Our State Fair

I'll take a little break from catch up posts to tell you about our visit to the Minnesota State Fair. We think it's the best state fair. Certainly it ranks right up there and it sure is fun. This year I entered 3 things in the competitions. Two pieces of tatting - I won a first for the wreath Christmas ornament in the upper right hand corner (picture taken through glass so it's not very clear) and a second for the earrings in the lower right. I also was brave and entered the very competitive knitting category. I knew that there were so many entries in knitting that my chances of winning anything were slim to none and indeed I didn't place, but I'll be interested to see what the judge says about it. I entered the Vine Flower Dress that I made for Abigail. I didn't even take a picture of it at the fair. It took me a long time to spot it and it wasn't displayed so you could see it very well - understandable when you saw how much knitting there was to display. The yarn that I used was hard to splice without it being obvious and I'm sure they'll note that. Here is Abigail wearing it. It turned out so cute - of course the model helps too!!


The fair is a good place to people watch. I spotted this young man - think he's a little bitter?


And of course there is the food. My daughter suggested we try the deep fried "gourmet" pickle chips. I'm glad I shared them with the Compadre. I'm sure that my arteries will thank me! This must have been the year to go to the fair (staycations and all that) because it was more crowded than I've ever seen it. When we went into the food building to get the pickle chips it was so full that we couldn't move. More than a little claustrophic! I wonder what the fire marshall would have said. I was glad to get out of that building.

We go to the fair every year. I don't always enter my things in it but it's always more fun when I can look for my entries and see them displayed.

I Can Tat too

I've been tatting for too many years to count. But since I discovered the tatting community on the web I have been learning and enjoying it much more. I've found many good friends through the tatting community and spend way too much time trolling for patterns and reading my Here Be Tatters mailing list. And I do actually tat occasionally.

Last night I went to the Minnesota Lace Society meeting and when we had "show and share" as usual I didn't have any thing to show. I had given away the tatted cross that I made when I was in Maryland to Eric's mother in a sympathy card. Now that I'm fairly sure she has gotten it I can show you it. I've made this cross before and I really like it. It's done in size 20 thread from the book Tatted Bookmarks - cross shaped by Lene Bjorn.



Tatting is a very economical art to practice. That is if you don't have to have every pattern book and kind and color of thread out there like I do. It takes a long time to work through a ball of thread. This is what I have left out of a ball of size 20 cebelia thread. It's one of my favorite threads to work with - easily available and tats easily. Now that's a lot of tatting for about 4 dollars, most of it given away (unfortunately a lot of crosses in sympathy cards).

I remember my first meetup with my tatting friends that I met online someone said that their husband was worried about finding people online and then meeting them in person. You know, maybe the tatting ax murderer was out there. We got a chuckle out of that. I know knitting and tatting people are the best! Just think - Amy and I went to a knitting night in Delaware absolutely sure that we'd meet up with kind generous people - and we did. Amy now has new friends in her area because of knitting. Tatting is like that too - and maybe more so because there are fewer of us. If you meet a tatter out in the wild it's like you've met a rare and precious species. That's not to say that tatting is "a lost art". There are many people that tat and many generous people on the internet sharing patterns, videos of how to tat, and just plain cyber friendship. So tatting keeps growing. There will be a class at Double Ewe on tatting in March, taught by my friend Jane. I'm sure we will get a few more to join the tatting community. I always have my tatting with me when I go to the open knitting times at Double Ewe, and I'm always willing to help anyone with questions.