And the results are in!

Monday was the last day of the 2013 Minnesota State Fair. This also meant that today was the first day that I could pick up my socks and see what the judges had to say about them.

I was pleasantly surprised.


When I picked up the socks, the woman who brought them out to me said anyone who knits socks deserves an award. I thanked her and she told me to come back and enter something next year. I said I definitely was going to be back next year. As I walked away from the building to my car, I opened the judging sheet and saw this:

I turned around and walked back to the building. I asked what was a perfect score, which turns out to be 100. That seemed to be the instinctual answer but you can never know unless you ask. They seemed curious why I had asked and I told them that this was only my 4th or so pair of socks (it may actually be more than that, but details) and I was thrilled to have received a 94. I was closer to getting a ribbon than I thought I was! Turns out that there were a lot of really awesome textured socks this year. Next year I apparently need to do a harder pattern (Ha! I guess that it's okay since this was the "easy" Cookie A pattern from June) and to work on my kitchner stitch. There may also have been giggling when I got out of the building....

As I walked to the car I called my mom. I made her guess what score I got. She guessed 87. She was thrilled that I had done so well! She was definitely proud of my work.

Tomorrow I'll be wearing these socks to show them off at my knitting group. Of course, I've also got some building (as in lumber) to do tomorrow at work, so maybe I'll bring my socks and wear them to knitting group.

Better picture.

Artistic shot.

Trip to the State Fair

Thursday August 22nd was the opening day of the 2013 Minnesota State Fair. It was a lovely day, not too hot or humid, and there wasn't much going on at work, so I decided to take the day off to go to the Fair.

We parked on my side of the U of MN campus and walked over to the stadium that for a free shuttle ride. I had my knitting along.

Pedestriyarn: Here I am knitting and walking at the same time.

The first place we were going to go was the Creative Arts building to see how my socks had done. We got distracted but did eventually make it there. It took a bit to find them, but I did find them on display. No ribbon but I honestly didn't expect anything.

Pardon the bad reflection...

Wanted one, yes, but I know I'm still essentially a beginner and I know there were things that needed fixing on the socks. The heels weren't my best as it was my first time doing a short row heel. At least they were blocked, which there were many other socks displayed that weren't.

We walked around the building a little bit and looked at the amazing things that did win.

Then we headed out to get some food (I was still walking and knitting). Lunch was a very tasty Mexican sandwich (I don't remember what it's called and I didn't take a picture; food was too tasty smelling). We then headed over to the Eco Building to see some of the other Tesla owners. Husband ended up sucked into talking about the Tesla (it's really easy), so I wandered away with my knitting to look at some other things on site. An hour later I rescued him.

We ended the day by going to get cookies and milk. While we were at the "All You Can Drink" milk stand, I noticed a banner that declared Alpacas. Since I'd humored Husband by letting him get sucked into the Tesla vortex, he let me go over and bet the yarn and chat with the owners. I actually managed to not buy any yarn! This was the second place that there was yarn to pet. In the dairy barn, there was a booth with yarn and fiber for sale (I don't know why). I didn't realize it when I dragged Husband in to look at the butter sculptures.

I do feel very encouraged to work on my knitting and submit more items next year!