Tulsa State Fair roundup

This morning we loaded up into the truck and make the trek up to the Tulsa State Fair!

Five hours later (!!!!) we trudged back out to the car, but we had a good time.

Of my eight entries, I got two first place ribbons, four second place ribbons, and two third place ribbons. That mean everything placed, which is great.

The first-place items:


This was the ONLY entry in the "lace" division, which didn't surprise me *at all* since the rules specified that it had to be made from size 20 thread or smaller. That's totally ridiculous, and since we have multiple lace items entered in the knitting category, I'm hoping we can get that changed next year. At least this little doily didn't take me long. LOL!

I got four second-place ribbons:


My socks are the grey, blue, and brown striped ones at the bottom.

My Stor Rund Dug is the cream shawl behind the gorgeous blue one. I'm rather surprised that my shawl didn't do better, but oh well. Denise's blue shawl is stunning, so that softened the blow. :-)

If I enter another ornament, I'll be sure to put it on a stand of some kind since it doesn't look as good sitting on a shelf. LOL!

And finally, I got two third-place ribbons:



Not too bad!

The kids had a great time on the rides, too.


All in all, we had a great time, but my feet sure hurt. LOL!

Tulsa State Fair stuff

I dragged the whole family up to the fair grounds and we turned in our fair entries.

I, of course, had tons of last-minute stuff to finish, the most-recent item being this bag:

I put a lining in it (deliberately long, because I'm anticipating that the outside will stretch a little as I use it). It's got a pocket on each side and in the side seam there are two lanyards with hooks for keys and my wallet, so that I can dig them out quickly.

I also (finally) finished my Hey Teach sweater, which is unfortunately too big (but not huge on me) so it's still wearable.

I'm calling this my Ridiculous Doily, for two reasons: 1.) it's done out of size 30 crochet thread; and 2.) it's done out of size 30 thread because the Tulsa State Fair category for "Lace" specified that said "lace" must be done out of size 20 thread or smaller.

Seriously.

It's pretty darn obvious that whoever came up with that ridiculous rule didn't pay attention to the nine entries in the "Knitting: Adult Accessories" category that were lace, and not ONE used "thread."

Thus, this is my Ridiculous Doily, made expressly to enter a knit item into that category:

I think it's around 14" across, although I didn't measure it before I turned it in.


The other last-minute project is my rubber-stamped scrapbook page, entered in the Rubber Stamping division. The rules stated that the entry had to be "70% stamped" so I stamped the brown paper, the tag, the ribbon, and the blue paper in the background.

Last week I posted about the flowers I was making using scrapbook paper, and here's the finished ornament:


I made a tassel out of gold embroidery floss and I think the whole project turned out really nicely. The tutorial can be found here (part 1; part 2 is at the end).

I just realized that I didn't take pics of the kids' Lego entries. Bad Mom! I'll be sure to take pics at the fair itself.

The fair opens September 30, so hopefully we'll hear pretty quickly after that if anything won.


The *best* part of the day, though, was meeting IndigoGentry and Saradippity, two of my fellow Ravelers. They're just as awesome as I thought they'd be.
I hope you're all having a great weekend!

Family Trek to the Fair

As promised, here's the post about the family trip to the fair.

We ended up going on Saturday, October 10. It was fairly cold and we finally got our act together and got to the park and ride shuttle around 11:30. Here we are on the bus:




One of the first things we saw was an area for fishing, and the kids really wanted to try. Because the water was so cold the fish were really sluggish, so they didn't catch anything, but they had a good time trying.

After fishing, the kids were dying to ride one of the rides, and they chose this one:

I think they really enjoyed it (despite Ryan's serious face).

After that we wandered toward the kids' building and came across this neat display in the Made in Oklahoma building:

I took three pictures and pasted them together to make sure I got as much detail as I could. We think our pecans are the Squirrels' Delight ones.

In one of the animal buildings we came across a woman holing a bunny and I couldn't resist taking a picture:



The kids rode two more rides on the way out. One was a climbing thing:


And the other was a roller-coaster-type ride. Gillian loved every second of it, but Ryan was kind of touch and go judging from his expression. At the end he said he really like it and would definitely ride it again.



All in all it was a very pleasant time. There were tons of people coming in as we were leaving so we timed it just right!

Tulsa State Fair wrap-up post

I've been a bit scattered lately, but I finally got the pictures ready for this post.

My friend Calista and I went to the fair on Monday, October 5, just the two of us (NO KIDS!) and had a great time looking at all of the Creative Arts stuff. We spent about an hour and a half just looking. It was great!

We found the kids' stuff first.

Gillian's Lego kit entry:


Gillian's decorated T-shirt entry:


Gillian's weaving:

Ryan's drawing:


Gillian's drawing:


Ryan's Christmas ornament:


Then we wandered over to the Creative Arts exhibit area and found my stuff (and Calista's, but she's got pictures elsewhere).

My quilt (which will be going to Karen for her birthday, which was in January):


My socks (at the top):

The Sweepstakes winner for knitting (Rori's Hey Teach sweater is the blue one on the right):


My broomstick-lace-ish crocheted scarf, next to the first place winner (not sure why that one got first, but it's not up to me LOL):

My crocheted hot pad, which was in the Crocheted Article, under 24" division:

And my Hyrna Herborgar shawl, center bottom:

Last but not least, here's my rubber stamp entry, in the scrapbook page category:


Here's a view of the glass cases:

Everything still smells like fair food (fried), but at least they're secured in the cases.

These were some really neat baskets that I loved:


And finally, Calista and me:

I'll post pics of the family excursion to the fair a little bit later!

Fair opened this evening

I'm knee-deep in quilts to be done, but for those who are wondering how I did at the fair, I have a couple of results thanks to Kim, who was there tonight.

My socks got first place, and Calista's got second. Yay!

My crocheted scarf got a second place.

My shawl got nothing, which was a bit of a surprise, so I'm eager to see what got ribbons! I'm sure my friend Denise's gorgeous silk Aeolian shawl got sweepstakes.

I still don't know how the kids did, or how well my crocheted trivet, quilt, and rubber stamped scrapbook pages did, but I suspect they didn't get anything.

I'm eager to go see everything!

Fair Entries

I managed to get all of the fair entries delivered, at last! The kids' stuff was due last Saturday, and my stuff was due the previous Saturday. I swear I was working on fair stuff right up to the last minute.

Here's what I entered:

Hyrna Herborgar from handspun, in the "Adult, any other clothing or accessory, knit" category


My second Quilted Lattice socks, in the "Socks, knit" category


My broomstick lace-ish scarf, in the "Adult, any other clothing or accessory, crochet" category


A trivet, in the "Any other crochet article under 24”" category


"Rubber stamping, scrapbook page" category

And a quilt that'll go to my sister after the fair:


Now comes the waiting to find out how I did! The fair opens the day after tomorrow, although I doubt we'll be going that night. I know a few of my friends are going then, so hopefully they'll report back.

Fair Results (mine and others') *VERY LONG*

We made it to the Tulsa State Fair today, and we all had a great time.

We got smart and took the free shuttle. That is DEFINITELY the way to go! Not only was it fast and easy, but we didn't have to pay $10 for parking then still have to hike to the fairgrounds. I highly recommend it.

I was so proud of the kids--they made it for 3 1/2 hours! We started at the Sugar Art Show, then the Creative Arts display, then we got corn dogs and a yummy cherry-aid and strawberry-aid (lemon-lime soda with cherry and strawberry juice) before heading to the Just for Kids area. After that we went to the petting zoo, then back through the midway to the Sugar Art area where the kids decorated two graham crackers. I didn't get any pictures because I was in the middle of the cake display. That's the quick summary, and what follows is the long version with pictures.


Here's Mattie's cake, (DJ's daughter). She did great!

This is DJ's entry. It's all from sugar! No real flowers. Isn't it beautiful?


These two cakes cracked me up. I assume they're for a baby shower. Not quite what I'd want, but it takes all kinds.


The flowers on the cakes (and the cakes themselves!) were amazing.


These aren't real roses, if you can believe it.


From the Sugar Art Show we went to find all my stuff. Here's my Black and Tan with a Little Spice quilt, which got a first-place ribbon:


My Floral Fantasy got a second:


Here's Rori's Ice Queen, which got a third. The "Adult knit clothing/accessory" category is a FULL one and she should be really proud!


Here's my Rose of England shawl, which got first and Sweepstakes for Hand Knit articles:


And my handspun got first and Sweepstakes, but I think it was the ONLY entry in the handspun category. That makes me really, really sad because we have a lot of very talented spinners in this area.


Here's Gillian's Wallaby sweater, which took a second place. Hey now, whose sweater got that blue ribbon? RORI!!! YAY, RORI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


My socks got first place. Those are Dawn's socks in the background (you can just see the toe) and Emma's socks took second. (I'm not sure why mine got first and hers second, because I think that pattern is more difficult than the one I did.)


Here you can see Rori's socks (top left) as well as some of the crocheted entries:


Here's my necklace, the one hanging over the edge of the table:

It got a second place, which I'm quite happy with. I hadn't ever entered anything in that category.

Rounding out the entries, here's my rubber-stamped card which didn't win anything. The ones that did win were spectacular!


After the Creative Arts building we headed out to the Just for Kids building, via the midway where we got corndogs:


and then went to the Just for Kids building where they had a great time building:

They added onto something that had been started at 10:30 that morning. Quite impressive!

Then we found the kids' entries.

Here's Gillian's artwork:


and Ryan's artwork:


and finally, Gillian's weaving, which took a second place. I'm so proud!



After the Just for Kids building we headed over to the barns and the petting zoo area.

The kids fed all sorts of animals and saw some Cavies, whose pen had a Jackalope sign. I kept hearing people calling the Cavies "Jackalopes" which totally cracks me up, because where I grew up Jackalopes are a taxonomists' creation to fool gullible tourists.

Here's the sign in the pen, just to clarify about Cavies (click to embiggen, as with all the photos):

And here are the Cavies:

Gillian fed a camel:

And her awesome Dad helping Gillian feed baby goat:


They also petted a HUGE cow-like animal although I didn't see a sign on its pen. It was really friendly and obviously loved attention. Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures.

After the animal pen (and thorough hand washing), we headed over to where Dawn, Janae and Brittney were working and the kids went through the Fun on the Farm. They were thrilled to have "earned" a bag of chips and yogurt bar.

We slowly made our way back to the Creative Arts building (we ran into Donna Titsworth and her daughter on the way) and the kids decorated a graham cracker with icing. It turned out that they got two of the last three graham crackers! I didn't get pictures of them decorating them or eating them, but they told me all about it.

After that we headed back out to the shuttles, hopped on a bus and got back on our way to Broken Arrow.

After dinner we had a little fire in our fire bowl outside and really enjoyed it.

Now we're tired and I'm heading to bed! Have a great Monday, everyone!