2016 Flapper Purse

I finished another beaded purse in time for the Washington County Fair.  I'm slowly making a dent in all the purse frames I bought up on ridiculous clearance years ago.

This was knit with perle cotton thread on size 0000 needles.

 

Pressing the needles back into place slowly wears a hole into your index finger.

Here is the finished purse before it was sewn into the frame.  Also pictured is one of my thread winders and one of my favorite pairs of bead knitting needles.

Here it is sewn into the frame and in the process of attaching the chain handle.

Here it is the winner of the Grand Champion and the recipient of a gift certificate to Three Kittens!  We dropped this off yesterday at the State Fair and fingers crossed it will do some damage there!

Kitchen Fails

Dave's sister is in town from South Carolina so we had her over for supper on Saturday along with his parents.  This is the cake I baked for his mother's 81st birthday.  Swell, isn't it?  This was the second attempt.  The pan for this is shallow like a tart pan with an indentation for filling when the cake is baked.  I've baked this a handful of times without incident but on Saturday...I was in a hurry.  I mixed the batter, filled the pans, threw them in the oven and returned to chopping and prepping whatever it was I was cooking.  Soon after I started hearing a hissing from the oven.  I turned around and the pans were bubbling over and burning onto the floor of the oven.

I'd just finished watching the finale of The Great British Baking Show the night before (Nadiya won!) and I realized at that moment I could never be on that show because I was yelling and swearing like sailor.  I actually had a fire in my oven.  Once the oven cooled down, I had to scrape out the charred on cake drippings.  It felt like I was cleaning a fireplace.  I washed the pans and started over, this time baking them on a cookie sheet which is what I usually do.  They've never boiled over on a cookie sheet I suppose because they're somewhat insulated.  The second attempt puffed into a mound as usual with no spillage.  Then I trimmed it, filled it and topped it with sliced berries into the finished cake you see above.

And THEN...on Sunday I was canning tomato sauce and salsa with corn and beans, inspired by my friend Brenda.  I had not quite a pint of salsa left over that I was going to just keep in the fridge for us to eat but at the last minute I found another wide mouth 1/2 pint jar.  I filled and covered it and used my tongs to try to find a spot to lower it into the canner.  I heard a faint tapping noise and suddenly the water was filled with salsa.  I lifted the jar and the entire bottom had cleanly snapped off.  I was visiting with a gal at work tonight and apparently that is not uncommon, but it was a famous first for me!  I got 7 1/2 pints of tomato sauce and 8 pints of salsa out of last night's processing. 

Still, none of my kitchen fails were as dramatic as THIS!

Fair and Family Fun

My brother was here all week squeezing two weekend military drills into one week before his deployment.  His family joined us on Friday and my younger niece and I were inspired by The Great British Baking Bake Off so we baked up some raspberry hand pies.  I always brush them with egg wash and sprinkle them with coarse sugar before baking but I'd had this multi colored coarse sugar and wanted to try it.  I thought they'd either look really cool or the colors would melt together and look terrible.  Here they are brushed and sprinkled prior to baking.

Here they are all baked and puffed.  The sprinkles look pretty good!  Granted they look like circus turnovers but they were fun and colorful and tasted just as good.

John came with me to the fair on Thursday and I'm proud to report I nabbed the grand champion with my bead knitted bag!  I entered 23 things and got 2 white, 3 reds, four items didn't place and the rest were all blues so I'm happy with how I fared at the fair.  Tonight I go and pick up my stuff.

We had chilly weather the day we went and it was awesome!  I wore a long sleeve shirt and got to eat my potato blossom!  This is my absolute favorite food item at this fair.  You get all this crispy fried goodness for $6.  All you need is a friend to help you eat it!

The first cherry tomatoes ripened this weekend too which was exciting.  My sister in law picked today's raspberries and my nieces picked a colander of peas for me today while I was unloading the dishwasher.  They gave all the dogs baths on the deck too but I didn't take pictures of that!

I know I've shared about our berries before but I was out in the garden this morning picking the ripe fruits for the day and just struck how pretty they are.  I think our berries might even be wild raspberries.  The colloquial term 'round these parts is black caps because they are so dark and almost black when ripe.  I hated picking raspberries when I was a kid because I was afraid of bees.  I'm still afraid of bees but these berries grow more on a vine than on a bush so you don't have to shuffle through them.  And no my fingers aren't bleeding, those plump berries are just so ripe and juicy.

I can't always trust Dave to pick them because most of the berries go in his mouth.  When I pick them, they go in my top dollar sour cream container Tupperware and into the freezer for later baking.

I have been so pleased with my dill this year.  I planted it back in May and every day I go out and look at  it and water it and I've fertilized it once.  I had 4 vibrant plants developing...HAD.  I went out yesterday and some critter had bitten the stalks right off so this pot went straight up onto the deck!  I'm hoping they'll come back.  I don't have any cucumbers yet so I don't need it for pickling but I wanted to have some bushy sprigs for grilling fish!

Fair Finishes

The Ramsey County Fair starts today and I dropped off my entries yesterday morning.  Dave and I will go tomorrow and maybe my brother John will come with us depending on the time.  Here is what I've been frantically finishing the last couple weeks...

Here is my finished Lucille sweater.  I was so pleased with the way this turned out and I have a full skein of yarn left over.  In a last minute executive decision, I opted to knit the smaller version of the sweater due to gauge concerns and I'm glad I did.  The wrong side of this diamond lace had me constantly thinking about a Victorian Pineapple Bag and I think I'm going to have to tackle that for next year.  Hmmmmm.....

I'm entering the sweater as a 3 piece baby set along with this matching bonnet.  I used my last meter of Sajou ribbon I purchased at Liberty's of London back in 2012.  The third piece of the set is the old reliable ribbed booties but I didn't take a picture of those.

I didn't actually knit this in the last few weeks but I threw it in the blocking bucket once I had it out.  I thought it was cute after I first knit it, but boy what a difference blocking makes!  This is a Baby Surprise Jacket knit from some Liberty Wool Light I bought at a yarn shop in Cannon Falls a few years back.  We were on our way home from my niece's baptism as I recall.

Here is a little scalloped cotton bib I knit out of some Island Collection using this pattern.  It is a pale mint green finished with a streaked pearly mint and pink button.

On our last trip to Fargo, I bought 2 skeins of this Malabrigo colorway and knit a Windschief hat out of one earlier this spring and I just finished this pair of gloves out of the other.  One skein had a little more white showing through so I was lucky to finish this pair out of the single remaining skein.  I had about 24 inches left over!  I also bought a slate blue/gray/navy colorway for a manly pair so I might have to use a neutral color for an inch or two of cuff when I ever get around to knitting those.

Last year I happened to have the baking entry day off so I got up at the crack of dawn to bake raspberry hand pies.  I'm proud to report I won the grand champion in baking with those and I also took home the blue ribbon in the chocolate chip cookie lot.  This year I am working every evening of entry day so I'm not going to break my neck scrambling with baking.  I am going to branch out by entering some photography.  I've never ever entered photography at the fair, even as a 4-H kid.  I'm submitting a photo of Jock the cat from Chartwell--Winston Churchill's home, a photo of the baptismal font and reflection of the ceiling of Salisbury Cathedral, and Dave is entering a photo of the spring bunnies we had in a nest in the garden.  I'll make a 4-H kid out of him yet!

British Baking

It is no secret that I am a PBS nerd and I am so excited to hear about the new season of The Great British Bake Off coming out!  I was in England in March and enjoyed a cream tea with my mother and brother and his family in Windsor and my first order of business when I got home was to purchase a dessert tier.  I use it every time they come over for our own family cream tea.  I'm proud to say I keep a supply of cream scones in my freezer at all times ready to be taken out and baked at a moment's notice.  We have a fabulous brand new Hyvee a block away that stocks clotted cream and I make a year's worth of strawberry freezer jam every year so we are set for scone toppings.  I use King Arthur Flour's recipe for cream scones.  You can mix and divide them up, then bake them as needed.

3 c. flour                            1  Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt                           1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla                       1  1/3 c. cream
1/2 c. butter                       additional cream for brushing on top

Combine all dry ingredients.  Cut in butter.  Stir in cream until mixture just comes together.  Divide dough in half.  Pat each half into a 5 1/2" circle about 3/4" thick.  Cut each circle into 6 wedges.  Bake wedges 20 minutes at 425 degrees or wrap in waxed paper and freeze.

John and Amy came last Friday and I baked caramelized onion rolls for our supper.  I used Grandpa Maynerd's mixing bowl, yeast and salt I bought in London, and the wooden spoon I bought in Windsor.  I bought that big container of salt for 33p because our apartment had no salt and pepper shakers.  That is how ill equipped it was.  I figured if I bought the salt, I'd bring it home with me so I did.  Good ol' Tesco salt. 

While the John's were here, we celebrated by opening the package of Tunnock's cakes I'd bought in London but saved until we were together.  They're damned good!  John is being deployed to Uganda next month so it was fitting we all got to share them together.  I have 2 left for my parents the next time I see them.  I will so buy some the next time I'm over there.

My nieces are quite the horse women.  They trained and practiced with my uncle Brad and competed in the Farming of Yesteryear festival in Kiester, MN.  Kiester is the hometown of my mother, my grandpa Maynerd, my uncle Brad, my aunt Mary, a slew of cousins and famously now because of this Preparation H commercial.

So yeah I'm fat.  I've lost 12 pounds without trying since starting on my seizure medication to ward off my migraines.  I find summer is an easy time to sweat off weight.  I've discovered Joy Bauer recently on PBS and one of her substitution ideas was zucchini noodles instead of pasta.  Tonight I made beef stroganoff using ground turkey instead of beef and noodled zucchini instead of noodles.

The tool you use looks like a giant pencil sharpener.  I "sharpened" 3 store bought zucchini (our garden is coming along nicely and hopefully in a week or two we won't have to buy them) and sprinkled them with 1/2 tsp of salt and this is all the water that has leeched out of them.  I'm hoping this is a way to utilize zucchini this summer AND is a diet food!  We'll see!

Lucille, meet Rylie

Dave pointed out to me that the Ramsey County Fair is less than a month away so I've got to step my game up!  I put my knitted jacket on hold to start and finish some smaller projects and I'll try to finish my jacket if I can.  My union is on strike starting tomorrow so when I'm not manning my shift on the picket line, I'll be knitting like crazy.

So needless to say, I've got some crazy Start-itis!  I want to enter another baby three piece set and have had this pattern in my to-knit pile for a while.  I picked up this yarn two years ago at a combination book and yarn shop in Spooner, WI on our way to Dave's brother's cabin.

Here is my progress so far.  I'm about to divide for the sleeves.  The diamond lace of this sweater is very similar to a linen sweater I bought in Estonia years ago.  Our tiger lilies are blooming and quite beautiful.

Here is a diaper cover finished last week for my cousin Christine's new baby boy.  I sent a package of baby items to her earlier this week and it should have reached her yesterday or today.  This is a light cotton yarn that will be cool over a diaper--no redneck nekkid but for a diaper summer babies in this family!  The buttons came from Grandpa Maynerd's button box.

Shepherd's Harvest 2016

Dave and I went to the fiber festival on May 14th and I'm just now getting around to writing about it.  Where else around here can you see this many people gathered together spinning, knitting, felting and sharing what they love with the public?  This was our second trip out to our local fiber fest at the Washington County Fairgrounds and once again we were impressed with the turnout and how family friendly it was. 

I was thrilled with the chilly, almost COLD weather we had this year!  Hand knits weather!  Last year it was hot and humid and the hard core people really tried to wear sweaters and shawls with sweat glistening on their brows.  This year it was not difficult.  I wore my Roosevelt Cardigan, my Wavy Feathers Wimple, and my Windschief hat.  Even wearing all this, I was still chilly at times which is how I like it!  I almost didn't wear my sweater because I'm not happy with how I finished the collar/neckband and didn't want all the other knitters to see it.  I'm glad I did though because I got a few compliments and questions about the pattern.  One lady briskly walked up to me and asked if she could put her hand in my pocket.  Excuse me?  Oh, you mean you want to see how the pocket is constructed?  Sure, knock yourself out.

We looked at all the vendors' wares throughout the buildings.  This was a table at the Mielke's Fiber Arts booth.  I've followed their blog for some time.  They are really neat people but I was too shy to go up and talk to them.  The odd looking drop spindles on the left of the picture are Turkish spindles.  I've never used one but they look so cool next to a garden variety spindle.

I can't remember whose booth this was but I was quite excited to see a charkha in person.  This is the apparatus Ghandi spun cotton on and they can be shaped like an open brief case or in this instance like an open book.  Last year my sister and her three small kids were with us at the festival.  We had a great time but I didn't have time to closely look at all the different things.

We watched this sheep shearing demonstration.  This guy made shearing a sheep look like peeling a banana.  He'd obviously done it a time or two before.  He explained sheep psychology and sheep handling and Dave and I kept saying we wanted to go home and try out some of his moves on Lopi.  We didn't.  We really enjoyed his presentation though.  And he was funny!  Everyone was engrossed in what he was saying and he'd grab a handful of wool and toss it into the crowd and they'd squeal in delight.  He joked that he'd looked to make sure no one was eating anything before he threw it--because of course the event was at the fairgrounds and therefore the first opportunity of the year to eat fair food!  He gave a humorous and informative talk.

I bought two skeins of an angora/wool blend of sock yarn from Kurth Valley Fiber Fiber Mill for $10/skein.  I also got 3 skeins of fingering weight from Knitting Notions for a baby blanket pattern in the book I picked up in Reno this year.  The yellow and gray/blue skeins are for that project although the gray/blue looks more lavender in this picture.  I was inspired by the upholstery on the train in Paris back to the airport...

That slate gray and pukey yellow looks so pretty together.  Those were the colors I was looking for at the fiber festival and I think I came pretty close.  This is the zoomed in picture of the seats...

Here is the complete picture of the train with my younger niece hamming for the camera.  What a nerd!

I love the cool weather because it is ideal for baking and drinking coffee and tea.  My mother is in town for a few days and I greeted her with cream scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam this morning.  We used Maynerd's dishes and had coffee *gasp* not tea because I had to go to work this afternoon.  The weather is going to get hot tomorrow and the A/C might have to go on for the first time this season.

The only good thing about hot weather is it drives the garden crazy.  I went shopping two weeks ago with my sister in law and picked up a garden gnome on clearance at Joann's.  I finally have a garden gnome protecting my tomatoes, so maybe he'll ward off the deer this year.

Maynerd would be proud!

I was making laundry soap this weekend and got to thinking about all the soap slivers I'd been been saving for no particular reason.  My grandpa Maynerd used to make his own lotion soap for his soap dispensers out of his soap slivers by melting it down in the microwave.  I was already grating up the Fels-Naptha and thought I'd try an experiment.

Here is the rainbow of grated soap ends.  I melted it down on the stove with two cups of boiling water.  I let it cool and the result had the consistency of Crisco.  Then I added more boiling water, heated and cooled it again.  I monkeyed around with this all afternoon and into the evening while I was cooking supper.

This is my dedicated soap pot and whisk I use for laundry soap.  When Dave came up for supper and was dishing up his plate from the stove, he pointed at the soap pot and asked, "What's that?"  I quickly said, "Don't eat that!  It's an experiment!"  By the time I was satisfied with the soap, it was quite aerated and reminded me of marshmallow fluff.  I wound up with over a half gallon of liquid/lotion soap.

I have to smile and laugh thinking of my Grandpa Maynerd.  I miss him terribly but I remember funny things about him.  He'd save lint from his dryer for fire starters and soap slivers to make his lotion soap and he always referred to himself in the third person when he spoke to us grand kids.  Every now and again, my mom and aunt Mary would do a blitz cleaning of his house when they knew he wouldn't be home and just clear things out.  I will never forget him telling me, "Your mother threw away Grandpa's lint and his soap!"

Here is the first peony of the season.  My mom happened to email me a picture of all her cut peonies.  I immediately ran out to check our bush and picked the one blossom we had before the rain showers tore it up.  We have 3 more buds yet to open and the shrub roses will be opening any minute!  The background is the new tablecloth I got at Homegoods.  I just love it as a tablecloth but I'm also half tempted to cut it up as fabric!

Mother's Day

It is May and everywhere you look, trees and bushes and flowers are blooming.

Apple trees and ornamental apple trees...

blossoms of white and light and dark pinks...

flowering bushes...I just wish the blossoms would stay longer than the few days in May.  The joy they give the senses never lasts long enough!

I finished a baby quilt from a set of purchased jelly rolls I'd been sitting on.  I love blues and aquas but also love that it could be a baby boy quilt.  I think boys are so much harder to sew and knit for for.  This will go into my baby hope chest.

I spent an afternoon last weekend making baby bibs from this pattern and fabrics I already had in my stash. 

Here are the same bibs with their contrasting backing fabrics.  These are just two layers of cotton fabrics and so aren't the sturdiest of bibs but for just catching drool or with bottle feeding they'd be fine.

For some really high power kid-in-high-chair-proof bibs, I'll have to look for some laminated fabrics.  I'm going to enter one of these in the fair and I'll send the woodland critter one to my cousin Christine.

Christine just had her second baby last month and her first boy!  I finished this sweater last month and finally sewed the sleeves on today.  I have a few more things I want to make for her before I get her care package off in the mail to her. 

I had to share the Mother's Day card we're taking to Dave's mother.  Lopi "wrote her name in it" and I can't wait to see Marianne's reaction.  She does not care for dogs but she loves Lopi.  So far Lopi is the only grandchild she's gotten out of us!  Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!