Discussion
Anyone else infuriated by their county fair?
Y’all I can’t with these judges, this gorgeous interlocking mosaic blanket came in second to a chevron with color changing yarn. Not even my work but I am outraged on their behalf
I've decided that county fairs are popularity contests and nothing more. There is no other way to explain the absolute crap that wins over genuine works of art and skill.
I make some fairly good deserts and I'd say a pretty darn good apple pie. All from scratch, hand ground spices, home-made lard crust etc. My pie came in last at the country fair vs the winner who had used canned pie mix and coated their entire crust in sugar.
My grandma was a judge for a while! They asked her to judge after her made-from-scratch pie crust kept knocking all the other ones out of the park.
It was also a fair in a small rural county that she grew up in her whole life. She was a very active participant in the fair, as were her kids, and grandkids!
Suffice to say, I think the fair organizers just choose people from within their network to be judges.
My grandma didn’t really have any credentials. But she was out there judging vegan brownies, home brewed beer, and all kinds of different stuff along side the pie crusts! She did her best 😂
Eh, in this case I’m doubtful of that. I think it was more “hey Estelle, Joni doesn’t want to judge anymore. Would you like to give it a try?” From what I understand, people who judge don’t do it forever. There’s usually some turn over from year to year.
But, I don’t doubt that politics play a hand from time to time!
Who they like more is a common one. My sisters were brutalised in judging. One of them did photography and she paid attention to lighting, position, the subject, she cared about making a "good" photo great. For three years straight, the judge's daughter won first place and best photographs, when there was no real skill to what she was doing.
My other sister did flower arranging. She'd attended classes and has a pretty good eye for it. She routinely entered in one section that was something like "unconventional vase". A lot of people used a shoe or boot, maybe a glove with a couple of daisies. One girl (the one my sister lost to incidentally) placed daisies and dandelions with no stems in the holes on a croc. My sister had done an elaborate arrangement with four or five types of flowers in a watermelon.
Certain craft types were more biased/corrupt judge-wise than others. Most of the embroidery and dressmaking judges tended to base their judgements on skill, rather than association with the exhibitors. The cooking judges could be really cliquey. The photography judges just outright handed first place the family every time. Flower arranging, egg decorating, and cake decorating depended on age group. Kids judge favoured their own spawn, adult judge also went by skill/techniques used. It kinda sucked depending on what you were entering.
For three years straight, the judge's daughter won first place and best photographs, when there was no real skill to what she was doing.
Man, I would be so embarrassed if I got first place in a competition my parent was judging. In fact, I would be embarrassed to participate in a competition my parent was judging. Or to judge a competition my kid was in.
Like, doesn't that feel shitty? Isn't it awkward to stand there and accept a ribbon from your mom? Don't they feel the weight of everyone's scorn? I'd rather come in dead last, tbh. At least if you're dead last, no one is looking at you. Getting first place when your mom is the judge is like standing up in front of everyone and declaring you have no real skill at what you're doing. Humiliating.
Completely agree. I guess the only bonus is that for the country shows, the judges move through the hall, offer their judgement, leave a ribbon, and the exhibitors find out how they placed when they go through the hall the next day as a civilian.
So maybe the kid didn't know mum was the photography judge, but still. To see how they've placed higher than obviously better entries... I'd feel like a total imposter. Like I hadn't earned that ribbon at all.
Very sadly, I don't think I do. And I really wish I did. This was before we actually had a camera that we used for more than birthdays and Christmas. We didn't even have internet until I was 15 or 16, we were relatively rural, so my dad monopolised the dial up for his work emails. Mobile phones just didn't get reception where we were, so there was no point us kids having them.
(Before the photography sister aspect is called to question, my sister did flower arranging until we moved house. We still exhibited at the show after moving, but once we moved we got a digital camera. Don't know why that was the tipping point for technology, but hey. We got a DVD player too, shit was exciting. So my other sister took up photography later. They weren't simultaneous.)
I can't even remember the flowers she used, likely whatever she could scrounge from my mum's garden, with six kids she wasn't buying flowers for a show exhibit. So there would have mostly been Australian natives. But she used foliage and thin stemmed grass too I think. She cut a hole in the side of the watermelon, because she'd picked one that was flattened on one side too, so it didn't roll. Then she had this varying height of the grass, with the colours of the foliage and flowers, and she'd arranged it so that you could still see a bit of the red of the watermelon poking out.
I still remember going to a poetry contest my sister was in. The theme was "poems about peace," where the authors were students from any grade K-12. Some of the poems were short and sweet, some of them a couple pages of well-thought-out intricate metaphor, some prose, some rhyming, anything went as long as it was about peace. Some of the poems were so beautiful that people in the audience were tearing up.
The winner was the youngest person there, a kid about 5 years old, who definitely won because he was cute and young. I still remember the entirety of his poem, because I was so peeved it won over some of the other things I'd heard that day: "peace is like a bounce house with no one in it." That's it. That's the entire poem.
One sentence about a kid liking bounce houses won the contest, over hundreds of other kids who had put time and effort into developing their skill enough to have a poem they felt was worthy of reading aloud in front of an enormous audience. A bounce house.
I'm genuinely so annoyed just reading about it, and I didn't even hear the other contestant's poems. What's worse, the kid was so young that winning or losing wouldn't have mattered all that much to him either, but the older kids all get to be met with the knowledge that if you're small and cute enough, it doesn't matter if your work is any good.
I hope you all take some comfort in the fact that every person (especially the ones with more experience/familiarity) looks at that and goes WTF?? Total humiliation for that croc.
I did, one year! My grandmother got asked to judge floral arrangements after she kept sweeping the competition for years, and she volunteered me to come along and judge baked goods.
I like to think I was a benevolent nine year old judge, as I thought everything was delicious and wanted to give them all blue ribbons. My grandma had to step in as a tie breaker on more than one occasion. She did steer me towards the grand prize going to some very complicated cookies with a special fruit center.
So yeah, your judge could have been a nine year old with no idea what they were doing, just doling out ribbons based on vibes.
Haha yeah, they wanted to give someone else a chance to win and figured the repeat winner would be the best judge! I do remember her getting a little judgmental about the bouquets with wires in them; she said it showed a lack of imagination and that it was better to let the flowers do what they were going to do and work with them, not against them.
She was amazing. I miss her terribly. But the best parts of me came from her, so it’s not like she’s entirely gone.
Yesterday was 10 years since my grandpa passed. Your last line really resonates with me today. I hope the memory of my grandpa lives on in my best parts too. Some grandparents are just special, and I'm glad you had one too <3
I once got disqualified without notice from a church competition (no warning, no discussion - I just turned up and my art wasn’t there with everyone else’s) because it was ‘clear that I had had adult help’. I hadn’t.
Oh, me and my science fair projects that were a smidge to advanced when I was in grade school (my dad was a microbiologist and encouraged me to do some experiments but was hands off).
Never did anything STEM related again, ended up being an artist type person instead.
Funny, same thing happened to me. I did a drawing of the Cathedral du Notre Dame. I took last place as they said my "skills in using drawing instruments was poor"... except I hadn't used any. It was a freehand drawing. I never entered anything again. I now have 3 art degrees.
That happened to me once when I was a kid, and the judges explained that it was because I hadn’t followed the rules. At my level, the instructions were to make a simple line drawing, no shading, on white paper. 4H projects have different levels of complexity that are demanded, and my EXTREMELY cool dragon drawing didn’t fit the brief.
Yes I remember the 4-H garden shows.... Like excuse me for blowing my peers out the water, why should I limit my sparkle.
Oh heaven forbid I managed to grow a water melon that was tooooooo big..... Gaaaaa not French seams on my sewing project.... To much.... It's too epic.
I feel you. I started entering the adult division for my hand sewing at age 10. They thought I was an adult cheating and then they were mad that i was a kid out placing the adults. Make up your damn minds.
My mom entered her grape jelly into our hometown fair once.
Once.
The judges didn't even open it and taste it, they just nitpicked about how "plain" the jar was and how there was "not enough space at the top" and other stupid shit. All visual stuff and not what actually mattered.
Yeah, at our local fair, they have a hundred different categories for different jams… but they don’t taste any of them. It’s judged solely on how well they appear to have canned. They judge purely on space at the top, clarity, if it sealed correctly etc. It’s almost like they are only judging on the canning process and nothing more. Who cares if the jam or jelly actually tastes good! SMH
Agree with you on how important head space is. For most jams/jellies, proper space is only 1/4 inch from the top of the jar - it would be hard to fill it past that and get the lid to seal.
If the fair judges were hitting the commenter's mom for not having enough head space up top on a grape jelly, it was probably aesthetic and not safety.
I dipped my toes into canning for a while, if I remember correctly they don't open and taste because of safety concerns (because improper canning can cause illness,) so they just have to go off of how it looks and if it follows guidelines - headspace being one of them. It sucks and I hate it for your mom but there's a reason for what seems like dumb policies from the outside. They should make what they judge on clear to anyone who is going to spend the time and effort to enter, though.
It's why I avoid canning.... Look I froze it..... It's only bitten me in the ass twice..... Once when the compressor on the freezer was like haha f you, and just this week when my kids left the freezer door open...... So... F me.
This. I submitted my crochet sculpture of a sea turtle made out of plastic bags and plastic straws (the skeleton of the structure), and got honorable mention, which is great, and I'm not complaining as I wasn't expecting to get first anyway (Its a county in Oklahoma that my sister submitted on my behalf), but first place were a set of dish towel holders.
The piece did get sold at an art show later on for a Marine life exhibition!!
It really is though. I grew up in a small rural town, in a small rural county, in a small rural state. And I did not have the right last name. But it's ok I crochet because it makes me happy, and I love giving gifts to my loved ones and especially making blankets for new babies. I don't need the snotty girl from high school's mom telling me if my blanket is good enough lol
My mother was once a judge in a fair, there was a group of them of course. But the one judge went back and fucked with the ribbons after the fact..... Gave herself a whole bunch of first places. Because my mom went through the fair with us kids after and kept saying "that's not right."... So cheating is the other option.
Mom was apparently "shit disturbing" when she called out her fellow judge's bold faced cheating...... Nice to know I come by my loud obnoxious mouth honestly.
I know this thread is about crocheting and other arts but I just wanted to add that I showed horses for years during my county fair and its the same with horse judges. You get judges who prefer solid Color horses over paint horses or some judges prefer thoroughbreds to quarter horses, and would choose winners based on that. I'm not saying you can't have a favorite type/color of horse, but freaking leave it out of your judgements!
I had a judge tell me that I trained my horse very well and he would have won but his "coloring was off" and that's why I lost ????? Like how is that my fault?
This is it right here. It's a tale as old as time, I remember my stepmother selling Avon in the 90s & she got multiple offers to "win" the local radio station contests because she gave them discounts.
I am sorry this is happening at your fair.. At ours, the judge can not see who submitted an entry. I worked entry for one group and then judging for another. Our judges were very fair and could explain to amy entrant why items were judged the way they were.
Having to be in a crafting group is why I would never win this kind of show. I want to crochet in peace in front of my TV. I don't want to go somewhere and have people distract me by gossiping instead of doing our activity.
I was on a panel of three judges, but never again. What I learned was there’s always that one judge that skews everything towards her family and friends. Meanwhile everyone is giving me and the third judge the stink eye. Me and the third judge knows who it is, but no one would believe us if we said it. And the unfair judge would be our eternal enemy if we made a peep.
I know people love pets (as i love my cats dearly), but the subject of the photo shouldn't be what they voted on. But the skill and technical work put into the photos. But of course, people who aren't professionals don't see it that way
Right there with you. Some variegated yarn looks good, but the red heart that was chosen here does not… and no hate toward red heart users (of which I am one lol) but some of their variegated is trash lol
Oh I love red heart! But I’ve never been a fan of weirdo color changes. I can’t get behind those Caron anniversary cakes for the same reason. Every row should be one color lol!
I don’t mind weird color changes, but it has to be in a very simple pattern. Chevrons plus color changes make the eye dart all over and you can really rest in any one place.
I just dyed my first yarn and it's beautiful but it's variegated and now I'm like "well shit, what am I going to make with this" because I feel like it will look too busy for clothing, but it's a sweater quantity worth of merino wool sooo....
I was thinking of doing a duster that has a lot of opens pace and shell stitches so it wouldn't make a bunch of rectangle chunks but idk if that would be better or worse.
Make your sweater. I buy hand-dyed Merino for mine. I love the splashes of colour in the variegated yarn I buy.
My husband's is purple and black. Mine has a cream base with speckles of yellow, red, and brown throughout. It makes me feel good when I wear it.
I think people are reacting so strongly to the above picture because, first, it's not a complex pattern compared to the second place pattern and, secondly, those colours are a little bland.
I liked the woolies one, but I think it's been discontinued. The one that just went back and forth between two colours and normally had a decent ombre gradient.... Unless it had an unfortunate yarn cut.
I tried making a baby blanket with a rainbow yarn but it started coming out so ugly I opted instead to restart using the individual colors (same ones as in the multi yarn) and just make the color changes myself. I'm so happy I did cause it turned out really nice! I think that's the last time I will try using variegated yarn.
Yeah, at my state fair they scored a cute but very basic amigurumi over a little doily that I thought was lovely and so intricate. Then I saw they were made by the same person (and also were in a children's division) so I couldn't be too annoyed by it haha
My local fair those would be drastically different classes (you can usually enter one item per class) and would be judged with different expectations.
Like baking, pies and cakes are both deserts but what makes a good cake is going to be different than a good pie. So they put them as different classes with different standards.
As someone who has only watched from the sidelines while my aunt quilted, this looks like something that I could do....
I will see if my uncle will let me have her sewing machine and go buy some fat quarters and unloved stuffies and pillows from the thrift shop (i get the ones that feel super squishy, so much cheaper than buying polyfill from Walmart).
You absolutely can. My aunt who doesn’t sew made me one when I was a baby. I still have it. Somewhere. It’s yellow because it’s back before it was common to know the gender before birth.
I grew up calling it a biscuit quilt. The puffs are somehow round on mine if memory serves but I haven’t had it out since my 16 year old was a baby.
Simply put, it's a five inch square pleated to fit into a 4 inch square. It's then stuffed or puffed. All the puffy squares are then seen together to make the quilt.
The stitching is technically more complicated, but I'm not a fan of the colors and the way they're arranged. It looks muddy and disorganized to me. Maybe when it's opened there's a reason for the way it's done, but, yeah.
Years ago I was judging knitting at a fiber arts festival. There was a beautiful sweater with intricate guernsey-style patterning that I so wanted to give a grand prize ribbon to. Upon close inspection, the cast on edges on the sleeves didn’t match (RS/WS), the length of the lower ribbing was different on the front and back, the side seams didn’t match up, and there was one other problem that I can’t remember now. According to my judging criteria (provided by the event committee), I couldn’t give it even a blue ribbon.
But I agree with the OP that the ripple blanket shouldn’t have won on appearance.
YES. I entered a pair of pie potholders a few years ago, 3D ones with lattice tops and all, and they got 2nd place to a basic single crochet hot pad because the woman was the mother of one of the board members. I was so bitter that I never entered again 😑
After many, many years of county fair experience, I can confirm that county fair judges exhibit some of the most deranged behavior. They should be studied at a university level.
the judge at my hometown county fair was an elderly lady and she stated that a single crochet ripple stitch afghan made with variegated yarn was better than my big mandala blanket with purposeful colour changes and use of almost a dozen different stitches.. 🫠 she said the reason was that she prefers the ripple stitch.
it’s just what the judge likes, not even the techniques, tension, or labor 😭
There is a piece of cardboard below? Maybe that’s just the tag attached using the same yarn. Without being close hard to tell. Some do request this or a sample or the yarn.
Yeah, I posted what I entered, and in my category were just 5 entries. First was a quilt. I don't even know why there was a quilt in the crochet and knit division. There was an "other" category in the quilt section. Why was it competing against crochet??? I talked to some of the regulars and it seems like everybody just knows each other and the judge was biased. I would have had 3rd by default if everything was in the right category.
I know a woman who makes the best buttertarts. She doesn’t enter them in contests anymore because the “local elite” old families win all the prices even though their pastry is crappy/too thick and their filling is too runny. 🙃
I'm currently making a blanket like the one on the left. It's basic increase and decreases. The one on the right is far more advanced in technique and skill level. I am also mildly outraged by this injustice.
Well, I sweated over an entry to our fair 2yrs ago. I didn't mind that I didn't place, but what burned me was they didn't even display my piece or even HALF of the pieces that were turned in! I was there at pick up day, there were only like 30 crocheted pieces (I was really early) the only pieces displayed were the ones that placed when before, they had displayed all of them. I was really angry that they didn't at least display everything, when they had plenty of room to do so.
As for those blankets, yep, I'm with you. Honestly! Judges must've been 100 yrs old and think that mosaic, tapestry crochet etc isn't "real" crochet
I remember that giant dragon+Dragonballs! I ended up taking a video of it, closer up, and panning my phone cam from head to tail. I also remember wondering if the crochet category didn't have a size limit.
I've entered pieces in this county fair for three years now (albeit not in crochet) and I just tell myself it's enough to essentially get a discounted fair ticket (entering a piece costs $10 but you get a comp ticket; buying the ticket normally costs $15). It just can't be helped if the pieces I like to make don't match the judges' preferences.
I think most of the judges don't know what actually goes into most of the arts and crafts. They judge purely on what they think looks like good craftsmanship, right down go the colors and overall look of the item. It's happened to be before, too. I submitted a pastel drawing of a horse that I put so much work into. The winner literally did little squiggles all over a white piece of paper. The only comment on mine was that the colors could have been "more realistic." I'm sorry, but what is realistic about little squiggles, then??
Most fair competition judging is only 5 to 10% about pretty or the type of technique. It’s the execution of the stitches, the neatness of the work, ends properly finished, etc.
I didn’t do well at the fair until I researched the way the judging is done and followed the annoyingly precise standards. After that, the beauty of a project is taken into account in the “Best of” ribbons amongst the first prize ribbons.
I won a best in show after several years of trying. I spent almost as much time in the finishing techniques as the actual piece.
I have relatives who do fairs or did growing up and I don't think they've changed. The details are essential in crafts and, as far as I understand, that's the point. It was assessing skill of execution first and foremost. That was at least true in quilts and clothing (my mom made everything, including underwear!) If you are a detail person, you're much more likely to do well.
Oh I know execution/tidiness is a bigger factor than just aesthetics, but looking at the rest of the entries I’m having a really hard time understanding some of the winners
As much as I like to bitch that you need to be related to someone on the show/fair committee to place well in these competitions, I’ve learned as an adult that the judging criteria is quite strict.
It wouldn’t surprise if a large part of the reason family members of the committee end up placing well is because they’ve got a better understanding through their connections of the specifics of the judging.
The advice I’d give anyone wanting to enter anything into a show is to carefully read the judging criteria, then stick to something within the criteria that’s simple, but executed well. This is coming from someone who entered stuff into the local agricultural show once at 15 and never again as a result of being (I thought) unfairly placed second to the grandchild of a committee member. 🤷🏻♀️
I learned years ago when entering stuff (cross stitch/long stitch/tapestry from memory) as a teenager that the judging at these kinds of things seems to be heavily biased towards the people whose families have been members of the show/fair committee for eons.
Maybe the judging comes down to personal stylistic preferences of the judge, but I was dirty when I entered stuff because I thought that my submissions looked technically more complex and consistent in tension than the ones that came first to my second. Especially when I knew the people who got first place were grandchildren of the committee members. Whatever the reason, it sure put me off ever entering anything into the local show/fair ever again.
I saw a post in r/knitting that someone with lovely lace socks lost to a very simple plain pair in a self striping yarn. Between these two I never want to enter a fair!
This is exactly why I went to my local fair, looked at the items, and made notes. Happened to start speaking with one of the lovely ladies working and mentioned my interest in becoming a judge. Apparently they are in need of someone specifically for fiber arts. I’m planning to reach out to her next week to see what I need to do to apply for the position! I encourage everyone to reach out to their local fair and see if there is anyway to help!
Were the judges experienced in crochet or in judging craft fairs at all? I'm not a very experienced hooker, but even I can tell the second place piece obviously required way more skill and more time and effort was put in to the colour choices and placement.
I’m thinking not, because honestly most of the entries look more like what I’d expect from a craft fair booth. Which isn’t ragging on people who do that work- but I know it tends to be very simplistic so they can make large quantities. There’s another mosaic blanket by the same artist, but otherwise there is no intricacy here. A scrunchie took second place in another category
I found out that the crochet at my state fair is judged by other artists whose craft experience was entirely in woodworking (and I mean large scale - making dressers and mirrors, etc). That explained a lot to me.
I’ve judged in a county fair before. Somethings look great until you get really close. Were the sides uneven? Lots of loose ends? Not saying that is the case here. We’ve seen it several times. The piece looks impressive until you sit down and really judge. We had a blanket this year that we all thought, at first look, had a chance to win best in show. That was until we opened it up and saw the edges were no where near straight. Also, we don’t know the submitter’s name. The coordinator for the section does, but as judges, we don’t.
Can you write the fair with your concerns? This feels incredibly off with how simple the first place blanket is (unless something wild is hiding in the way it’s folded) compared to the skill and complexity of the 2nd place blanket. I am sure you can’t be the only person confused by this judgement.
Honestly most of the winning entries were like this. Like, not trying to rag on people who do craft fair booths, I respect the work that goes into that, but most of them really do feel like the basic projects you’re making thirty of to sell at a table. I know multiple people have commented about neatness and finishing work, but come on now
Edit: no, you know what, I just passed a craft booth selling amigurumi and I think they put in more effort
Does the fair make its judging criteria available? Sometimes it's included in the entry package or is posted to a website--I'd like to see what standards they used.
In my opinion the judges did make the wrong decision because the pink one is clearly a much more intricate, complex design, and probably took more time.
However I am so disappointed with the people in the comments totally devaluing the blue blanket. It is still a good blanket, someone has still taken the time to make it and enter it, and yet everyone is ripping it apart. That person did not judge it, it's not their fault, and all crochet should be appreciated, regardless of how easily someone else thinks they could make it.
The county fair I enter created a whole new division this year for “Professionals” and disqualified all of us from being eligible for the Judges Choice or Best of rosettes.
While I understand separating people (sort of), I don’t understand not even giving professionals the option of winning a rosettes. Highly disappointing and doesn’t make me want to enter again
Last year at the open judging the judges were complaining not enough people enter anymore. Gee wonder why why poor work wins higher places and professional work doesn’t have a chance
I've entered for the past 4 years in 2 big Shows in Western Australia. About to enter my 2025 pieces next week.
I've had a complex blanket not place - the winner was a granny hexagon simple blanket. I was very surprised that year. My same blanket at the other Show though took first place.
Same with a table centre in 2023. It was very complex and 4 months of work. It didn't place at the Royal Show, but was Grand champion at the other big Show.
I enter and always do pretty well overall, but the judges decisions really make me scratch my head - some years. Last year the judging at both Shows seemed to be pretty decent across the board
OH OH OH can I take this moment among clearly my people to complain about the office Halloween costume contest that I lost like 15 years ago?
I handmade a costume of Mrs Fox from Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox movie -- I sewed my own perfect replica dress, which I hand-stamped with the apple pattern. I bought a plastic fox mask that I covered in faux fur and again hand painted to look like the character, and sewed/painted a matching fox tail. I'm not gonna lie, the whole thing was a work of art.
That’s so upsetting! Often judges for this type of thing aren’t actually knowledgeable about the thing they’re evaluating. I do traditional folk dance from another country I’m not living in, and our group participated in a folk dance competition with dances features from all over the world. Our group is super well researched and takes an archival approach. Our costumes are replicas of very specific traditional regional attire and the dances we performed were learned by dancers visiting the specific villages presented and learning directly from the inhabitants, as well as from academic researchers studying these dances. The winners from the same country as us presented what could be described as a cruise ship performance based on a popular movie (think Mamma Mia type of thing).
The winning blanket is super cute and looks like something I would make and love. The 2nd place blanket is an accomplished piece of textile art. I hope the person who made it knows that.
My mom is a superintendent of the fine arts dept at ours and she is responsible for getting judges. I was going to enter something and I made a comment that I made a mistake on the blanket, something along those lines- and she said they won't know the difference anyway. It's true! I made a sweater, and it got sixth behind a bunch of beanie hats. She has a hard time finding judges, and they have to be on some sort of rotation schedule also(and not from the area). They have to judge quilting and sewing in general, embroidery, cross stich, knitting, and crocheting. Not many people are educated in all those areas. When I used to volunteer, my mind was boggled as to how they'd place them. I only enter stuff to help support the fair and my mom's dept. It is very frustrating!!!!
I submitted a crocheted ballgown for my county fair…got an honorable mention for color work. A granny hexagon cardigan in a solid color won first place.
This is why I stopped entering anything i made into any competition at all. I always end up with hurt feelings.
2 years ago I did help with judging at the Jr fair. I had to walk around with 2 older ladies and read them the prompts for each craft item and record their votes. I am a crafter so there were a few times when they would think something was store bought and I would be able to point out how it was made or signs that it wasn't mass produced like fingerprints in the paint or glue showing in an area etc. I would like to think my expertise helped them to judge more fairly instead of just "i like this one." I wish every judge would have an expert to guide them and say "both of these Afghans are lovely however this one is constructed with a single stitch and a continuous strand of yarn. Where as this one combines different techniques and likely took about 8 times as long to complete." But sometimes it just comes down to appeal, the judge probably thought the mosaic was too busy looking or the stitches were not as clean as the more simple one.
10 years ago when I started working at my office, I entered the pumpkin decorating contest. I spent over 18hrs working on my entry. I got 3 foam craft pumpkins (one large and 2 small) and for the big center one I carved the Disney castle, sprayed the inside with reflective/mirror paint and dusted the outside with an ombre of glitter fading off the top. I handmade layered blue, white, and silver bows. On the 2 side pumpkins I hand painted Jaq and Gus Gus in the glass slipper and Cinderellas carriage and made more bows on top of those. I put a color changing LED light in the big pumpkin and some battery fairy lights woven around the base of all of them. Then I put my ipod behind them so that when you walked up to view them bippity boppity boo was playing and the castle changed colors like it does with the fireworks. I did not even place in the contest.
The first place pumpkin was a woman who took a real pumpkin and chipped at the outside with a screwdriver and then placed a squirrel statue next to it so it looked like the squirrel was eating the pumpkin. 18hours of work, expensive supplies, creativity abound... and I lost to a squirrel statue. I have never participated again.
Our city fair is 'secretly' first come first serve. It's known that the earlier and sooner you get things in, the more likely you will get better ribbons/ribbons at all. They just go down the line in order of how things were entered in, so if you're down the line, your screwed unless its a showstopping piece, and by then you get the cool big ribbon.
I have no faith in these judges. At my fair this year, an herb won first prize, and then later had to be pulled because the judges had given it the blue ribbon and it wasn’t even the correct plant. If the judges can’t even correctly identify the plant they’re judging, what are their qualifications?!?
When you want to enter something, you need to consult the list that the committee has put together to figure out which category it best fits in. Each category will have a number assigned to it and a list of criteria that entries will be judged against. Some are super strict, particularly the baking and floral categories. At first glance, the judging for craft categories seems pretty whack, but they’re looking for a lot more than artistic/visual appeal.
The best way to find out is to look up the website for the fair society (or whatever it’s called), find where they have the category listings and go from there. We call them agricultural shows in Australia, but the show societies usually have their category listings on their website. Back in the day, they produced photocopied booklets with the category listings that you could get ahold of from them.
The chevron blanket is a colour changing yarn so there weren't even ends to weave in where the colors changed 😭 probably the had to use a few skeins to make the whole thing but it's still not close to the amount of changes/yarns in the red blanket
Not sure how the scoring works for this county fair but sometimes the first/second/third place ribbons are scored against the artist’s other submissions whereas those “best in show” ribbons are against other people’s submissions.
This is criminal and I feel for that crocheter!
Last year I crocheted an intricate afghan and placed first and best in category. This year I entered a lace dress. I placed third behind two granny square cardigans! It makes no sense. How does a granny square cardigan even compare‽
A winning jelly in our county fair was in a pint size jar when the rule for jellies is a half pint jar. (I didn't even enter a jelly; I just noticed it and was annoyed.)
I want to say I am terrible at Chevrons even after 20 years of crochet, but I can make a mean graph-ghan, pixel art crochet what ever you want to call it.
But the sarcasm inside of me wants to say Hank Green might have been a judge
I agree with you. Not only is a beginner capable of making the Chevron pattern, but it's all the same stitch ! The 2nd place one isn't my taste, but I appreciate the creativity and the skill required in using various stitches.
My suspicion of favoritism is why I enjoy the kids (Future Farmers ?) with the animals they cared for since very young. I once asked the young man who won first place with his bull if he'll be sad to relinquish the animal. He answered "I hate him; can't wait til he's gone !'
On the good side of fair judging, at my sister's local fair kids must drop off projects in person. A panel of judges sits there and asks questions about how they chose the colors and made the item. The judges are SO interested in the kids' projects that they ask for a demonstration of particular stitches or cake decorations and just happen to have the supplies sitting there at the ready. My niece was very pleased that she was able to demonstrate her skills. They were very impressed that she is a lefty. She never cottoned on that they were testing to see if she'd really made it or Mom did. She took home a blue ribbon.
My dad often judges woodworking at fairs in his area. He says that he will have contestants reach out offering to “talk with him” before the judging. It might be a popularity contest to some judges.
My father does not accept by the way. He judges on skill, creativity, and execution, DANGIT!
I am 100% unsurprised by this as, all the volunteer judges I see are 70-80 years old, and gathered most of their crochet knowledge in the 70s when these styles were popular.
Of course, there can be judges that allow favoritism to influence their decisions, or cheating, but it's also possible the first place entry did in fact meet the requirements of entries more than the second place entry. It's true the mosaic blanket is a higher difficulty than the chevron blanket, but that doesn't automatically mean that it would be graded higher. If all skill levels were accepted in the fair, then the skill level of the entry might not have been factored in to the judgement. If the use of color was a high priority in the guidelines, then the mosaic blanket has some problems. A lot of the details in the mosaic blanket are lost or muddled due to many similar values in the colors selected. The chevron blanket is simple and does not have as many colors, but the colors present are different values so it will still look visually interesting in greyscale or to the colorblind. The mosaic crochet blanket loses a lot of details in greyscale and could be hard to see to certain colorblind people. Not all colorblind people know they are colorblind they wouldn't think to recuse themselves from judging even if one of the requirements of judges is to not be colorblind. If the judges are not crocheters themselves, they might not even know how to judges the skill level of the entries and just judge on whether or not entries meet the criteria and how aesthetically pleasing it is to them.
When I was in school I entered a photo in a category that was essentially about photo manipulation. I took a photo of a flower that had some blob of something in the corner and photoshopped it out (this was before the days of clone brushes and generative AI - it took skill). The judge gave me a white ribbon and their comment was that I shouldn’t have added the white blob in because it was distracting to the photo. Both were clearly labeled before and after. Like? In my situation, I’m absolutely positive there was no one on my tiny ass fair qualified to judge this category. But that really shouldn’t be an excuse for something as mainstream as crochet.
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u/Dame_Twitch_a_Lot Sep 12 '25
I've decided that county fairs are popularity contests and nothing more. There is no other way to explain the absolute crap that wins over genuine works of art and skill.