You Be The Judge

When I posted how I did this year at the fair, I forgot about one of the contests I entered. Every year our fair has a contest called "You Be The Judge". Every year there is a different charity that we make something for and the fairgoers vote on their favorite. At the end of the fair, they tally the votes, give out prizes (usually a Jo Ann's gift certificate and a plaque) and give the items to the organization chosen that specific year. Items made in the past have been walker bags, baby items, cancer caps, etc.

There are four ways you can win. The most votes on children's day (the day children get in free), the most votes on Golden Year's Day (the day seniors get in free), the favorite of the Home Arts Building workers and Most Popular Vote (most votes gathered over the entire fair). The nice thing about this contest is even if you're not the best at construction, no one will really ever know. Judging is mainly based on how it looks from a distance. No one is allowed to touch or handle the item so if your seams aren't perfect or your knitting gauge is off, no one will ever know. It's a great contest for those who are just learning a skill.

This year's contest was to make hats, mittens, scarves, etc. for school children for winter. (Yes, I believe it will get cold eventually) The items could be sewn, knit, crocheted-whatever the maker chose, just as long as it would fit a school age child. My items would have fit a small kindergartner, but I doubt anyone much older would have wanted to wear them.

I am proud to announce that I won the most popular vote this year. Below is a re-creation of what I made:

Why a re-creation? Well they gave the original ones I made away of course! The above set I made for Ellie for her birthday. I used two patterns with some adaptations. The hat and the bear face design came from McCalls 9084 (oop). It's actually a baby pattern so I had to make the hat a bit bigger, but not much. I used this pattern when I taught head start to make all of my students hats and mittens and they fit perfectly. I used a different mitten pattern than what was in the pattern because I needed the mittens to be a bit larger. For the mittens I used the Easy Mittens pattern by Timberlane press and added the ears, etc from the McCall's pattern. I added the pink bows. I don't know if you can tell, but I added ears to the hat as well.

Here's Ellie modeling her birthday present:Now we just need some cooler temperatures for her to wear them outside!!!

Next year's contest is to make book bags for the Head Start program in our public schools. I have the sheet with all the specs somewhere and already have some ideas.