I love the idea of this thread and I’d like to resurrect it. There are so many fun projects on here!

not sure if this will post with the picture of the sweater I’m making, (it’s not showing in the preview…) but in any event I can link to this post on my Tumblr though it is a slightly older picture. I’m pausing on the main body and working on the sleeves. I’m working it top-down so that I can basically knit till I run out of yarn. It is so soft and warm, which is something of a deterrent in this weather. BUT I hope to actually finish in time for winter.

The sweater looks pretty, @Lady-Merian! How long does it usually take you to knit a sweater?

Is anyone working on any county fair needlework projects? I told myself this was going to be the year I entered a knitting project, but I didn't touch my knitting project from January to May - and then lost motivation when I realized that I didn't correct a mistake early on in the project well enough to be unnoticeable. Oh well - maybe next year?

@valiantarcher I had to look back at some records to get an idea of how long a sweater takes me, in part because a heavier weight will take less time (usually) and in part because I haven’t been knitting as much as I used to. This is the first full winter sweater I’ve done in a few years. I would say my average used to be about two months (even in a sock/fingering weight yarn and size four needles!) but the last ones I’ve done have taken me more like eight months, and this one that I’m doing is definitely going to take me more than eight even though it’s a heavier weight on size seven needles. I’m done with the first sleeve though! It was a good decision to work on the sleeves first, I think, though sometimes when I’d try it on for size my sister would talk about my “strange fashion choices” (one sleeve long but with needles sticking out, the other ending just past my shoulder, and an extremely cropped body with needles sticking out of that.)

That’s too bad about the project you’d intended to enter not working out for it. I hope you do get one in next year! What happens if you start something now and dedicate, say, a set amount of time to it a week without necessarily putting aside what you’re working on now?
I’ve never actually gone to our county fair. Or any fair that had opportunities to enter needlework that I know of! (Or maybe they did in the next county, but if so we didn’t view them. We used to go to that one for the crafts for sale and also the best apple dumplings we could get there and nowhere else.)
I used to follow a knitting blog run by two sisters who usually had multiple entries in the Minnesota State fair. They were always impressively intricate and maybe intimidatingly so.   I think I have one sweater that could have measured up maybe.

edit: this time the photo worked, but it is before I knit one sleeve onto it. I’m afraid I don’t have a more recent photo.