Country Women's Association: Craft Fair.

Before Easter this year I had decided I was going to “go nuts” and enter a whole bunch of things into the Country Women's Association State Craft Fair this August. Due to a rather large number of things going wrong with my hands since March this isn't happening any more.

Mainly because, unlike the group craft fair that happened in March, the state fair is, well, state wide. There's bound to be more entries. Enough that mine won't be missed if I leave it for a year or two.

I had planned on a rather extensive list of crafts to enter. I'm still going to make them all, I'm just going to take a bit longer and document them all on here first.

So. A list first. Numbered with the CWA listing in the entry form to make it easier for myself to find and tag them later. (If I had more than a month to get it all finished I'd still enter a bunch,, but it's too close.) Since everything will be photographed and documented along the way, I'll keep adding the links in on this post as the new blog post is put up as well.

Handicrafts

Bags

7. Embroidered
8. Knitted/crocheted
9. Patchwork

Canvas

17. Long Stitch

Craft, other techniques

36. Floor rug or mat, any other type

44. Pin cushions, 3 distinct techniques, boxed

50. Something new from something old

Crochet

53. Baby's Garment
54. Child's Garment
55. Booties, 3 pair, distinct pattern, boxed
56. Adult Garment

61. Rug
62. Shawl/wrap/shrug/snood
63. Headwear
64. Accessory set, 2 pieces. Eg hat and scarf or hat and gloves etc
65. Scarf

Cushion

68. Embroidered

Dressmaking

78. Apron, themed

Dyeing/Spinning/felting

102. Felting – Knitted

Embroidery

112. Cross stitch – stitched area 30cm and under

Knitting

151. Child's Garment
152. Baby's Garment
153. Baby's Set
154. Bootees, 3 pair, distinct styles, boxed
155. 
     
156. Headwear
157. Accessory set, 2 pieces, eg. Hat and scarf etc
158. Article using 2 or more different coloured yarns
159. Pair of socks
160. .
161. Scarf
162. Shawl/wrap/shrug/snood
163. Tea Cosy, creative
164. Knitted cotton/garment/article

Toy

196. Character – name character
197. Crochet
198. .
199. Knitted
200. Set of related toys
201. Soft and safe for baby

See. And awful lot of things to get finished. And right now I have.....2 things finished to my standards of entry. This is what happens when you have an allergic reaction to an ant bite on your left hand, followed by a bee sting on your right hand, followed by a fall that resulted in 2 weeks of plaster and a following 4 so far of your left hand being strapped up immobile. This year has been less than good starting from about the 8^th of March. Please ignore the numbers that don't have anything written, my word program is having issues with leaving out a number in a numbered series.

Understandably, the crafts that come up in the blog posts that are coming will be as I make them, not in numbered list order that appears here. Mainly because... well.. the crocheted Headwear is already done, and technically the knitted scarf is as well. But due to a weak left hand, and being a left hander for crochet, the knitted stuff will likely get done before the crochet, I'm still working on the rug at #36, because it's a whole bunch of plaiting, and pulling it hard enough to not come undone is painful as well. The knitted Shawl is under way however and it's a third of a 3 part set, the other two parts will be entered as a “set of 2” but I'm not decided on whether I'm going to knit or crochet them as yet.

One last thing before I go start the individual crafted blogs. I am NOT good at making up my own patterns. Not for anything beyond dishcloths anyway. So I will either link to the exact place I got a pattern from, or in the case of me getting it from a book, give credit to the book itself. Having said that, if you find I have posted something and NOT given credit to someone (and if by chance I write my own, I will claim it fairly blatantly) and you know who SHOULD have credit, please poke me and I'll get it fixed.

Crotchet: New year, new skills

I have been trying to learn to crotchet for many years now. There are things that are easier to do with crotchet than with knitting and the multitude of small end balls of wool that I have in a stash are much more suited for crochet than for knitting.

So I decided that this year I was going to learn how to do it properly, even if it meant that I was going to have to pay someone to teach me how to do it. So when the local community centre ran a crotchet course for beginners I decided to bite the bullet and sign myself up.

Turns out that the reason no one in my family could teach me was because although I am right handed in everything else, I crochet left handed. You have to flip everything for me which is why it didn't make sense when they tried to teach me.

Nana! It wasn't your teaching, it was my learning cack handed!

And even more fun, I went to the Country Women's Association State Fair and was sitting with a bunch of ladies having an impromptu lesson in making crochet flowers and all of a sudden a lovely lady reached over my shoulder and corrected how I was actually doing it. Turns out I was "knitting crochet" instead of actually crocheting.

Expect crocheted items to start appearing - when I get my camera to work properly again and can give photo goodness.

Cooking: Potato Wedges

If you're anything like me, your kids like chips. I don't know about you but deep fried foods don't do it for me anymore - ever since the doctor told me that as a 5'2" woman I should only weigh about 55 kilograms... Not the 109kg I was when she had me on the scales. So a lot of foods went out the door right quick. Fried fish and chips were the first to go.

But having read the packets for those frozen chips you oven bake... they're fried before they're frozen half the time. So how to do it yourself so they're ONLY baked, with as little oil as humanly possible.

First off the potato. We use washed Chats - because they're the ones we use for everything since there's only me and a 10 year old who doesn't eat. Small spuds = small portions. So a chat makes 8 wedges when you cut it up.

Next, the spices. I've got something called "Season All Salt" from McKormics I think it is, so I use that, mixed herbs and a little bit of Turmeric.

How to combine them? Sandwich bags! Use bigger freezer bags if you're doing more than the 5 spuds I do at a time but as I said, there's only 2 of us so portions are tiny. Spices and herbs to taste, chuck the cut wedges in the bag, close it up and shake lots to coat everything.

And stick them on a tray and bake. Or leave them in the bag and stick in the freezer - then when it's Fish and Chips night shake them onto the tray and cook from frozen. I've got 5 bags in the freezer at the moment - because we don't eat enough spuds to get through 5kg before they go off and at $1.50 a bag of 5kg - occasionally it's easier and cheaper to buy and freeze ready to cook portions.