So let's start with the serious stuff. Deep fried pickles? My friend Jane tells me she had deep fried Twinkies at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and they were scrumptious. I can almost imagine that, but pickles? Am I too much of a New Yorker to deep fry my pickles? I think so...
Here is Isis, languishing with her second place ribbon. She looks fetching, yes? She was slightly wounded, but upon looking closely at the piece who beat her out for first place in her class, she grudgingly conceded that the best lace knitting won out.
I understand this piece is a design from A Gathering of Lace. It is knit in very fine Merino yarn and I am totally embarrassed to say I forgot to write the knitter's name down. If any of you know her name, please leave it in my comments. (Melody Parker Navarez is her name, I just found it; added 8:30pm) It is some high-end gossamer knitting.
The edging pattern is lovely. I need to buy me that book! It is one of the few lace books I don't have and I don't know why...
Not to be totally without blue, I did win a blue ribbon in another class, for my take on Evelyn Clark's Estonian scarf design. It appears the knitting judges liked cobweb-weight yarn this year. The yarn I used is from YarnTreehouse, and is one of the Chinese wool lace yarns with very long color repeats.
More blue, I show you the winner in the crochet class, made by my good friend Mary Harrington. Way to go! This is a delicious alpaca yarn. It looks even better on a person, if you can imagine that.
And last but not least, the blue ribbon in the youth class went to my lovely daughter, for her weaving. That kid can really weave, and her color sense is pretty good too. The fibers are a mix of cotton, wool and silk.
The weather was spectacular, the crowds were enthusiastic and the selection of goodies was as expected; tempting...Later this week I'll post with pictures of MY new goodies and knitting progress. Until then, knit on!
So let's start with the serious stuff. Deep fried pickles? My friend Jane tells me she had deep fried Twinkies at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and they were scrumptious. I can almost imagine that, but pickles? Am I too much of a New Yorker to deep fry my pickles? I think so...
Here is Isis, languishing with her second place ribbon. She looks fetching, yes? She was slightly wounded, but upon looking closely at the piece who beat her out for first place in her class, she grudgingly conceded that the best lace knitting won out.
I understand this piece is a design from A Gathering of Lace. It is knit in very fine Merino yarn and I am totally embarrassed to say I forgot to write the knitter's name down. If any of you know her name, please leave it in my comments. (Melody Parker Navarez is her name, I just found it; added 8:30pm) It is some high-end gossamer knitting.
The edging pattern is lovely. I need to buy me that book! It is one of the few lace books I don't have and I don't know why...
Not to be totally without blue, I did win a blue ribbon in another class, for my take on Evelyn Clark's Estonian scarf design. It appears the knitting judges liked cobweb-weight yarn this year. The yarn I used is from YarnTreehouse, and is one of the Chinese wool lace yarns with very long color repeats.
More blue, I show you the winner in the crochet class, made by my good friend Mary Harrington. Way to go! This is a delicious alpaca yarn. It looks even better on a person, if you can imagine that.
And last but not least, the blue ribbon in the youth class went to my lovely daughter, for her weaving. That kid can really weave, and her color sense is pretty good too. The fibers are a mix of cotton, wool and silk.
The weather was spectacular, the crowds were enthusiastic and the selection of goodies was as expected; tempting...Later this week I'll post with pictures of MY new goodies and knitting progress. Until then, knit on!
Congratulations on your and your daughter's successes! That is a pretty good crowd to do so well in!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It certainly was some very good work on exhibit. A lot of real technical skill to be seen there!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your ribbons at the festival! It was such fun to see your work in person. One problem with judging is the criteria; technical excellence seems to be more important than originality of design. Personally, I'd give higher marks for a new idea than for a flawless execution of someone else's design, given the amazing additional work and creative effort required to figure out, chart, rip, knit and conceive of an original design in the first place. You have two blue ribbons in my mind...
ReplyDeleteJeri,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your comment. It is true that judging technical skill and design skill in one class is like comparing apples to oranges. I think they look at difficulty of technique and quality of workmanship. I can't fault them! They had no negative things to say about my work, but they judge on technical difficulty and not originality. Maybe they will have a new class for original designs one year! I enjoy pushing my knitting skills further. I also think it is nice to show the non-knitting public what we do!
Congratulations! Wish I could see a better picture of your shawl...ahem.
ReplyDeleteThe one from GOL is the Mediterranean shawl. I thought about doing it, but it requires a lot of yarn. I made a sample and decided it was too big a project for the moment. Someday I'll give it another try. Thanks for the pix!
Congrats on all your ribbons! That spiral patterned shawl, is there a pattern for it?
ReplyDeleteI too am just blown away buy this lovely work! I just got directed to your blog from a friend and can I say WOW! Like the comment above mine I would be very interested in knowing if there is a pattern for the spiral shawl, it is STUNNING!
ReplyDeleteI second the desire to have a pattern for the crochet swirl shawl by Mary Harrington. I went looking for her using Google and her name + New York State Sheep and Wool but couldn't find anything.
ReplyDeleteIf you last three guys want a reply you must add your contact information to your comments...I will no longer spend time trying to find you if your comment is not linked to a reply address or does not include your email address in the text of the message. I tried to reply to the last comment, but your blog doesn't accept replies unless I join wordpress. Help me out here, because I don't want to join Wordpress! You can also look around Ravelry. That is a commercial pattern, I believe from Rowan. Mary knit it but did not design it.
ReplyDelete