2019 State Fair Entries

I entered four things in the state fair last year, and won two ribbons! 

The item I was most proud of is the little striped sweater I made for my toddler.  I used one skein of Cascade 220 Superwash (the charcoal grey) and about one and a half skeins of Liberty Print worsted, which is apparently now discontinued.  The sweater was inspired by one made by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (the Yarn Harlot) several years ago - this is the second sweater I've knit based on that one.  The first was a cardigan I made for my niece when she was a toddler.  I pretty much winged the pattern using the raglan recipe in The Knitter's Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters.  I put a little bit of care into starting the sleeves at a point in the skein that would give the stripe sequence some continuity across and down the sweater.  I'm pretty thrilled with how it came out, although the sleeves are a bit long and the bind-offs are kind of tight (I very nearly ran out of the grey yarn).  It didn't win a ribbon - the comment from the judge was that the bind-offs are too tight (true) and that the seams were messy (which I can't figure out, because the sweater is seamless).

The other item I finished last year was a blouse in lovely Lovely Liberty of London lawn, which I've never managed to photograph.  I started it at the end of summer 2017, right before I got pregnant with my older son.  I finished it at the beginning of summer 2019, just in time to enter it in the state fair.  I still haven't worn it very many times, because I got pregnant with my second son in summer 2019, and it will probably be a while before I can wear it, because it's not compatible with nursing or pumping.  I'm really proud of it, and will try to get a blog post about how I made it up at some point (with some photos of it on the hanger).  It didn't win anything, either.

The two items I won ribbons for were much older - the rules of our state fair don't say you have to have made the item in the last year, only that it can't have been entered in the state fair before.  My blue Washi dress won a 2nd place ribbon in the women's dress category, and my Deep in the Forest shawl won an honorable mention in the lace shawl category!