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Cozy comforts at the Iowa State Fair

  • Betty Staudt’s 2016 Iowa State Fair entries display their final awards after Staudt received first and third place for two of her creations. Contributed photo

  • Betty Staudt's third-place stitching project hangs at the 2016 Iowa State Fair. Contributed photo

By Kate Hayden | khayden@charlescitypress.com

Betty Staudt holds her first-place project, a baby cable-knit sweater created from a favorite pattern of hers.  Press photo by Kate Hayden
Betty Staudt holds her first-place project, a baby cable-knit sweater created from a favorite pattern of hers. Press photo by Kate Hayden

Every year, Betty Staudt has sent in her box of Iowa State Fair submissions to the head of the Fabric and Threads division with a letter. This year, Staudt received a letter back from the director. 

“‘I think I’ve been receiving your box of things for 35 years,’ she said,” Staudt recalled. “So maybe she has, I don’t know.”

Out of seven of her entries this year, two of Staudt’s creations received ribbons: a satin-stitch pillowcase that won 3rd place in the ‘80 and Over’ class, and a knitted baby sweater that won first place in the ‘60 and Over’ class.

Staudt has been knitting since high school, when a home economics class tapped into her crafty side, and also quilts, spins yarn and embroiders several projects a year to keep busy in her spare time. She’s been recording sweater and quilt projects from the last several years in a photo album, where she stores some pictures of the patterns and her finished product side-by-side.

“It’s a pastime that anybody can do, while you’re waiting or something. I just like to knit,” Staudt said. “You end up with a nice produce when you get done, and I give them away to kids –– my grandkids and great-grandkids and everybody.”

Staudt’s needles keep her busy: she and her husband Russell have 20 grandchildren after 62 years of marriage.

She’s likely made five versions of the pink baby sweater she submitted this year, she said.

“I have a granddaughter that’s 26 or 27, and I made one for her, the same pattern,” Staudt said. “I’ve made quite a few like this. It’s just a fun pattern, it’s got panels, cables, you know, just kind of fun.”

Staudt has been a long-time volunteer with the Floyd County Fair, starting as a 4-H leader when her kids were in the program. Now, she helps head the Open Class department every year –– collecting the 50 or so entries every year from Floyd County residents in categories from baking, quilting and flower arrangements. They hope to collect more projects in the open class every year, she said.

“I was probably a 4-H leader for 30 years. I think I work every year, putting up pictures or whatever for the kids,” Staudt said.

She also spins yarn at the fairgrounds when fifth-graders visit, showing them how the process works, and usually attends the annual Threshers’ Reunion by the Cedar Valley Engine Club to spin yarn during the weekend event.

One of her favorite projects was a baby quilt Staudt submitted to the state fair last year: a counted cross-stitch baby quilt decorated with tractors that received first place in it’s class. It tends to take her about a month to complete an average project, and then she’s on to the next piece.

“I do a half-dozen things every year,” Staudt said. “I just do all kinds of handiwork.”

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