Saturday 12 September 2015

162nd Harrow Fair

For some reason I think that September is the start of the new year.  I don't make resolutions in January, I make them in September.  September for me is the start of new beginnings. Here it is September 2015 and I want to start something new.

For me that also means that I want to start a new challenge.  The 161st Harrow Fair has just ended and I looked at all the beautiful exhibits in the needle arts displays.






I was inspired.  There were also quilts but I am a Knitter so no photos of quilts today.  Of course there was way more entries than I have shown in the photos.  I just wanted to give you a taste of the scope of what the Harrow Fair offers for needle crafters.

My challenge:

There are 48 categories for knitting at the 2015 fair.  Some of these are for seniors 65+ years.  I have not got there yet.  Some are for beginners and some are for advanced.  Advanced and beginners does not relate to your skill or how long you have been knitting.  For the beginner categories it means that you can enter until you win in that category, then you become advanced.  At least it used to.  Now I understand that the exhibitor can choose whether he or she thinks of themselves as a beginner or an advanced knitter and enter either but cannot enter both the beginner and the advanced category.  

I am eligible to enter 42 of the 48 categories and my goal for the 2016 fair is to enter all 42 of the knitting categories plus the one or two new categories that are created each year.  I just hope that I don't spend too much effort on a category that disappears next year.

I think this is a crazy amount of knitting to achieve in a year.  I was telling this to one of the Needle Arts Directors how crazy I thought this was until she told me about T who comes every year with suitcases and laundry baskets full of entries.  She enters knitting, crocheting, sewing and maybe even a quilt or two and pretty much enters each and every category for Needle Arts.  T claims that she does not go out much.  I admire T and am envious of the time she can spend expressing her creativity.

I am not yet retired like T so I think 42 entries is a major challenge. Especially since I think the best I have done is maybe 14?  I only managed to put in 13 entries this year.  Mind you, I have probably given away close to 42 items over the past year as Christmas and birthday gifts.  So to any of my family reading this, don't expect the usual socks, hats etc for Christmas or your birthday for the upcoming year.  

The Rules

Harrow Fair

Must be clean, new and smoke-free;
Must be completed since the last fair; and
Must be at the fair by 9:00pm Wednesday August 31, 2016.

My Rules

Must be started since the last fair;
Must be something I can use, or give as a gift.
For the adult items, must fit me or a family member; and
Yarn must come from my stash whenever possible.

I have committed to myself and to you to blog at least once a week to update you on my progress.

For the next year we will discuss the progress of the entries.  Tell stories about the yarn and pattern choices.  There will be photos.  Most of all, I hope there will be lots of laughter but I also expect there will be some tears as well.

I hope you will join me on this crazy train.

3 comments:

  1. Ha. You know most of it won't come from your stash. Your stash, which occupies our entire basement, grows every year. Pretty soon it will need a home of its own.

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  2. That's an entry a week with 10 weeks leftover for dithering, ripping, or long projects. Wayne, she'll have to knit from the stash, there'll be no tome for yarn shopping.

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  3. Don't listen to them, Mary Jane. Keep on trucking. They're jealous of your stash. No, no, I'm not an enabler :)

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