The Grange Fair Started - On a Day Full of Surprises!

My brother and I went to the grange fair yesterday. One of my sisters and her husband are there this week, selling water ice to the crowds. I wish them some great water-ice weather – hot and sunny – and lots of customers!

I stopped in the needlework building and checked out all the needlecraft items that had been submitted for judging. There were beautiful handmade dresses and skirts, afghans, quilts, dolls and toys, table runners and placemats, potholders and purses. I had three crocheted entries in this year. My crochet mojo left me a while back so I wasn’t able to complete all the projects I had hoped to have. I was lucky to have 3 to enter. However, I was pleased with the results. My giraffe-ghan won a blue ribbon. Justin’s “forever pants” with the matching sweater and hat won a second place red ribbon, and the women’s crocheted hat I worked up also won a first place. I’m anxious to pick up my items at the end of the fair. I often find comments written by the judges on the backs of the entry tags. I’m curious to see if they had any suggestions or if they liked any particular attribute for any of my projects.










A second surprise awaited me when I returned home from the fair. I found a box addressed to me from Simon and Schuster. I didn’t remember ordering any books recently, with the exception of a few patterns from Annie’s Attic. But it’s too soon for those to have been delivered and they wouldn’t have come from S&S. So I opened the box to find two advance copies of the upcoming Crochet 2010 Calendar (formerly called Crochet Pattern A Day). Two of my original patterns have been included in the calendar! I’ve been published! I’m excited to see them in print, especially since one of them also includes my original photos. I don’t receive royalties for the use of my patterns, but at least I retain the copyrights, so the patterns will always remain mine. One of the patterns is for a toddler-size ripple poncho and hat, and the other is a Christmas Mouse/Cat Toy (done in a standing position).

Another surprise – my dear husband pulled out all of the dead marigolds in the front yard and replaced them with colorful mums! I love him dearly – he’s so good to me. There are still a few marigolds left with flowers on them, and I will be pulling off the blossoms when they are finished and drying the seeds for planting next year. I really loved those creamy white marigolds and will miss them, but the mums are cheerful and will look lovely!

Since my desire to crochet has waned in the last 6 months, I haven’t spent that much time with hook and yarn. I did complete the 3 items mentioned earlier for the fair, some charity items for my sister, doll clothes for my great-niece, and tried to work on the sweetheart ripple to complete it. I know that sounds like a lot of crocheting, but really – for me – it’s not. I have been known to spend every waking minute crocheting, including my time during lunch at work. And definitely all weekends. But I’ve been doing a lot of reading instead, and I sat down yesterday to figure out how much reading I’ve been doing. 14 novels in the last 6 months! Thank God for the Kindle. That’s 14 novels I don’t have to make room for in my house. The best of the books I’ve read has to be “Nights in Rodanthe” by Nicholas Sparks. If you haven’t read it, I recommend it.