Hemet’s Barbie Carlson won 14 ribbons including eight first-place awards at this year’s San Diego County Fair, but her highlight was a knitting demonstration which made beanies for Hemet Unified School District and foster children.
Carlson is a member of the Machine Knitters Guild of San Diego and participated in demonstrations at the county fair June 11 and June 12. The members and fairgoers who participated knitted approximately 160 beanies for the project.
“We teach the public about what our machines are capable of doing,” Carlson said. “This year we did it with a focus on making the beanies.”
Lauren Lopez graduated from Tahquitz High School in 2016. In January 2018 Lopez and the other occupant of a car were murdered at an intersection in San Jacinto, where Lopez lived. The Lauren Challenge was created to provide projects helping community members.
“It’s been an outlet for us to redirect our grief,” said Lopez’s mother, Christina.
The Lauren Challenge is providing backpacks for needy Hemet Unified School District high school, middle school, and elementary school students as well as for area foster children. The backpacks were delivered August 10 and included 251 beanies provided by the Machine Knitters Guild of San Diego.
“The table was just covered with beanies,” Carlson said.
“It’s a blessing, and I’m looking forward to the kids receiving that,” Christina Lopez said.
The county fair demonstration allowed first-hand participation by those not in the guild. “It gave the public a chance to also be involved even if they just did a couple of lines of knitting, a couple of rows of knitting,” Carlson said. “They were able to be a part of our philanthropy, a part of our mission.”
Carlson was raised on a dairy in San Jacinto and graduated from San Jacinto High School in 1984. She moved to Hemet in 1987 and her property now includes a ranch of rescue animals. Carlson has been hand spinning since she was 11 and machine knitting since she was 17. She purchased her first knitting machine when she was 17.
In past years, Carlson has shown llamas and alpacas in the San Diego County Fair’s livestock breed competitions and has also used wool from her animals in the fair’s Home Made (previously Home and Hobby) exhibit competitions. This year the San Diego County Fair added a honey competition.
Honey had previously been part of the preserved foods competition and didn’t even have its own category, so Carlson entered her honey in the Other Than Listed class of the Other Soft Spreads division while also entering a preserve made from homegrown passion fruit and homegrown honey in the Other Than Listed, Fruit Base category of the Jellies division. The 2026 San Diego County Fair honey competition included other apiary products.
“It was just a real learning thing this year,” Carlson said. “Hopefully next year it will be even a better show.”
Carlson won six of her ribbons, including five first-place awards in the honey competition. She won all four Beeswax division categories: Purified Beeswax Block, Candles, Lip Balm, and Handcrafted Soap. Carlson also took first in the Raw Creamed Unflavored Honey class. Her Light honey entry placed fifth.
The Beeswax division didn’t have a category for her beeswax melt flower arrangement, so Carlson entered that in the Decorative Crafts division of the Home Made exhibit. That did not place in the Other Decorative Crafts not listed category. Her three entries in the Home Made exhibit’s Machine Knitting division resulted in a first-place Baby and Children’s Items ribbon for her layette set and a third-place Best Beanie Ever award. Carlson also entered three items in the Fiber Arts division, and her dyed llama yarn placed first in the Fiber Dyeing class.
“I was excited,” Carlson said of two first-place Homemade awards.
“I can’t complain. There were a lot of entries this year,” Carlson said. “The numbers were up.”
The llamas and alpacas arrived at the fair June 12. The performance classes were judged June 13, and the halter class competition was June 14. Carlson brought Sneakers, a four-year-old alpaca, and Admiral, a yearling llama.
The June 12 preparation with Sneakers kept him from being shown. “He spooked,” Carlson said. “It threw me head-on into a brick wall.”
Carlson was taken to a trauma center. “The next day I came back to show performance,” she said.
The performance competition has three components: the obstacle course, the public relations course (mimicking activities which would likely occur if a llama or alpaca is brought to a public event, on a visit to a school or other facility, or to the filming of a television segment), and the pack course. “I didn’t show Sneakers because of the accident,” Carlson said.
Admiral was one of 19 llamas in the performance competition for llamas of all ages. He placed sixth, eighth, and tenth.
“He’s not doing all that bad,” Carlson said. “He wasn’t even two years old.”
Carlson added that she had a concussion when she showed Admiral. “I can’t say that I was on the top of my game, either,” she said.
The injury forced Carlson to leave the fairgrounds prior to the June 14 showing. Admiral placed first in the yearling male class of the medium wool llama division. He then was named reserve champion for all medium wool males.
“I needed something uplifting,” Carlson said.
