People, it was a red-letter day for me at the State Fair today. I have to admit that I snuck a peek at the results (PDF) online while the girls were eating breakfast at home, so I knew what to expect, but that is nothing to arriving in the Creative Activities building and getting a glimpse of this:
Blankie won the blue ribbon for its lot (I’d entered it in the modular-knit afghan lot, but it looks like the judges moved it to the bedspread category – fine by me!) It also won the Sweepstakes prize for all the afghan categories, and a couple of other awards given by local yarn shops to the winner of that prize. Yulp! I’ll tell you what, winning the Sweepstakes at the Fair has been on my “someday” dream list for a long time, but I never thought it would really happen. Blankie looks so happy hanging there, and she is getting lots and lots of attention from the passers by.
I also won a blue ribbon for these beauties. These are the socks I was working on and didn’t want to share with the world till they’d been to the Fair. I still don’t know why. I knit these with my spindle-spun Blue Moon Fiber Arts merino, and they also won the award for best handknit item knit with yarn spun by the entrant. I used Cat Bordhi’s Coriolis swirl pattern, but my own toe and heels.
And one final blue ribbon for the snowflake scarf. I’m a little disappointed with how they displayed it, though. The winning scarves from the other scarf categories are all nicely hung up a few feet away. I can’t complain really though because it is all volunteers who put the displays together, and I know they are crunched for time.
My final entry was the lace-cuffed socks. They were hanging up in a case in the back, no ribbon. It’s a competitive category, and it’s part of what one expects when they enter the fair.
I was at the Fair with my girls and my mother-in-law, so I didn’t have much time to hang out and look at all the other knitting. I’ve been promised a night off to go back to the Fair with a friend, and we will eat ourselves silly and walk through the building taking our sweet time maybe tomorrow night.
Once the boring mommy stuff was out of the way, I made good on my promise to take the girls on the gondola ride – Julie and I in the front, Sophie and Harmony in the car behind us.
I think they enjoyed themselves – it was almost worth the $20 in tickets it cost the four of us for a round trip.
After that we visited the “Little Farmhands” exhibit, where the girls put on aprons and did a little pretend farming.
They fed corn to the fake animals and picked fake produce from the trees. We even milked a fake cow!
Time flies when you’re at the fair, and by then we were hungry and ready for lunch, which included fried green tomatoes (yum!), french fries, hot dogs and lemonade. My corn dog was cold by the time I finished running around collecting all the food and taking Julie to the bathroom, so I’ll have to make up for it with a hot one when I go back.
Unfortunately, we were on our way to the Kidway so Julie and Sophie could ride a kid-sized carnival ride before the parade when Harmony got lightheaded and kind of passed out. I kept my cool and got her some medical attention at the first aid building, which was luckily close by. After several glasses of water, several blood pressure checks and a little lie-down, she was just fine. The girls and I hung out in the waiting area and ended up having a great view of the parade, but once Harmony was released, we headed on out the gate to our van.
On the way out, we spotted Al Franken at his booth (he’s running for Senate here).
We missed out on a couple of important activities today, including the Butterfly House and all of the animal barns, plus that fairway ride that I’d promised them. I think I will find a day next week to take the girls back over and cover the parts that we missed.
Well. Quite the day, both amazingly good and not-so-great. I still can’t believe I won the freakin’ sweepstakes! Woot! Thanks again to all of you who sent yarn to feed the blankie. I really feel like we’ve completed the journey now.
Shelly,
I wanted to tell you that I mentioned at my knitting group meeting tomight that I read the blog of the State Fair Sweepstakes winner. Before I even said who you were or what you project was, two of the women said that your blanket is one of the most beautiful that they have seen. People are seeing and loving it. Yea for you. Great job.
Congratulations! Of course, the blankie is lovely and you already knew that, but the recognition of your beautiful work has to feel good. I’m one of the people who started visiting when the Yarn Harlot first mentioned your project, and I’ve had such a nice time reading your blog ever since then. And of course, it’s been great to watch the blankie’s development.
Well done Shelly, that is a fantastic effort with the blankie and scarf and the socks. They all look so fabulous and you deserve your success.