Machine Knitting Entries in NC State Fair 2014

Each year I have high hopes of entering each of the machine knitting categories of the NC State Fair. They have now expanded the categories to 7! What a challenge to enter each of the 7 categories. Well, this year I succeeded in getting all 7 items finished!!

Well, here they are. 6 of them got First Place/Blue Ribbons, and one got Second Place/Red Ribbon. Of the First Place items two also got Best of Show (meaning best of the machine knitted garments, and best of the machine knitted household items).  The state gives a small money award for each First, Second, and Third place winners, which ranges from $25 for an afghan to $9 for a clothing item. Also our Triangle Machine Knitters provides the prize money for each of the Machine Knit Best of Show items....so I won $25 for each of my Best of Show, besides what ever the State gives me. I am just rolling in dough....hahahaha!

 The lady's top, above, is a lace and garter carriage item done from a pattern by Danis McWest.

 The white blanket with the pink ruffle was made with one strand of 2/24 yarn in a double bed tuck pattern on the Passap. The ruffle was two strands of 2/24 done on the brother 965i, using a pattern from Enchanted Edgings by Diana Sullivan.

 The Minion hat was an original design. Okay, I browsed Ravelry in the hand knitting department and adapted what I found from various sources. I knit this on my brother 260. For the eyes I followed the pattern for knitting flowers! I made many of these hats and have sent the others off to charity. Some of my minions have only one eye, which is crocheted.

 This red and white afghan was done on the Passap, using one of Michael Becker's Passap afghan patterns. It spreads out very wide after taking it off the km because it is knit in a double bed tuck stitch pattern. That afghan is spread out on my fake king sized bed (two twins together). I need to remember that when I download a design from DAK, the colors get reversed! I meant the background color to be red and the design to be white! Oh, well, it looks fine as it is!

 My toddler's pullover was a basic shape done in stockinette on the 260. I shaped the sleeves because I like set in sleeves. I made sure that the neckline would go over my head, just to be sure that it would not bother a pre-pr
eschooler. The stars are just buttons, which add more color and dimension to the sweater, as does the white-blue-white stripes on the sleeves.

 This blanket-buddy has a story behind it. I had knit a baby afghan with the gc on the 965i and it was very soft, but boring. I needed something to enter in the "machine knit household item enhanced" category. I had been browsing on Ravelry and saw many hand knit or crocheted blankets with a stuffed animal head attached. These are for toddlers to hang onto for comfort....or to drag around. So I searched for how to knit a bunny head, and found one for handknitting, on Ravelry. I knit the head while riding in the van coming back from the Fingerlakes Machine Knitting Seminar in NY. I realized that the blanket needed something to tie the head to the general item, or to unify it in color, so I decided to crochet around it. I tried many styles (okay just two!) and settled on this one. I crocheted the edging while we were on a cruise in the Caribbean. So this machine knit blanket is enhanced with hand knitting and with crochet.
By the way, the crochet looked really rough and uneven until I steamed it to block it!

Front and Back of Table Runner shown below.

My Table Runner was made of Wool Crepe Deluxe and Skinny Magisty , both dress yarns. I did this on the Passap e6000 with one of the built in designs. It might be a mosaic or maze pattern.

I had fun creating these items for the NC State Fair. Next year I hope more machine knitters enter. These were definitely not perfect, but I tried very hard to cover my mistakes. The judges found only some of them!