Fair time!

It's been a busy summer thus far and I have lots of pictures but no time to post!  I took a few minutes to post our entries for the county fair so that some family members that can't get to the fair can see how we did.  I must admit I'm more proud of my daughters and their efforts that mine.  My older daughter with 4 children managed to knit all of her family a vest or sweater for Christmas wearing and earned a blue ribbon on her husband's vest!  And he is not a small man!  My younger daughter crochets like a fiend and entered an afghan in the disabled adults category and scored a red ribbon!  

 My entry in Girls' Halloween costume.  I was so pleased to see a judge's choice on this one.  It was a lot of work with fabric that isn't so easy to handle and sew.  But I was thrilled with the results.  So was my granddaughter!

 I made this dress just because I had the fabric and I wanted to try the pattern.  It's still a bit big for my granddaughter but it was fun to sew.

 I sew enough boys shirts that I usually have one or more to enter.  You can't see the buttons on this shirt but I think they make the shirt.

 I also make pajamas every year but never thought to enter them until this year.

 Unfortunately they cut the categories to enter in this year and my daughter and I ended up competing in the children's knit category.  I love this sweater though and wanted to enter it.

 I was so glad to see this prominently displayed and it definitely earned a blue ribbon.  It is a beautiful vest and just one of 4 my daughter knit for Christmas Sunday.  There was another vest equally large in the same category and I could not read all of the judge's notes to see why it took second.  That was new this year, judge's notes on the knitted items.  I really appreciated the time the judges took to write why an item excelled or an improvement that could be made or both.

 These are my daughter's other entries.  The judge did write on her sweater that her knitting was very even and the stitches were beautiful.  Ahem, the judge also mentioned not knotting the yarn ends.  Oops, I do that.  I knot my old and new yarns, especially on children's garments.  I'll have to watch that and see if the judge mentioned that on my knits.

 Finally, my younger daughter's entry.  I don't think this is one of her best but I grabbed it in a hurry.

 And lastly, I grabbed this at the last minute as well and entered it, not expecting it to do well but glad it did.  The judge said it was a unique pattern but well done.  I can't show the pattern since it was a test knit and possibly going into a magazine.

Another successful fair!  I still would like to try for the niftiest needler award but I did not have enough entries this year to even compete.  Nor enough categories entered.