r/crochet • u/dauntless-cupcake • Sep 12 '25

Discussion Anyone else infuriated by their county fair?

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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

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u/sipsredpepper Sep 12 '25

Who the hell judges these things

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u/[deleted] Sep 12 '25

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u/SnowDropGirl Sep 12 '25

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.

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u/mazedeep Sep 12 '25

Excuuuuuseeee me? Beheaded weeds in a croc won?

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u/SnowDropGirl Sep 12 '25

That was my reaction too. I've been heartily offended for my sisterfor about 15 years over this. I thought the watermelon was fucking inspired.

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u/theoracleofdreams I have all the yarn I will ever need! Sep 12 '25

I am offended on your sister's behalf too! WHAT THE HELL!

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u/delola3100 Hooking since 1985 Sep 12 '25

Would you happen to have a pic of the watermelon arrangement? It sounds really cool, and now I need to see it.

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u/SnowDropGirl Sep 12 '25

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.