Washington State Fair: Entry Etiquette

You know, Readers, one would think that by now our society would have come to a generalized consensus about acceptable standards for civilized behavior.

Especially when it comes to participating in competitive exhibit entries at the Washington State Fair.

I mean, seriously? SERIOUSLY, KNITTERS/CROCHETERS OF WASHINGTON STATE? DO I REALLY NEED TO HAVE THIS CONVERSATION WITH YOU?

*snort*. I guess I should start from the beginning.

As my regular readers may know, I've decided to enter some of my knitting and crochet work into the Washington State Fair for the very first time. The deadline for dropping off items for judging in the Home Arts/ Textile division was last weekend, so Mr. Orb Weaver and I packed up my entries and drove down on Saturday.

Ooh! Ooh! Let me shamelessly show off my entries before I launch into my rant!

I re-did the lace parasol using a merino wool/silk blend in charcoal grey:

...and I am VERY, VERY happy with the end result! The yarn I used (Juniper Moon Farm Findley) ended up making the lace quite a bit smaller than my first go-around, but it had a lovely stretch to it; shaping the final parasol into a glorious bell when opened. The picture doesn't show it (and all of my attempts at getting a close up shot did not do the yarn justice, because my camera is terrible), but the yarn also has a lovely yet very subtle shine to it.

I had a bunch of the Findley left over, so I whipped out my lace working hooks and made a doily, which I also ended up entering:

It's nothing special, but I thought it would be worth a shot.

So, I packed these guys up along with the Spaceship baby blanket...

(which I'm posting again because I just love it so much!)

...and drove down to Puyallup on Saturday with the hubs to turn in the entries along with the paperwork.

It wasn't too busy by the time we got there, but the volunteers at the main pavilion (where they were collecting and organizing the entries) all seemed to have their hands full. The woman who helped me enter my crochet lace items looked absolutely exhausted.

She took my name, I signed the papers, and all that jazz. When I handed her the clipboard with all the t's crossed and i's dotted, she looked at me and said,

"Thank you, THANK YOU for being so nice and polite."

At first I thought nothing of the comment. I told her she was welcome, and then made my way towards the volunteers sorting the knit items.

After I was done entering the baby blanket, the volunteer from the lace area stopped me and asked if I could specify which side of my doily I wanted to be displayed, since "many participants get very upset if the doilies aren't shown correctly."

Um...I can understand feeling mildly peeved, but getting very upset?

Seriously?

For the doily I made, it really doesn't matter which side is which, so I just told her to display it however she liked.

But for other crochet pieces that incorporate cables, clusters and such, one would think that it was obvious what is right-side up. And even then, the judges inspect all of the entries BEFORE they are displayed, so in the grand scheme of things in really doesn't matter that much.

Readers, if you find yourselves getting very upset at a poor, over-worked fair volunteer because your doily is upside-down, you may need to re-examine your priorities in life.

Plus, on our way out, I witnessed some ridiculous behavior: as I left the main pavilion, I saw a woman scream at a poor security guard because the guard wasn't able to escort her to the pavilion personally.

Admittedly, I may be a bit of a Pollyanna when it comes to the culture surrounding competitive fair entries, since I've never done this before. But holy hell, knitters of Washington State, WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT?

Is this a thing? Is it expected for participants to treat fair employees and volunteers in this way?

Perhaps I came in on an "off" day. I dunno.

But still, one would think that by now our society would have come to a generalized consensus about what's acceptable behavior when participating as an exhibitor at the state fair.

Anyways. Thanks for sticking with me through the above rant, Readers! Wish me luck!

Orb Weaver out!

Pew-Pew-Pew, Pew-Pew!

Afternoon, Readers! Time for a knitting project update!

I bought a spectacular knitting pattern book a while back called Knits of Tomorrow, by the very fabulous Sue Culligan. The patterns designed here are delightfully retro-nerd!

My favorite of the books' patterns is definitely the Starship baby blanket: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/starship-afghan

I love this pattern so much, I'm knitting it even though there aren't any behbehs in my foreseeable future! Plus, I'm going to enter this adorable thing into the Washington State fair as soon as it's finished.

I officially registered myself as an exhibitor this morning. It was super easy and FREE, as well!

When the judging is all done, I'm going to send the Spaceship Blankie to a high-school buddy of mine, who just had a baby boy. <3

It's been a while since I've done real intarsia work. I know I like to talk about intarsia in the same way an adventurer would talk about fighting a fire-breathing dragon, but in all honesty, the technique is much simpler and straightforward than I like to think. I might need to re-do the orange/green rocket ship because I over-thought it and made my intarsia links WAY more complicated than they needed to be; as a result of my stubborn "I can do this, no need to look the technique up!" mindset, there's a small row of green/orange lines along the left side of the patch (right where the orange/green meet the dark blue).

I've got six patches finished, and ten left to go!

Until next time, Readers!

<3

The invasion has begun!

Wait...

What's going on here?

Could it be?

Is it POSSIBLE?

Did I ACTUALLY FINISH SOME PROJECTS???

Yes, Readers, it's a miracle! I've FINISHED SOMETHING!

Two and a half YEARS, Readers. The above blanket took me two and a half years to finish.

The project was knit in two pieces: one with the faire isle space invaders (not bad for my first attempt at the technique), and one that was all black (to cover up the "floats", which are long pieces of yarn that hang on the back of the blanket). The piece with the aliens only took me a few weeks to finish; I was excited and motivated to learn a new knitting skill, and I had a ton of time on my hands as I was unemployed.

The plain black piece took me forever, I must admit, partially because I had just found a new job as I started it, and also because I have the attention span of a small insect.

SQUIRREL!

image found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirrel

Sewing the two pieces together was frustrating, I must say. To save time, I attempted to sew the blanket together using Dumpy (my sewing machine). It worked...but not very well.

I had to adjust the tension about six and a half billion times, and the project seemed to eat up ALL of my black sewing thread. On top of that, the acrylic yarn I used was VERY stretchy. This made the edges pull weird while the blanket was going through the sewing machine (although, this is probably because I didn't adjust the Dumpy's feet correctly, so the yarn isn't entirely at fault), so instead of being a nice, neat, rectangle...the finished blanket turned out to be more of a rhombus.

All in all, the blanket turned out quite nicely. Next time, with a project of this size, I'll pin it together and sew it by hand using yarn instead of sewing thread.

I hate to admit it...but I'm already getting a head start in the way of Christmas decorations.

Yes, Readers, snowflakes. Already. Don't judge.

I've got a plan in place for the craft fair season. Snowflakes, and lots of 'em.

I'm also making some of my own snowflake patterns, Readers! I'm in the process of finalizing/testing one, so stay tuned!

For flakes that are meant to be Christmas tree decorations, I'm going to put them in groups of either four or six of the same pattern (depending on the size of the flake). I've had several people mention to me last year that they would prefer decorations that match, so I'm gonna give that idea a shot.

Also, I'm going to try and make a few tree toppers this year!

image found here: http://myoldejunque.ecrater.com/p/12170267/

I'm thinking of doing something similar to the above topper, but take away the ribbon/buttons/flowers, replace the hair with a lacy circle of picots to imply a halo, get rid of the puffy sleeves and change her arm position so the arms are out (so that she looks like she's proclaiming something), make her bright white instead of ecru, add beading to her wings...

Heck, I might as well start from scratch, huh?

Looking up ideas for various tree toppers has sparked a debate with my fiance. He insists that a STAR belongs on the top of a Christmas tree, not an angel.

He also suggested crocheting Cthulu in a Santa suit.

Well. Maybe I'll make ONE star just for him.

And maybe a Cthulu hat.

I'm trying a new stiffener for my lace projects. This new stuff makes me a bit nervous, I have to admit, since I can't pronounce a single ingredient they list in it and it stinks to high heaven. Plus, this stuff is notorious for ruining your clothes if you spill it on yourself and let it dry. My usual hippie-dippie stiffening methods (the cornstarch method/sugar method) were both simply too messy and time consuming, and the flakes didn't turn out as stiff as I'd like.

The first batch of snowflakes turned out almost creepily perfect, though. And since I haven't sprouted a second head, I guess I'm alright as long as I open a window and keep a fan running.

I've also been doing a ton of embroidery lately.

It's kind of a tradition, Readers, for me to embroider a set of "day of the week" towels for people I love who are getting married. My brother and his wonderful bride to be are tying the knot in less than a month, so naturally I've been stitching away!

I know for a fact that both my brother and future sister in law read my blog ;-) So, John and Jen, I'm posting your tea-towel "previews":

So happy for you guys! Love you so much!

Until next time, Readers!