Oh, that Little Darcy — what a jetsetter!! He seems to pop up everywhere!!
Little Darcy on display at the Minnesota State Fair!! I entered Darcy in the “doll” category: Lot 724 — Doll, portrait, single or pair, face & costume representing an individual, living or dead (recognizable or accompanied by a photo of individual). OMG! They also have a fictional character category, but I wanted to include a picture! So it is Colin Firth playing Darcy. H I L A R I O U S. When I took him in, I could not stop laughing and seeing him in the case made my life! Plus, he won a second place ribbon. Wowie! If you are looking for Little Darcy, he is located in the main sewing case about halfway down – on the bottom ledge.
Okay. Let’s talk about the fair. The weather was spectacular, so the opening day crowds were HUGE. I didn’t eat as much as usual, but pigged out later at Panera’s! 😉 I did manage to eat fried cheese curds and Big, Fat Bacon!!!
Creative Activities
Friend Kim blew away all the competition and earned her second sweepstakes in a row:
Kim’s Kauni EQ Damask Afghan
Kim used Kauni EQ yarn and the Damask pattern. The two are a perfect marriage! She used A. Starm0re’s checkerboard border, building the yarn herself to get long enough color changes to go all the way around the afghan. An incredible amount of work!! The exciting part was that her afghan was displayed right IN the main entrance in a glass case — you had to look at it or you would walk right into it!! Her afghan is truly a showstopper.
Straight back and to the right was my latest (last?) Niebling:
Gloxiniaeflora by Herbert Niebling
This is the second time I have knit this particular Niebling. The first was in 2012. It is a dog to knit, so don’t expect a third!!
Funky Grandpa and my Circlet Shrug both got blue ribbons. Could not get a good picture of Circlet!
Funky Grandpa
My biggest thrill was that my Plaid Squared Bag got a blue ribbon and a special award from Lila and Claudine’s! It is my own design so it has a special place in my heart.
Plaid Squared, designed by Susan Rainey
Osmanthus got a second place ribbon, which I was thrilled about. Shawls are usually a pretty competitive lot:
Osmanthus Shawl
I entered a bunch of hats and won two ribbons — Lolo by Brooklyn Tweed (in Carol Sunday 5-ply yarn) took 3rd, and the Dala Hat I made John last winter got 5th place:
Lolo Hat by Jared Flood – not a picture from the fair!
Dala Hat
This year I qualified as a senior ::groan::, so I entered a sweater that would have been in the same category as Funky Grandpa (plain cardigan). You can only enter one item per category. Fading Lines took a blue ribbon and the senior sweepstakes:
Good friend Bonnie won the Penelope Knitter’s Award for her Twisted Stitches gloves.
Bonnie Esplie’s Twisted Stitches Gloves
Bonnie won a lot of ribbons this year, as did another knitting friend, Kris King. Her name is on almost every item displayed in the “blue ribbon” case!!
And we cannot forget Pronto, the Minnesota Knitter’s Guild Yarn Bombed Stallion, on the ramp leading to the Grandstand!! I got to help sew him together, but others did much more work that can be believed!! Kathy Lewinski knocked it out of the park!
PS to Pru: Thank you for the nice comments, and as much as I would love to take credit for inventing invisible stranding, I only came up with the name, a hat pattern, and a few twists and techniques!!
Thanks for the mention. I was particularly pleased to win the Penelope Knitters award this year since those gloves really lived up to the ” knit to rip” part of your motto!
Comment by Bonnie — August 25, 2017 @ 11:26 am
OMG, that Pronto! With his winner’s blanket of ribbons and fair food – hilarious and perfect.
Comment by Gretchen (aka stashdragon) — August 25, 2017 @ 12:01 pm
Wow, congratulations on all those ribbons! And to your knitting peeps too, spectacular work on the Damask Afghan and Twisted Stitches gloves. The highlight of my August each year is to see what you entered in the State Fair, and of course what you won. Your blue and red ribbons are well earned, but I have to say you were dissed on Dala 🙁 Don’t the judges realize what a spectacular technique you invented? Pshaw, as Elizabeth Bennet might have said, but I’m glad to see that Little Darcy got his due. As for Pronto, as stashdragon said what a hilarious and perfect horse blanket.
Comment by Pru — August 25, 2017 @ 2:22 pm
Wow! What a sweep! Those projects are amazing, both yours and your friends’. Congratulations!
Comment by Mary Jo — August 25, 2017 @ 5:22 pm
Kudos to everyone!it’s so inspiring to see everything. I’d expect to see a run on Kauni now.
We were there yesterday, and had a really noteworthy corn dog at Big Dog. It was a buck more expensive, but the hot dog and batter were superior, and it was perfectly cooked. (Wasn’t it you and Kim that had bad corn dog experience at a recent fair?)
Comment by Susan — August 25, 2017 @ 9:15 pm
So exciting to see all these beautiful projects win awards! They so deserve them! The Dala hat absolutely deserved more! Susan’s use of the invisible stranding technique created absolutely no showing through of the backgroud color! Kim’s blanket was so much more involved and difficult than most could guess from seeing the blankiet!!! She actually had to pull out all the colors individually from the skeins, cut them, wind them, rejoin them in the order she had decided to use them! Truly a work of art! Thank you Kim and Susan for these inspiring projects!
Comment by Kathy W. — August 26, 2017 @ 12:11 am
Beautiful knitting you and your friends entered at the fair. Congratulations! I am happy for you, Renate
Comment by Renate Baur — August 26, 2017 @ 12:18 am
Love this post, and love the Great MN Get-Together! Little Darcy is pretty much the best ever. And the Dala hat is really cute.
Comment by Jodi — August 26, 2017 @ 4:17 pm
Congratulations!!! And to Kim too, I know how hard and fast she worked on her Kauni. Amazing!! And a side note, my friend and I met Kris King years ago at Minnesota Knitters Days with Sheryl Hill. What a small small world!!!
Comment by Penny — August 26, 2017 @ 8:26 pm
Congratulations many times over. You certainly deserve it. But where do you find the time?? Your friend Kim may have created a new category: Creative Skein Wrangling. Well worth the effort. (First time I was offered a senior discount I was 54. Haven’t been back to Sizzler since:-).)
Comment by Chloe — August 29, 2017 @ 8:33 am
Yay! Looking good.
Comment by Mary Lou — August 29, 2017 @ 3:05 pm
Congratulations, Susan and Kim! It’s great to get a little taste of the fair and see your work.
Comment by Jimmy — September 6, 2017 @ 4:31 pm