spoken (unlike some of the adults), so smart, and so full of life and pride in their work. In those 8 hours of talking not only did I meet tons of lovely people I also spun up 5 bobbins of CVM wool. I have the sweater pattern all picked out and just need the time to spin the rest.

This year I have been too busy to knit what I think are fair worthy projects. Well, I have knit 5 worthy projects but they were all gifted and I hope worn enough by small children that they would no longer be nice enough to enter. Anyway, I dug through the knits that I kept for myself and entered some that I thought were pretty nice. I did well and I think that is testimony to my careful attention to detail even in my smaller projects.

Mittens. I like how they turned out and so did the judge. I must get more of that yarn.

2oz of hand spun merino wool. It turns out we were supposed to enter 4oz of hand spun. Did I mention I did not read the rule book before entering? This year I took a very laid back approach.

Hand spun hat. It has a very unpleasing grafted top. Like little ears. I sewed them down but I am still not happy with it. However, not very much is entered in the hand spun category and overall the hat is very nice.
Plain 3:1 ribbed socks knit out of yarn I dyed at KAWS. This was up against some stiff competition and it beat many pairs of very nice socks with lace patterns. It in turn was beat by a fantastic cable and lace pattern that would make my brain melt.
My baby sweater did not place. I think it is a fantastic baby sweater. Look at the seamless hem. Look at the short row collar. Look at the shaped sleave caps knit onto the sweater from the top down. This was one fiddly baby sweater.

Considering only 3 or 4 projects per division even get a ribbon it's amazing that I almost swept them all.