The MKG has received a very nice note from the State Fair Judges that I would like to share with all our members. Cudos to all of our members who entered items in the 2024 Minnesota State Fair! I was in awe of all of the beautiful workmanship, we sure made their job hard this year!
The fair is going on and soon all the guild members will see the results of this year’s judging. Some will be disappointed, and some will be happy. Everyone should be proud of what they submitted as there were many outstanding entries this year which made our job very difficult. This year there were 610 knitted pieces submitted, a record number. The average for the past 18 years is 506 pieces. The overall quality of the submissions is getting higher every year as more and more knitters are challenging themselves to do more complicated pieces and are doing a better job of finishing their work.
Please share with your members that many lots had 20 submissions or more and as a result these lots are especially competitive. The high submission lots were: Shawls (lace weight), mitten color, hat texture, hat color/intarsia (over 30), sock plain, sock texture, adulty pullover plain, adult pullover texture, adult pullover (limited texture), adult cardigan (limited texture), adult pullover (limited color) sleeveless vest, and cowls.
As your member start to think about next year, please remind them that very often the difference between a ribbon or not comes down to the fine details like a few threads that were not worked in, uneven seaming, or blocking that was not done or not done properly. Every detail is looked at very carefully when the ribbons are decided.
We encourage everyone to submit their work to the fair no matter what the results. Their work will be seen by hundreds of thousands of fair goers and that alone is a great accomplishment and tribute to their work.
The knitting judges at the Minnesota State Fair.
Cheers to more great knitting in 2024!
Meg Duncan
President
Minnesota Knitters Guild
After growing up in the city and suburbs, the owners of Get Bentz Farm felt a need to be closer to nature and to be more connected to where their food came from. 
