And It's Off to the Fair We Go...

Here goes this will definitely be a long entry since I want to show all 14 entries. This is my first year entering the State Fair and I am so excited ... especialy since it is about the third year I've talked about it. Most of my entries are knitting but there are a couple cross stitch pieces. Hope you enjoy my work, everything has been done within the last three years.

SECOND PLACE
Class: Adult's - Sweater, 1 color
Pattern: Josephine - IK Summer 2007

THIRD PLACE
Class: Adult's - Sweater, 2colors or more
Pattern: Tomato - No Sheep For You

FIRST PLACE!!!!!!
Class: Adult's - Sweater, dressy or evening
Pattern: Campanula - Knitters Spring 2007

THIRD PLACE
Class: Adult's - Sleeveless shell or vest
Pattern: Basic Vest (Fulled) - Book 2 The Purl Stitch

Class: Adult's Shawl or Scarf
Pattern: Prayer Shawl - Knitting Into the Mystery

THIRD PLACE
Class: Adult's Accessories
Pattern: Broad Street Mitten - Knitty

SECOND PLACE
Class: Child's Sweater - 1 color
Pattern: Julia's Aran Pullover and Hat
By Kristin Nicholas - Knit It Premier Issue

SECOND PLACE
Class: Child's Sweater - 2 or more colors
Pattern: Kid's Cozy Icelandics -
Ultimate Knitting Fall 2003

FOURTH PLACE
Class: Child's Accessories
Pattern: Fair Isle hat & scarf -
KAL book A Good Yarn

Class: Infant - Afghan
Pattern: Lydia's Baby Cables -
KAL book The Shop on Blossom Street

Class: Hand Knitting - Felting - Hats
Pattern: Fiber Trends - Felt Hat w/ Brim Variations

Class: Hand Knitting - Felting - Purses
Pattern: Felted Purse - Leisure Arts

AND NOW FOR THE CROSS STITCH

Class: Cross Stitch - Framed -
Design Area 101-150 sq. in.

THIRD PLACE
Class: Cross Stitch - Framed -
Design Area 151 sq. in. & over

Here is my table before I left.

Much better than before. It is now empty for the first time in weeks ... I think I have a tablecloth and nice vase somewhere!

Campanula and VK Short Sleeve Cardigan

Well, I finished my Campanula and it is definitely the prettiest thing I've ever knitted. I was like a little kid doing the finishing work and am so proud of the seams ... because you can't see them. WOO HOO!

Here is my blocking ... I really need a blocking board.


Look at the pretty lace work!

I used microfiber towels like you buy in automotive and it was unbelievable how fast it dried. I am going to sew all the little towels together so I don't have so many little towels to juggle. Too bad no one makes microfiber towels with a one inch check pattern.

Here are some close up shots.

Sleeve

Peplum - I love the bell shape

Lace pattern close up

Lace up I-cord front - 70 inches YUK!

Here is a picture of me in it. I made it hoping to be 20 lbs more lighter so please ignore the lumps and bumps.

Here's what I did
Pattern: Knitter's Spring 2007 Campanula
Designer: Celeste Pinheiro
Size: Large - 45 inch
Yarn: SWTC Bamboo Purple
Yarn amount: 4 1/2 skeins
Needles: Knit Picks #2 and #4 circulars
Modifications: None, this pattern is perfect. Lots of charts to follow. If you can read a lace pattern and trust it you can do this.
Something I wish I knew before I knit this is when working your SSK on the peplum, work them on the tips of the needle. They will look much neater. I found this info when I was working my last section, of course.
Length of time: About 4 weeks

For my sister's graduation, I knit my mom an "I Love You Present." She does so much for everyone that I thought she needed something special. Anyway, I knit her a Short Sleeve cardigan but never got any pictures. I only finished a couple hours before the graduation. Well, the buttons that I chose did not work that well sewn into the lace sections, so she gave it to me to tweek. See the bad buttons.


Here are the new clasp which are much more stable and easier to fasten.

Here is a close up of the back. I love how the lace pattern changes directions.

Here is a picture of my chair wearing Mom's cardigan .... Still need a pic of Mom.

This was a quick and easy knit. It looks harder than it is and looks better in person than the mag.
Here's what I did
Pattern: VK Spring/Summer 2007 Short Sleeve Cardigan
Designer: Shiri Mor
Size: Medium - 36 inch
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease Terrecotta
Yarn amount: 4 1/4 skeins
Needles: Knit Picks size 7
Modifications: Make sure you work a size smaller than usual. I did 4 inch neg ease and it was still lose on my Mom. Clasp closures or no closures seem to be better than buttons.
Length of time: 5 days

Today has been an exciting day except for hubbie feeling sick. We had breakfast with our kiddo and gave him a belated birthday gift.

Then we delivered my items to the fairgrounds. So my dining room table no longer looks like this
Can you believe the lady who recieved my entries told me that I was very organized? LOL
And while we drove around killing time before dropping off stuff, I worked on this

Mystery Stole 3 - I finally finished Clue 1 only 3 more to catch up. Maybe with the fair push behind me ... Oh Yeah, I told hubbie I'd take a break from knitting ... Ha! Who am I kiddin'.

New Stash Items

I've been working really hard at getting my stuff ready for the State Fair but took a break over the weekend to shop. Now believe it or not, I actually buy more when my DH is with me. He is so bad, he basically tells me if I want it buy it. Now what husband in their right mind tells a woman that! Well, here goes.


Something from this book with this yarn will become a wonderful gift for my friend! I at least had 3 skeins of the yarn and the book already. Also, the LYS gives a 10% discount if you are a TKGA or other guild member.


Pretty pink yarn! It is a cotton acrylic blend but it is so soft! It was on clearance and I just loved the bubble gum pink! When I was little I had carpet in my bedroom this exact color. I actually bought 3 skeins of this and had to go back and get the remaining 2 skeins since I kept waking up thinking about it. I'm nuts now what to knit with it? It may just become stash and baby items for gifts ... girl baby gifts!

Okay, here is my buy of the weekend. This was the next best thing to free.

These were a dollar each, I got them all for $29.00.

I had recently took advantage of the Interweave back issue sale and recieved these

for about $36.00 after shipping. The kicker is four of the five were in the dollar bin at the LYS. So if you live in Indy check out Keepsakes in Carmel, the owner has great sale prices on both magazines and yarn.

Then it is Joann's coupon commotion and I got 2 books for 50% off. Zoe Moller Knitted Toys and Charlene Schurch Sensational Socks. Again my husband was with me, he is such a bad influence.

I must stay out of the stores so I will have money left for Stitches! I must! I must! I must!

My Best Loved FO and Campanula and State Fair Update

I wanted to share about my most loved finished object. I knit a lot of gifts, some I know are loved others seem to become missing objects. The missing objects are the ones that I never see again after I gift them. These items may or may not be loved and worn after given ... I will not let myself assume they weren't liked because that would drive me crazy.

Christmas 2005, I knit my then 2 year old nephew a customized elephant sweater. He loves animals and at the time called and elephant an "epafant". Too cute. Anyway, I knew he liked it right away since he not only put it on immediately but would not remove it for several days even to sleep. According to him, he only recieved two gifts that year, one his "epafant" sweater his Aunt Angie made him, the other a bag of various plastic animals. This kid is so crazy about animals when he comes to visit he will get the horse encyclopedia off the shelf to carry it around his entire visit showing people.

Well, he practically lived in the sweater the first and second year but I figured the magic of this gift had worn off. I realized that I was wrong when he came up to me last month at a family get together and told me he wasn't sure where his sweater was. His mom quickly informed him she knew where it was and it was only put away for the summer. His reply was "Good, I'll be needing it!" How cute 4 1/2 year olds are and how glad I am that I made a size four when he was only two. I keep saying no more knit gifts at Christmas but this makes me reconsider although I am not sure I will ever top this gift.


Sorry, the "epafant" is mostly covered.


See the name, this sweater will never become a hand me down.

I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane.

Campanula and State Fair Update

I am plugging away at the Campanula so far the back, left front and both sleeves are finished. I am about 1/3 done with right front hopefully I will finish with the knitting today and can block it tonight. I really want to finish this for the fair and have to drop off items next weekend. Please send prayers and good thoughts my way.

As for the State Fair, I have gathered all my items and they are on a big heap on my dining room table. Many items had been gifts so I had to borrow them back. Over the next week, I still need to frame 2 items, redo some finishing work, clean and reblock everything and tag for the exhibit. I will be taking pictures as I go and will post pictures of entries by next weekend. This is fun and exciting but quite a bit of work.

Speaking of work, I better stop typing and get to it!

Finished Green Tomato, Bad LYS and Great News

After almost fininshing this on Friday night, I decided that I didn't like my modifications to the neckline. The striped ribbing took away from the crispness of the rest of the top.
Do you agree?



Well even if you liked it, I ripped and ended up with this.

Here is what I did
Pattern: Tomato from No Sheep for Ewe
Yarn: Cotton Ease Lime and Snow
Needles: KP Options #6 and #7
Blocking: Steamed with Rowenta iron
Modifications: Added 2 rows + BO in White on the bottom, sleeves and neckline. I really like it this way.
If I make it again I will add about 1-2 more inches at the straight part of waist. This was a pretty easy and fun knit which I would consider doing again.

Bad LYS Story
I was really excited to find out there was a new LYS not far from an area I frequent. My DH and I scoped it out Sunday and found out that the hours were not very convenient but with some creativity on my part I could probably make it. It looked nice from the street and I could tell that it was another high end store but I was still excited about going.

Anyway yesterday we were heading swimming and it wasn't too far off course. I also was planning on buying a pair of new Addi Lace needles and 4 metal clasp (frog) for a cardigan I made. Not a huge purchase but I felt like it would be quick with 3 kids and allow me to check out the new store.

Now I do realize that we were not dressed (we were headed to the pool) as nice as that area is but that didn't mean I didn't have real money to spend. I have a nice knitting/ yarn budget of about $200 - $300 a month before DH says anything. Also note the 3 kids with me were excellently behaved never touched anything, stayed right by me and were very quiet.

So we walk in the store, I observe about 8 other customers in the store and 3 people working. My presence was not acknowledged even though I made eye contact with all 3 employees. I was able to find the area for closures and they didn't have clasp so I was going to ask to be sure. About that time a very sweet lady walked up to the worker at the swift and said, "when you get finished with your customer I could use a little help." From across the room the manager/owner bellowed "there are four other people here that need help first and one of them needs to get back to work" The too nice lady apologized and said that she could wait her turn she wasn't in a hurry. The owner/manager barked back and said "see this lady dressed nice for work she is the priority here right now." Thank God I wasn't that sweet customer.

I decided right then and there this would never be a knit stop I would make again no matter how nice of product they carry. So the search for the perfect LYS continues and my internet shopping habit will keep thriving!

We ended up having a great day swimming at Sahms park. Here are a few pictures.

My too cute niece who loved the slides!

My nephew who wore a permanent path from the side of pool to this slide. As I shouted WALK!

The princesses!

The Greatest News Ever
One of my most bestest friends in the world called me Sunday to tell me she is having a baby. Now I know that baby news is good but this is incredible. They have been married for 14 years and trying for at least 12 years. They had been given a zero percent chance of having a baby on their own BUT GOD had a different plan! I am so excited if I could I would knit an entire 5 year wardrobe for this child. But I have it down to some Dale of Norway, Debbie Bliss and a little Zoe Mellor.

Campanula and the Green Tomato

I almost always begin two projects at once. One that may be more of a challenge, something I've never done before and one that is more mindless. So these are the two I chose. I started them around June 15th.

Here is the Campanula from Knitter's Spring 2007.


Campanula means bell flower which really makes sense because the bell shaped peplum and the leaf shaped lace. I am working this in SWTC Bamboo which is a first for working with Bamboo. It took me awhile to get used to but once I did I am enjoying it. I am still new to doing anything with lace.

I started with the sleeves as my gauge swatch which was a little challenging to get the shaping done while maintaining pattern. Especially since I wasn't used to lace charting, the good thing is it made the back seem easy.

Here is a close up of the sleeve. You can see the pretty bell shape on the sleeve which will look even better after blocking.


My Green Tomato is almost finished but here are some earlier pictures. I had actually started my Tomato before Knitting Daily started featuring it. It was fun to work along with them. My favorite clothing colors are limish green or red but I decided to use Cotton-Ease Lime and Snow thus giving me my Green Tomato.


Here is a close up of my fair-isle section.

I reworked this about 4 times trying to get rid of the squatty stitches and long stitches but the seemed to stay matter which technique I tried. I think if I really manipulate the stranding in the back I will be able to fix most of it. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I should have this finished by the weekend so be sure to check back for updated photo. I am adding white on the bottom, sleeves and neckline which I like better.

This is one of the items I am entering in the State Fair next month. It is being entered in the two or more color sweater class so I am not expecting much for this item. I am sure there will be some really nice intarsia and fair-isle work if it is anything like the last few years. Since this is the first year for me to enter, I just figured I would enter as many classes as I could and see how I do. I signed up for 14 enteries, 12 are knitting and 2 are cross stitch. I am working on getting together pict for a State Fair entry post soon.

Josephine Top

I finished my Josephine Top Father's Day weekend which was funny since I started it Mother's Day weekend. I really enjoyed making this top. In some ways it was easier than I thought and in other ways harder. The lace pattern was easier and was easily memorized but the front shaping with V neck and armholes while keeping the pattern was much harder.

Here is a close up of the lace.
and one of the cap sleeve
and one of me wearing it.

Pattern: IK Summer 2007
Size: 43 1/2" bust
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport in Cream
Modifications: Added 1" after the eyelet for more coverage.
Shine Sport worked out nice but came out a little bigger and not as airy.

I have enjoyed wearing this with different colored tanks and pants. It can be dressed up or down.