Stitching

The Ramsey County Fair starts July 15th and I have a few more things I want to finish up to enter.  I start working on fair projects in January because by then all my Christmas projects are over and done with and because I just can't wait for fair season.  A new category I'm going to enter this year is embroidered kitchen towels.  I've made quite a few of these as wedding shower gifts because it is tradition.  My mother says that a measure of prestige in her day was how many sets of embroidered flour sack towels you got as shower gifts.

Here are the two towels I stitched to enter.  Colonial Patterns put out these transfers in their Stitcher's Revolution line.  They also make the classic day-of-the-week-kittens-doing-ironing-and-laundry transfers, which are vintage and charming in and of themselves, but I just LOVE these new designs.  I have at least 20 envelopes of pattern transfers in a variety of designs.  The last time my nieces were here, we worked on these together.

I think the honey bear in this one kind of looks like TED the bear from the movie!  ;)   Sublime Stitching is another company that has some awesome transfer designs and supplies but I have never ordered from them.  I looked just tonight and they even have Moomin designs!

Colonial Patterns also puts out these colorful vintage inspired sturdy towels with these woven stripes.  I bought a whole slew of these with Joann coupons when I still lived in Iowa and they are a pleasure to work with.  I've bought up plain flour sack towels here and there when I see them and over time, they discolor.  These striped ones don't and look so crisp and sharp.

I really do enjoy stitching these because they are like coloring books for adults.  This is my box of flour sack crayons!  My mother bought this for me as a kit of floss/cards/case when I was around 12 or so kind of because I begged and pleaded for it.  She didn't want to buy it for me because she was just sure I'd use it for about 10 minutes and move on to something else.  At the time I wanted it for friendship bracelets and other small projects but I've continuously used it and added to it ever since.

This is a shoebox sized tote of floss grouped by color in snack size zip loc bags that a co-worker gave me.  It was his grandmother's and he gave it to me when they were dealing with her estate.

This is a literal shopping bag of floss that my aunt gave me left over from school projects.  I've taken this bag to girlfriend get togethers and my two nieces have dug through it looking for friendship bracelet colors and we haven't made a dent in it yet.  I have enough supplies to stitch flour sack towels til the end of time!

On the garden front, the peony bush my dad brought us is starting to bloom.  It is a good thing I took pictures of it when I did because we had heavy rain the next day which knocked all the petals off the blooms!

Here are the glorious pansies he planted around our tree in the front yard.  Pansies have always been one of my favorite flowers and I love seeing them every morning when Lopi and I go outside.

Dried Chives

 From chive chaos...

 ...comes order...

...and eventually dried chives!  That is an 7.5 oz old minced garlic jar.  I brought in an armload of chives and cut the blossoms off and picked out the dead pieces and minced the viable stalks and still had a bowlful so I was amazed at how small they became.  The jar still smelled slightly of garlic so I'm hoping they'll be flavorful through the winter.  I do like how green they still are and look forward to using them when the outdoors are no longer green.

Beautiful Beans (and bags!)

We made fajitas for supper last night and I found the best recipe for refried beans from scratch.  My friend Michelle showed me how to make them years ago but I've never been thrilled by my results.  They are served to you in piles in any Mexican restaurant but I've never been able to get the flavor and creamy texture right.

Oregano is an herb I always associated with Italian food and was surprised to find it in the fajita recipe we always use.  I bought that box of oregano in Greece when I backpacked years ago.  It was used in everything there and was my culinary souvenir from that country.  I've long since used up the contents but I keep filling up the box with bulk oregano from Cossetta's.  I got that wooden citrus reamer in Denmark at a viking ship museum of all places.

 Here are my lovely picked over dry pinto beans.  I love dry beans because they are CHEAP and you can feed an army with a single bag.  This recipe makes the perfect amount and I learned right away that I was cooking too many beans with too few aromatics.  And I love that you don't have to soak them overnight first.

 I threw my beans in my small crack pot for 2-3 hours and used 1 tsp of dried oregano instead of the epazote sprigs. Oregano again!  Who knew?!  For the fat I used 1/2 lard and 1/2 bacon fat.  DEE-lish!  Everything in this recipe is stuff you already have in your pantry.

I finished my beaded bag tonight and took a terrible picture of it.  It was just getting dark outside so I had to take a picture of it under a lamp.  I used all but a dozen or so beads and 2 yards of thread.  Stash busted!

Fun With Beads

 In true Katie fashion, I worked on some impulsive bead knitting this week.  This almost finished project will be another drawstring pouch.  I used up 5 skeins of size 5 hoarded perle cotton in a beautiful variegated colorway of soft mints, teals, and aquas.  I also used 2 containers of size 8/0 seed beads I ordered years ago from Earthfaire but never used.  I can't even remember what specific project I ordered them for.

 This has knitted up very fast with this size of thread and size 00 needles.  The beads are larger than what I'd usually use (10/0 or 11/0) for bead knitting but I like the effect.  The beads really give it some texture and dimension, and they are not clear but pearlized so you can see the mottled colors of the fabric around them.

Here is the wrong side of the work where you can see the pools of color.  Hopefully I will finish this tomorrow but first I have to finish my baby booties.  That shower is on Saturday.  I'm such a terrible procrastinator that I will even put off knitting with knitting!

Minty

This week I was clearing and reclaiming some of our backyard to use for gardening.  Before I hoed the area up, I cut all the mint that was growing there.  There is still plenty out there and I'm sure all the stuff I cut will come back.

 So here is my bowl full of mint (with just a hint of grass mixed in) as I brought it in from the garden.

 I picked off and washed all the leaves and spun them out.  I got 2 full salad spinner bowls full of just mint leaves.

 I got this food dehydrator for $10 on sale a couple years ago at Aldi.  It is a one temperature no-fan simple machine, nothing like the fancy ones I've seen on different blogs.  I'd never used this before so I was kind of excited to get it out of the box.  There are 5 trays and they were all loaded similarly to this.  You don't want to overlap things but I also wanted to do all my leaves in one go.

It only took a few hours and this is what they looked like when dry.

All the dried leaves fit into one quart jar.  I made my first cup of tea with the leaves and it was quite tasty.  I am going to keep drying the mint leaves as they grow and drink the tea over the winter.  Next I want to try drying some chives!

I work this weekend but have the next 2 off and lucky for me because my niece Kris is having a baby shower.  Her last name is Knutson which means her husband is a godt Nordman and she is adopting his ways.  They gave us an electric krumkake iron for a wedding gift so I need to reciprocate and do some nice baby knitting for them.  I sewed a pair of viking baby moccasins for them and knit this Modern Cabled Baby Bib for them.  I will round out the gift with a Target gift card and a knit pair of baby booties.  More on those later when I finish them!  I finished this bib with a Paddington button I've had forever and it will go in my theoretical baby stash.  I finished another one for my niece and will use the pictured blue fish button for hers.

Other than my Lopi dog and my husband, this plant is my pride and joy!  It is an umbrella tree and I bought it last spring when it was just a seedling.  Look what it has become!  It will soon be a bona fide TREE!  I have watered it and encouraged it in our downstairs window seat and expanded it's pot as appropriate.  Now it lives in our front door landing and I smile at it everytime I climb the steps. 

I loved having my sister and her kids here two weeks ago but I was amazed at how they literally get into everything and find the tiniest and most obscure things to monkey with.  I was on high alert the entire time.  And that is not in any way speaking ill of my sister's parenting skills or her children.  Children are children.  Lisa even made a point of saying how this house is not child-proof and mentioned the changes in her own home before she had kids.  My sister has always kept a beautiful home but she pointed out that many of her nic nacs had disappeared into storage and that she "used" to have plants.  She did indeed have plants at one time and always teased me that my apartment was a critical care ward for plants because they were alive but only just!  Now that we have our house, I do take great pride in my house plants.  And with all the home improvement projects I have in mind, I have to remind myself to bring things down a peg or two because children tend to destroy things so there is no great rush!

And finally on a culinary note, I read a dieting article the other day and heard about "Eggs In Purgatory".  I'd never heard of such a thing before and read the lovely Nigella Lawson's recipe.  I made a double batch of the recipe because the closest I had was an 800 gram can of crushed tomatoes.  It was delicious but next time I will use half the called for red pepper flakes.  I happened to have half a loaf of home baked french loaf for the toasts.  The next time I see my dad I am going to make this for him!

Thank you Cheryl!

 When I still worked cardiac step-down in Iowa, one of my favorite people to work with was Cheryl Conner.  She was a kindred spirit as far as cooking because she actually cooked and made things from scratch.  She went so far as to eat organic, which I haven't managed to do yet, and was also a gardener and continues to be one of my inspirations for our own home garden. 

Like every home gardener, she had an abundance of cherry tomatoes one summer and brought appetizer tomatoes of her own creation to a work potluck.  She described how she made them and wrote down the recipe for me but alas, I lost it.  I have been enjoying some lovely on the vine "cocktail tomatoes" from Aldi lately and decided I would wing it from memory and try making some.  We had my husband's parents over for supper and cards last night and I wanted to serve them.  My in-laws are fabulous gardeners so I knew they would appreciate them.

Also of note, pictured is the beautiful olive dish I bought in Greece when I backpacked in 2001.  I saw it in the window of a shop I walked past every day while in Athens and thought it was just beautiful.  I bought it, packed it carefully with plastic shopping bags I'd accumulated and saved along the way, held my breath and shipped it.  Thankfully it arrived home intact and I've treasured it ever since.  Last night was the first night I'd ever used it so I was quite tickled.  It had also been stored, packed carefully in a box, since I bought it until we got the china cabinet last year.  I love being able to see it displayed in the hutch every day.

Here it is holding some of those delicious tomatoes.  Like I said, I winged the recipe and they were delicious.  My mother in law asked to take home a few of the leftovers which made my day.  Slice off the top of the tomatoes and use a melon baller to hollow out the fruit.  Salt the insides of the tomato "cups".  In a bowl, mash together some softened cream cheese, cooked crumbled bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, garlic powder, minced chives, and a dash of sour cream to thin the mixture.  Spoon into the tomato cups and garnish with more chives.  Dee-LISH!  The only no-no is to not refrigerate them if possible because tomato flesh becomes grainy when chilled.  My advice is to make up the filling ahead of time and scoop and fill them at the last minute.  Also, they taste much better when served on a delightful dish!  ;)  As usual, the men were more interested in the meat, but my mother in law raved about them.  Not only are they gardeners, but tomatoes are their specialty and I know she will be making these herself!

Bit of blue

 So here is the Fiddlehead Pullover I was finishing up this week.  I have to say I wasn't overwhelmed by this project in part because of the yarn.  It is a lovely tweedy/slubby fingering weight yarn but I'm not convinced it was the best choice for this particular pattern.

 The sweater is decorated with mock cables which kind of get lost in the yarn.  I wouldn't mind knitting this again but next time I'll use something with better stitch definition.  I had 3 skeins (about 570 meters) and knit the smaller sized sweater and even then I thought I was cutting it a bit fine but I have a full skein and a bit left over!  Still I can't complain because it was free fair yarn.  I can knit quite a few pairs of baby boy booties and hats with the leftovers.

 I love how it is designed and pieced like a fisherman's gansey.  Here are the button closures at the back.

 I had to take pictures of the stash I got at the fiber festival!  That small pouch is made from fish skin leather from Fiskurs Leather.  I am going to use it either in my knitting bag or to hold rosary beads.  That particular pouch was salmon skin and you can tell the species by the size and shape of the scales.  The 2 tweedy skeins were from E2's Emu Ranch and were lovely shades of blues and greens.  The yarn itself is quite coarse but I want to make a cozy for my French coffee press so it will hold up well.  I just love the colors to go in my kitchen.  I got 2 bags of rovings from my sister's aunt-in-law's booth-Diamond D Sheep.  One is an Icelandic wool and the other is Shetland.  Such beautiful fiber and an awesome price for it.  Of course I have NO IDEA what I'm going to use it for yet!  And finally I bought a skein of sock yarn from The Cyborg's Craft Room.  They had all kinds of yarns with glitz or metallics in them but I opted for the plain sock yarn in those fabulous shades of blue.

And Joy of Joys...I am about to embark on a new project using up some major stash.  I've had this quantity of Patons Silk Bamboo for some time.  Honestly I did have a project in mind for it when I bought it, but I was encouraged to buy it in quantity because I got a free bag when you bought so many.  I've said it before, I'll do anything for a free gift.  I think I've made it abundantly clear that blue is my favorite color!

Scrap Knitting

 Here is some more of the on call knitting I did this week.  These booties are from the Aran baby suit I knitted earlier this year and used up the last of the same yarn.  They were pretty flabby once knitted so I blocked them using some dominoes to shape them up.

This is a lace baby bonnet I plan to take to the fair.  I am really pleased with how this turned out and I even learned how to do some crochet scalloped edging.  The ribbon is some of the Sajou I got at Liberty's in London last time I was there.  Once again I can use the entire length of it without cutting it.  I can have my cake and eat it too!

My thoughts exactly!

I took an on call last night and got to stay home all evening.  I took advantage of the free time and got some knitting done!  I don't think I'd knit for a week because I'd been busy around the house.  I finally finished up this little baby sweater and sewed it together.  I hate piecing sweaters and had to laugh when I noticed my mug on the table.  Melissa gave me this for Christmas and I have been using the heck out of it drinking tea.

This is fingering yarn knit on size 2 needles so it took forever.  This was free yarn after I won a gift certificate as part of my fair prize last summer.  It is a beautiful slubby/tweedy yarn but my mock cables got kind of lost in it.  I'll post a decent picture later because it is on the blocking board as we speak.

Fiber Festival

My sister and her kids stayed with us so we could all attend the Shepherd's Harvest Festival this weekend.  I happened to be reading through my blog list last week and realized the festival was coming.  I've known about it for 3 years but we were always in Reno when it was going on.

 The festival is held at the wonderful Washington County Fairgrounds in Lake Elmo every year.  All three exhibit buildings were full of vendors, demonstrators and competitions.  There was food vending and picnic areas and hands-on activities in the different barns.

 The place was packed.  I couldn't believe how busy it was.  There were plenty of things for the kids to look at and touch and see but we had to keep the pace up to avoid meltdowns.  We whipped through the buildings which is fine because it kept my spending in check, but I wouldn't mind going to this alone next year!

 We watched a stock dog demonstration which was one of my favorite things.  They explained the different whistle and verbal commands and I laughed out loud when he said that the call off command or stop command is, "That'll do."  :)

 Saw all kinds of fiber animals up close including these llamas in varying haircuts.

 Angora rabbits.

And of course lots of sheep!  We visited with Lisa's aunt-in-law and my sister-in-law's neighbors who were both vendors.  We had such a good time and I hope we can go again next year!

That evening, Dave and John put up the ceiling fan in the dining room.  I luuuurrrvvveee it!  It was kind of  a production to get it up on that vaulted ceiling but it looks (and feels!) great.

My favorite part was putting these Polish pottery beads on the ends of the pull chains!  Mom and I went to Menard's and got some plants so I got the garden in before the storms and she helped me install an under the cupboard radio/cd player/bluetooth so now I can listen to NPR in my kitchen!

Family Weekend

 My mother came to stay this weekend to attend the fiber festival.  By Friday suppertime my brother had joined us after drill and my sister and her kids arrived from Rochester.  Friday morning, Mom and I took a little field trip to SR Harris and I drove!  The Brooklyn Park location is not very far from here.  We used the Garmin of course and laughed when we arrived because Garmin called it "Senior Harris"!

 It was the least busy I'd ever seen the place so I shamelessly took some pictures to post.  This is leather in a rainbow of colors hung over the doorway.

 Trims!  Cord!  Gimp!  Fringe!  Tassels!  Piping!  Appliques!  Lace!

 The place is piled high with specialty fabrics.  You can grab someone and tell them you want such and such up there and they'll get a ladder and dig it out for you.

 This is one of the many aisles in this fabric WAREHOUSE and I can't stress that enough.  It is huge.  My mom was once sewing a specialty period costume and ended up not having quite enough of her particular fabric.  She called and the guy told her to mail him a sample of it and they FOUND it and charged her card and mailed it to her.  Amazing.

 They have barrels of zippers, buttons, pillow forms, remnants, appliques, shoelaces, etc. throughout the store.  I bought a bunch of fabulous linen this day.

 

You cut your own fabric here too unless it is over 5 yards.  I don't have any pictures of Brenda on here so here she is cutting fabric the last time she was up here and we all went!

After all that shopping we were hungry and I had kumla in mind.  When I was a young warthog in Luther League, the confirmands helped make the kumla every spring for our Lutheran church's kumla supper.  We'd all come the night before with our vegetable peelers and peel scores of pounds of potatoes and leave them in big tubs of water overnight.  The following morning we'd grind the potatoes and mix the dough.  The leaders would simmer the dumplings all afternoon and we'd come back and wait the tables for the actual supper.

On Friday we started by bringing 2 big pots of water and ham hocks to a boil to get our broth ready.  I'd been waiting to use this meat for kumla!

 At church we'd always use a clamp-on-the-counter cast iron meat grinder to grind up the potatoes.  You don't really want to grate the potatoes because then they get too wet.  I used my Saladmaster to grate the potatoes because they don't get wet as with a box grater.

 I don't have an official recipe because you use the dump method for this.  You add a couple tablespoons of salt, a sprinkling of baking powder and enough flour until it is almost like a bread dough.  It is a sticky mess but well worth it.  You can use whole wheat flour and some people put oatmeal in it.  Wet your hands and form them into tennis sized balls and drop them into the simmering broth.  Some people press a piece of bacon or ham or salt pork into the center.

 Poke around in the pot with a wooden spoon to prevent them from sticking to the bottom and burning.  After a few minutes they will begin to float.  Simmer them for at least an hour before serving.  The house smelled like the Lutheran church basement!  Pick the ham hocks and serve the meat.  We always have applesauce with kumla. 

Serve with butter and salt and pepper.  My nephew and nieces are going through a very picky eating phase and don't like potatoes so we told them they were pizza balls and they ate them!