Washington County Fair Entries

Shelia during one of our spinning sessions had mentioned that Washington County Fair had contacted the Aurora Guild for volunteers to spin at the Fair. Initially I thought about volunteering, maybe next year it will work out.

Instead I read the booklet on how to enter items. In the Textiles section there's mention of a "Niftiest Needler" award. You have to have entries in five different categories to win. No mention is made that its based off of also winning in those categories - I guess its implied. So I came up with five different categories to enter in and tried to meet those goals. (One of the ladies at check in told me she entered 50 items in attempt at this award. She had been working all year on this from the last fair.)

One of them was of course hand spinning, and you've seen the two entries I made in those category - pink superwash (under the 2 or more plied yarn) and the wool-flax (naturally dyed yarn).

Under the hand knit category was 'dishcloths'. Those are pretty easy to whip out and I figure they're also great for Christmas gifts, so why not do the three for the requirement? I had gotten that Red Heart Eco-Cotton yarns and decided they would be perfect for these projects. I had already done two dishcloth patterns that show off using two colors - plaid stripes and the famous ballband. I just needed a third, then remembered I had in my Rav queue the Lizard Ridge that uses multiple colors. Perfect! Unfortunately, in my eagerness to get things turned in on time Sunday, I forgot to take individual pictures of the dishcloths, so just have this one that shows all the things I was going to turn in:


Also in knitting was 'scarf', so I thought it would be fun to bring out the scarf I had drop spindle spun last year during the Tour de Fleece, my Deep Blue Sea Sinuate. The scarf pattern is one done by Marnie MacLean.


Under the Holiday Decorations category I pulled out the minis - the sweater, hat and mitten set that I had made earlier in the year to use as gifts:
. I sewed them all together and made a hangar of it so that they would stay together. Hopefully I'll get them back!

So those are three categories done. The other was one mentioned also in a previous post - quilting. With the Summer Stained Glass Window Quilt:


This leaves the last category - Toys. One option was rabbit under 10 inches. Another Christmas gift to work early! Debbie Bliss has patterns for knitted toys, and yes, I could have done a bear, but I did the rabbit. I used her 'small rabbit with sweater' pattern with a change of the sweater. I did the 'smock' that was used for the angel rabbit instead. I used my handspun grey - the Spinner's Hill Corriedale-Finn-Rambouillet and Stitchjones Alpaca, Moon in Libra for the smock.
Her name is Priscilla. I'm not sure which of the nieces will get it, or it will be Christmas or Birthday (one has a September, the other October birthdays).

All of the items together. There's a snowflake ornament that I was going to try to enter but I didn't read close enough and was two ornaments short for that category.