State Fair 2012

Summer has finally culminated in the Great Minnesota Get Together which is the Minnesota State Fair.  Dave and I went twice this year and had a great time.  There is never enough time to do everything you want to do in a single day.

Of course the food was great and we certainly indulged.  One of my favorite things was this mozzarella and pepperoni on a stick which is dipped in garlic bread batter and deep fried.  Delish.

My other favorite food was eggplant fries served with a cool and creamy dipping sauce.

We enjoyed going through the different exhibit buildings.  I was surprised by the ethnic baking category because we saw 4 kransekakes!

The agriculture/horticulture building had all kinds of exhibits related to honey, bees, and bee keeping.  We watched a honey harvesting demonstration which was fascinating.  I love all things honey and beeswax and I've always thought how fun that would be to keep bees...except that I've never ever been stung by one and I'm terrified of them!

These are some of the honey entrants sorted by color.  The source of the nectar used to make the honey affects the color of the finished product.  Buckwheat produces a deep amber color and clover produces the lighter shades.  I learned something new that day.  They had all kinds of varieties of honey for sale as well as honey still in the comb and soaps, lotions and beeswax candles.  We will definitely be coming here next year!

And of course we had to go and visit the Creative Activities building to visit all the fabulous knitting!

I recognized quite a few patterns!

I thought this cabled cardigan was beautiful!

 This is one of Alice Starmore's patterns from the book Tudor Roses.  Stunning.

 Here is my purse in the beaded bag category.  I changed it from the knitting category on the advice of the entry clerk.  It won 3rd place and I won a one year membership to the Upper Midwest Bead Society.

 I used to exhibit rabbits as a 4-H kid and Dave used to own a house rabbit so of course we had to go to the rabbit building.  I always feel so sorry for them sweltering in their cages.  Luckily they didn't have to remain at the fair all 12 days.  This is a New Zealand breed which is what we raised as a family.

 Outside the livestock buildings were these Alpacas and More vendors!  They were there last year too and I bought more fabulous handspun and dyed yarn from them!

There is another large yarn stand inside the dairy building and I picked up 3 skeins of yarn from Blackberry Hills.  It is a lovely hand dyed yarn of smokey blues and navy.

We were looking forward to the St. Paul Police K-9 unit presentation and they did not disappoint.  I recommend anyone to watch them next year because it is such an interesting demonstration.

We rested near the K-FAN booth a few times and caught Monty's Traveling Reptile Show appearance.  He brought out a blue tongued skink, 2 snakes, a tortoise and for the finale...and alligator.  If you can believe it, he was a tame alligator.  Do you see how close he is to those children seated on the ground?  I was still nervous!

And where else but the State Fair can you see butter sculpture?  Here are the sculptures of the Princess Kay of the Milky Way contestants.  Each one weighs 90 lbs. and the contestant gets to take it home after the fair.  What is the street value of 90 lbs. of butter I wonder?

Fun Stuff

Our wedding is less than one month away and I can't believe how quickly time is flying!  Between working my shifts, I am slowly getting things squared away and prepared as well as managing to have some fun with Dave in the last couple weeks.

Dave took me fishing on the St. Croix river near Hudson, WI.  We actually fished under the I-94 bridge.  Normally I bring my knitting on the boat and even if I am not fishing, it is a relaxing and calm afternoon on a lake but I have to admit I was a little nervous here!  It was quite rough and choppy and we had to set and reset the anchors and I thought for sure we'd coast into the bridge pilings.  We didn't catch much at all this day but we did see plenty of sailboats and some hot air balloons.

We also went to the Vali-Hi drive through to see The Bourne Legacy, Batman The Dark Knight Arises, and Ted.  We'd already seen Ted and after the first movie your interest and attention span tends to wane.  We enjoyed $1 hotdogs and nachos with our soup thermos full of queso dip.  We had a nice break from the heat that night and enjoyed a cool and comfortable night at the movies.  I recommend this place to anyone!  It is $8 for adults and $1 for kids 6-12 for 3 movies.  You have to get there when the gate opens to get a spot and then wait til dusk for the show to begin so people tailgate and grill and play catch...or knit.  ;)

We took my knitting to the State Fair 2 weeks before it started.  More on that later.

My dear friend Brenda organized a bachelorette camping get together with a few of my girlfriends.  We had such a nice cool evening around the fire and around the grill!

Bridal Shrug

 I finished my Olympic knitting...a week after the games ended.  I still think I did pretty well considering I also pre-washed, assembled and finished 4 queen sized blankets during the games.  My wedding dress has straps but is sleeveless.  I will wear my Orenburg lace shawl down the aisle for the ceremony but if I am chilled or want coverage later, I am afraid of snagging or soiling it.  I knit this shrug for said purpose from yarn purchased in Iceland last year.

 I changed the pattern just a little to avoid unnecessary fussing.  Instead of casting on a regular edge and going back later to pick up the same amount of stitches, I used a provisional cast on.  Here I am removing the provisional cast on waste yarn and picking up the live stitches.  This yarn is kind of grippy like mohair so there was never any danger of out of control unraveling. 

I also used a pair of beautiful rosewood circular needles that I got on clearance at Joann's.  I never would have paid the full price for these needles but they were such a steal on clearance that I got them.  In the last leg of the knitting, the needle broke off the cable (!!!) and I had to pick them up with a needle master circular.  The only problem with that was the correct sized needle was almost the same color as the yarn!  I was just sure I'd go blind before finishing this thing!

Finally got my game on...

I wanted to actually participate in the Knitting Olympics this year but am off to a delayed start.  This will be a feather and fan lace shrug that I might wear at our wedding reception because it will match my flowers.  I'm using this pattern and have the exact yarn called for!  That is always exciting to me when I have the actual yarn in a pattern and not a weight substitute.  This is actually Einband yarn hand dyed by Gudrun from natural dye that my mother bought last year in Iceland.  She actually traded it with me for some Koigu-like sock yarn because she had second thoughts about the color.  It will go perfectly with my bouquet!  I didn't start until day 4 or 5 of the Olympics...

...Why you ask?  I had 5 days off last week in my run up to my weekend to work and spent the time working on a few things I meant to get around to like making a tomato au gratin that I've always wanted to try.  A few years ago in Scotland, I picked up a cookbook put out by The National Trust For Scotland.  Dave's parents provided me with some beautiful garden tomatoes and I set to work.  I have never canned anything before but I've read how it is done and I can't tell you how excited I was to blanch these tomatoes, quickly chill them and then peel them...and they did what they're supposed to do!

This dish is lightly seasoned with tarragon and was just delicious.  I never would have thought to au gratin tomatoes of all things.  Next time I won't use nearly as much cream as called for because it was quite soupy and almost a waste of cream--if there is such a thing!  As is often the case with au gratins, less is more.  Delish.

 I have also been going crazy sewing blankets!!!  Big beautiful bold batik blankets!  I had a stash of cotton queen size battings and I've been hoarding these gorgeous batiks.  I have seen some bee-YEW-tiful quilts made from batiks but I couldn't bear to cut these up because the fabric itself was just so pretty.  It is also worth pointing out that I don't have the patience to make quilts--these are simply blankets.  These 4 blankets represent 40 yards of fabric I have gotten out of this apartment.

These blankets turned out so well and I give all the credit to the batting.  Since it is cotton, I iron it before sandwiching it between the batik and the broadcloth base.  I pin it to death and then machine quilt seams lengthwise 6" apart.  Lastly you trim the batiks leaving a 2" broadcloth border, then turn under and stitch that border to seal your raw edges.  The batting is expensive though at $45 for a queen size.  They were 50% off at Joanns and I had an additional 25% off coupon so I got them at a steal!  I just can't decide which fabric I like the most!

Adventures In Knitting

 One of my prizes from the fair was a $25 gift card from 3 Kittens Needle Arts so Dave drove me over there this weekend to spend it.  What a fabulous store!  One whole section of the store was devoted to tapestry, cross stitch and needlepoint supplies.

 They stocked a large selection of different yarns and weights, plenty of books and patterns and probably the largest and most well organized selection of knitting needles I'd ever seen.

 On the upper right of this photo, you see all the Cascade 220.

They stocked plenty of Dale of Norway, Jamieson and Smith, Noro, etc.  I didn't see any Lopi but I was also in a bit of a hurry because Dave was good enough to drive me and he was patiently waiting.  I could have wandered around in there for hours looking at and touching all the yarn.

They didn't stock any Koigu but I found quite a few awesome substitutes.  I have fallen in love with Madelinetosh yarns and got 2 skeins, as well as a skein of Koigu-like Hazel Knits, and 2 skeins of very Koigu-like Claudia Hand Painted in the 50% off bin!  I got a set of size 00 needles for bead knitting.  They stocked size 000000 (!!!) dpn and I had never seen any smaller than 0000.

We also went fishing last weekend and I brought my knitting on the boat.  I did fish for a while but I feel bad sometimes because poor Dave baits my hook and takes the fish off for me and he doesn't get a lot of fishing done himself.  I spent some of the time knitting and it was a great afternoon.  I'll admit I'm kind of a wuss when it comes to handling the fish.  I couldn't even put my thumb in the fish's mouth to hold it up for a picture and not because I thought it was gross.  Believe me, as a nurse I've had my fingers and hands in some nasty things!  The fish were just so wiggly and strong and they'd scare me and I kept dropping them.

London 2012

 Mother planned another great trip this year which also included my 10 year old niece Ava.  She has always loved hearing about our prior trips to London.  When she was 4, she actually told her pre-school teacher, "My Grandma is going to London to see the Queen."  My parents have a London coffee mug in their cupboard and that was always the glass she wanted to drink from.  Mother promised her years ago that when she was 10 she'd take her to London and by gosh, she did.  Mom did her homework and basically got her a free airline ticket between her frequent flier miles and her Delta Sky credit card credits.  Her transportation was cheap because she can ride the Tube for free.  We rented an apartment for a week and a half and had a great time in Merry Olde London.  This is of course Big Ben and Parliament and behind that is Westminster Abbey.  She was thrilled of course and even though I'd been there before, so was I!  London never gets old.

 I'd never ridden in The Eye before which was something we did on this trip.  All I can say is England should have absolutely no national debt because of this thing!  There was a huge line both when we got on and got off and it was $20 a crack to ride.  It was worth the price of admission though.  The wheel never ever stops, it just slowly goes around.  There is a security check when you get to the front of the line and they bunch you into groups of about 20 or so.  Then they herd your group up to this large platform ramp thing and the pod comes along, the doors open and a group steps out, staff step in with mirrors to security check the pod, and then your group steps in--all while the wheel is moving.  The pods were air conditioned and it was an awesome view of the city.  You can see Big Ben in the lower right hand corner of the photo.  The Eye is right across the river from Parliament.

We also took a day trip out of London to Salisbury to see Stonehenge which I'd also never seen.  There were a bunch of Druids and Morris dancers inside the stones when we were there.  That is one combination platter I wouldn't order.  We civilians had to stay behind the rope but we did see a Latvian Harley Davidson enthusiast promptly escorted out after she stepped over the rope and touched the stones.  At almost $30 per ticket, that was an expensive stunt to pull. 

We explored the town of Salisbury a little as well as visited the cathedral.  This church is the tallest spire in the UK and leans almost 28 inches to the east.  The adjoining museum houses the Magna Carta.  We learned that even though Salisbury had secret plane manufacturing facilities, the town was never bombed during WWII.  The German pilots were given strict orders not to bomb Salisbury because they'd use the spire of the cathedral as a landmark and then follow the rivers up to London.  While we were inside the church, there was a full orchestra and choir rehearsing pieces from Haydn.  Hearing that glorious music made the space even more magnificent.

My other favorite day trip was a train ride to Dover to visit Dover castle and the WWII tunnels.  Dover has always been a significant location as a fortress and military outpost.  The castle was interesting with it's intact buildings and walls and mock ups of medieval living, but I enjoyed the WWII tunnels the most.  This was the sight of the historic Dunkirk evacuations, aka Operation Dynamo.  Hundreds of thousands of allied troops were isolated and surrounded without supplies or transport on the beaches of Dunkirk.  The Germans were bombing any and all rescue attempts and the Allies couldn't risk their large hardware.  In the end, civilian fisherman and merchant boats rescued thousands and thousands of troops and brought them back to Dover.  They were blessed with both calm weather and German inactivity for a few days and got the job done.  We toured the tunnel that served as command center for the mission as well as a hospital tunnel.  The tunnels were dug and used before WWII during the Napoleonic wars and used after WWII in the 1960's as a Cold War regional seat of government.  The weather was rainy and cloudy when we were there so we were unable to see France.  We did get to see a bit of the White Cliffs of Dover.

I loved all the WWII memorabilia and picked up a few items.  I wasn't going to get the thermos because I already have one that size and it was L17, but I found one that was reduced to L13.60 because it had a slight dent in the cup!  Whoo-hoo!  I also never knew the British TV show "Dad's Army" was set in a fictitious town similar to Dover.  I will be getting that on my Netflix.

We were so busy with our daily activities and day trips that we had time for only one yarn shop, but I picked a good one!  We went to Loop which was quite easy to find.  We rode the Northern tube line to the Angel stop and then followed the signs about a block to the Camden Passage and there it was. 

It was a lovely two story shop that was well stocked with tools, notions, books, patterns and help.  Lots of designer brands as well as plenty of English brands.

It was very busy in the shop!

We bought a pattern book written by one of the proprietors of the shop and all the pattern examples were in the shop which was nice to assess the garment size.

I also bought a beautiful book of embroidered Estonian gloves.

I bought a skein of Madelintosh for a baby sweater in the Loops book and 4 skeins of Quince and Company linen yarn.

They also sold Sajou threads and scissors.  I so wanted to get an Eiffel Tower pair...but they were over L50.  So instead I bought the charming L8 pair instead.  We also visited the Liberty store where I got some Sajou ribbons and a few knitting tools.

My other favorite purchase was this herb grinder from the Tudor Kitchen shop at Hampton Court.  It is beautiful burled wood and filled with thyme.  Ava learned a lot about Tudor life, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I as well as Queen Victoria. 

My mother Queen Elizabeth III planned yet another great trip!