After tidying up some bits and pieces at home, we headed south for the afternoon to 'Do The Puyallup'. The Puyallup Fair is reputedly the sixth-largest fair in the US - large enough to have its own theme song!

First stop was the Home Arts pavillion, to see whether my afghan made an impression with the judges - very pleased to see a red second place ribbon!  The winning entry for the 'one piece' afghan category was a woven tartan design, which also scored Reserve Grand Champion. Grand Champion was a lovely aran pattern afghan ... I had thought about doing an aran design, but in the end settled on my ripple pattern instead. Lots more ideas for entries for next year! I also have a much better idea of the standard required in the different categories.

Grabbed a couple of obligatory corn dogs for lunch, and wandered around a lot of the food stalls, displays, rides and sideshows. Reminded us both of the Easter Show in Sydney or the Royal Melbourne Show at home - but without all the showbags!! I think we'll be back again next year

After joining the Crochet Guild of Puget Sound a few weeks ago, I volunteered to help demo and teach at a promotional afternoon in Bothell. The 'knit-out & crochet-out' is held each year around the US to promote knitting and crochet to the masses.

The drive up to Bothell was an adventure in itself - after carefully plotting the route in Mapquest and on our Navman navigation computer, I ended up completely lost and in the middle of suburbia. I ended up having to ring home to get Andy to find the phone number for the store, then ringing the store to try and get better directions. Ah, they're on the Bothell-Everett Highway! That helped a bit. Only about 90mins late . Felt much better after a couple of rows and a bit of a chat with everyone around the table.

The event was hosted by Carol from 'Spin Knitters', which used to be 'Columbine Yarns'. There were quite a few knitters and crocheters in the shop working on various projects, but not much in the way of students - I don't think we had one the entire afternoon! So I didn't get to try out my teaching skills - or demonstrate my lack thereof .

I'd brought in my latest project to work on, another design from one of my Vanna White books with some autumn leaves scattered on a beige background. Nearly finished, apart from stitching all the ends in from the colour changes ... that's going to take some time . Throughout the afternoon we also had a couple of door prize draws and a fashion show, and someone had brought a cake to share - yummo! So after a shaky start, I ended up really enjoying the afternoon!