The Great Minnesota Get-Together

Hello!  It has been a while since I posted on my blog....Northern Shores Knitting continues to turn out all sorts of hand-made goods, animals and custom dogs and cats.  This post, is about the MN STATE FAIR.  Years ago, I decided to enter something into the MN State Fair so I entered a kid's sweater that I had been knitting for one of my nieces (I Think).  It was a cotton cardigan with cute stripes on it.  I won a 4th place ribbon for it and was pretty proud.  What I didn't realize, before I entered the sweater, was that the workmanship and finishing techniques that go into the entry, scores as many, if not more, points than the design and functionality etc. and that sweater, I will freely admit, was not finished very professionally.  Right after that, I took a Finishing Class and now know the correct techniques for finishing knitted items.  Fast forward many years, and I decided the time was right again to enter a few things.  I am not as into knitting sweaters as used to be, but thought I could enter a few of my smaller creations.  I marched down to the state fair two Mondays before it opened and stood in line with a variety of people, all who had something "creative" to enter.  I saw birdhouses and scrapbooking pages and some sort of wooden instrument and crocheted afghans and on and on...

​I entered in four categories:  "Doll, ethnic, made and dressed by exhibitor; to represent a country or culture, single or pair."  In this category, I entered RAGNAR....

To my delight, he won a blue ribbon!!!

The next category was "Doll, made and dressed by exhibitor, representing a fictional storybook character."  In this category, I entered PETER...

To my delight, he won a BLUE RIBBON!!

The next category was "Toy animal, other than bear, (Group of 3 to 5) soft, stuffed, made of yarn or fabric.  In this category, I entered three lions...

To my delight, THEY WON A BLUE RIBBON!!  For some reason, when they were displayed, they were not put together in the showcase.....Oh well.

The last category was "Toy animal or figure, made by exhibitor of yarn, under 15 inches."  In this category, i entered ELLE.

Much to my delight, she won a RED (2nd) ribbon.  All in all, not too shabby if I do say so myself.  I will certainly try again next year.  I was really fun to be a part of the Great Minnesota Get-Together!