Perhaps Julia Child said it best when she said:

The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It’s doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile.

This year, my state fair entry did not garner any ribbon, but I am still pleased with what I did, and after having picked it up from the fair yesterday, today I took a moment to review it while I was out on the back deck enjoying one of the last warm afternoons of autumn:

There are a few things I would have done had I had more time. I would have appliquéd geraniums to the flower bed around the porch. I would have added pomegranates to the pomegranate trees. I would have included the cord of the clothes line, and if all of that went well, I would at least contemplate adding figs to the fig tree.

But this project was not inspired by a the promise of a blue ribbon, it was inspired by my grandmother’s life, and an overwhelming and long-lived desire of mine to find a way to tell her story, and while I did not garner a blue ribbon for my crochet efforts, I do believe I succeeded in finding a way to share my grandmother’s story, and I hope that other crocheters will be inspired to use this technique to tell whatever stories they have that might need telling.

While I contemplated this year’s state fair piece and thought about the elements I would have added if I had had the time, I made some flowers to be used in tricking out my second “Road Trip” scarf. I even went so far as to venture into my yarn annex in search of buttons to be used in decoration, and I think it was worth the effort:

Satisfied that I had exactly the right number of flowers and had picked out exactly the right buttons with which to decorate them, I then went back to making chair leg socks.

Having done a count earlier in the day, I knew that I was 13 chair leg socks shy of what was needed to replace all of the chair leg socks on the chairs in my kitchen, so I got to work, and while I was not able to remain as diligent as I would have liked, I did complete five of them, leaving me just two chairs shy of finishing:

And when I get done with the chair leg socks and am a bit more caught up with everything that did not get done while I was working on my state fair project, I think that I will revisit the project and, like the “Road Trip” scarf, trick it out just a bit more.