Well, it’s not really but the Smells Like Teen Spirit line floated through my head more than once today.
I had only one entry to the Canberra Show this year. This. My Myrtle Leaf Shawl.
I wasn’t certain of winning, but I had a degree of quiet confidence that I was submitting something really special. Special to me at any rate. It’s something I’m really proud of, that I got a lot of pleasure out of making, that I admire as a piece of knitting almost as if it’s something I didn’t make myself. You know that admiration you feel for someone else’s work when it’s lovely? I have almost got that feeling a few times when I’ve looked it and kind of forgotten for a moment that it was something I made myself.
So saying that, not winning a place for it essentially doesn’t matter, because I love it. I made this shawl over 10 months without any expectation of winning anything but knew that I’d probably enter it in the show when the time came. I basically have a rule that says I don’t knit for the show, but if I have something ready at the time of entries going in, I’ll submit it.
I haven’t gone yet to see what I lost to but I’m informed by Drk that I appear to be in the wrong category. I can’t actually remember what category I entered but it would have been one for lace, I’m sure. I do wonder if it was obvious that my shawl was in the wrong category, couldn’t the judges be kind and re-classify it? Shouldn’t I have been notified that I, or someone else, had made an error?
So Myrtle goes without a ribbon, and that’s ok, but being in the wrong category feels a bit foolish somehow, like they might have looked at it and said ‘she put this in what category? Is she stupid?’
Mistakes can be made, by any of us. Losing isn’t a big deal. It happens to us all. But did I lose because of classification, or just someone else’s work was better on the day? I’d like to find out.So when I go to collect Myrtle I’ll seek some feedback and tomorrow I’ll go have a look at all the great work there and celebrate the friends who won prizes for their hard work.
I do think I’ll give her a go in the Yass or Goulburn shows next. Myrtle deserves to be out and about!
Bells
