County Fair 2013

Lately the highlight of my year is the day I go to the County Fair and see what ribbons I've won for my knitting and spinning.  Today was the day and I'm excited!  I only entered two items into the knitting division; a sweater and a shawl, and they both were awarded blue ribbons.  That's great, but everyone who meets a certain set of standards gets blue.  Now I'm after the special rosettes!

My spinning hasn't ever won any rosettes, so I was thrilled to find three this year.  I made an infinity cowl from some Southern Cross Fibre Polwarth/Cashmere/Silk.  This spun beautifully and made a wonderful, soft, squishy yarn.  I used all but a tiny bit for the cowl and loved it when I had a chance to wear it last spring.  Here's the yarn and the finished cowl.

And here's how it looks now.  Creative award, baby!

The second item is a shawl.  I spun this yarn a couple of years ago and tried three times to make it into a shawl before I finally landed on the pattern that worked.  I ran out of yarn, hated the yarn with the pattern twice, and then chose a shawl that actually worked out.  Here's the yarn and the shawl.

And with the special award!

I also entered two skeins of yarn, both spun during the Tour de Fleece this year.  The first was a pretty skein of Punta top that I spun thicker and worsted and it came out nicely.

The second one is a skein of Merino/CVM/Silk that I plan to use for a sweater project.  I got this fiber at Taylored Fibers when I went to the Hansen miniSpinner retreat last March.  I've finished two skeins and really liked this one.  I guess the judges did, too.  Class Runner Up!  

A very successful day.  And no visit to the fair would be complete without little goats

and scones, of course.