Keen competition in Home Industries at Dannevirke and Districts A&P show

Diane Spence's ferris wheel was judged the most outstanding entry in the craft section of the home industries show. The parchment wheel was all handmade. Photo / File

One of the most popular sections of the Dannevirke and Districts A&P Show is the Home Industries competition which always attracts a large number of entries and visitors.

Home Industries include baking, preserving, vegetables, knitting, sewing and crafts, along with the children's entries.

This year is no exception with a lot of interest already being shown, according to Dannevirke and Districts A&P Association and Home Industries president Pam Henricksen.

"We have been around all the schools and they have all shown a lot of interest."

Last year 48 people submitted about 60 entries across the various Home Industries competitions, and this was one less than the record number of entries the previous year.

Henricksen says among the craft classes hand-knitting and crochet attracted the largest number of entries while entries in the sewing classes were down.

The cooking classes were always popular and attracted entries from all ages.

"The cooking is just amazing, the beautiful items that people enter are very mouth-watering."

All the Home Industries classes are open to everyone.

"We generally have men entering the vegetable class but we have also had men entering craft work," Henricksen said.

"A lot of people say they don't feel their work is good enough to enter, but we tell them they won't know until they try. So we encourage everybody to have a go."

The decorated court section is now open to individuals as well as organisations and this year's theme is "A Country".

The decorated courts showcase a number of craft skills and display a great deal of imagination.

Obtaining sponsorship for the Home Industries competitions was on-going with some local businesses saying they were unable to help because their sales had been down, but others being very generous, Henricksen said.

"We also have a very good, hard-working crew behind us."

Entries are to be taken to the Home Industries Hall on Thursday and these will be judged on Thursday night. The hall will open to the public at 10am on the Friday, with prizegiving on Saturday at 3pm.