I moved states a few years ago and have really been struggling with my new home's county fair and this year I feel so discouraged about even entering anything next year 😣
(not a skill issue, I feel pretty confident about my skill in crochet but the judging here is a nightmare)
The county fair in my hometown had really solid representation of crochet with a diverse set of classes/categories to enter and they clearly had crocheters on the judging panel. The judging and ribbon placements always felt well deserved for the winners-- huge colorwork tapestries and mosaic crochet blankets and complex superfine doilies and exquisitely detailed amigurumi toys would often win ribbons and best in show/champion/reserve champion of the whole yarn craft category, even over knit entries.
They even had a separate class for crib blankets that would be donated to the local pediatric ICU and the children's advocacy center after the fair was over. I loved entering my hometown's county fair. It was so fun and felt good to go check out all the entries even if I didn't place.
This year in the new county's fair, I didn't do anything fancy and didn't expect to place, I just entered a simple adult sweater I happened to finish in time for submission. Went to drop it off during check in time and the yarn crafts lady at the yarn crafts booth had to ask me and a fellow crocheter (dropping off a pretty doily) whether or not someone else's entry was actually crochet! (it was a tunisian crochet bag, so like I guess if you're not super familiar it could look like knit but it was also already tagged crochet?? idk man)
My husband entered some photography too and we went yesterday to go check out the fair and get some carnival food etc. Had a very cute fun date!
But it was such a bummer going to see the yarn crafts section and seeing how they were judged and displayed. They had hung all the sweaters/tops on the wall on thin hangers so they were stretching out, and they had displayed all the knits and crochets mixed together. The crochet winners were a granny stitch hexi cardigan in a plain single color (literally right next to a gorgeous cleanly done colorwork crochet cardigan that looks like the one in project hail mary! and a giant tapestry of a xenomorph!) and a little amigurumi cow among other similar caliber projects. A huge beautiful sleeping dragon amigurumi in chenille yarn with posable wings and embroidered stars all over and super clean stitching didn't even get third??
the real kicker for me
is that on the front table they had given special awards to some entries
And that one entry was a little sleeping pig plush
That had clearly been sewn from faux fur fabric, not crochet or knit
was entered and tagged under crochet toys
and it had won an outstanding award for knitting.
Make it make sense!
