Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I went home this weekend to visit my parents and to bake lefse and kringla orders. I was so busy that I didn't even BRING any knitting home! I've had this picture for some time and couldn't wait to post it today!

I spent most of my time developing new varicose veins by STANDING in the kitchen this weekend! In the end I baked and sold 32 dozen kringlas and 15 dozen pieces of lefse! I don't want to go near that oven for some time, and it will be even longer before I can look at a potato! Once again, my dad was good enough to deliver all my baking around town--and there was a LOT of it! I also baked and frosted a triple batch of frosted sugar cookies for St. Patrick's since I never got around to baking Obscene Conversation Heart frosted sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. I have a cheapie shamrock cookie cutter that has lots of compartments and angles that I'd been dreading frosting, but the stems kept breaking off when I tried cutting them out and they looked more like butterflies! I quickly scrapped that and just made large green hearts that would instead be "Kiss Me I'm Irish" cookies, but I also forgot to pack my festive St. Pat's Sprinkles, so now they're just goofy looking green frosted hearts! Oh well. They will taste just as good.

I also cooked a fake Irish Breakfast for my dad...for lunch. I didn't order any real Galtee back bacon or sausages or Shannon white/black breakfast puddings this year, but I did get some REAL (!!!) KerryGold Irish Butter and KerryGold Dubliner cheese at Hyvee via happy accident! :) That is extra thick bacon that you see, stewed tomatos, cold beans, fried eggs, fried mushrooms, and hashbrowns. I still don't have any Lyon's tea but PG Tips worked just as well. We enjoyed our breakfast/lunch. Note the festive Christmas table cloth on my mom's kitchen table! ;)

The other big highlight of my weekend was going out to a local farm to see their Jacob Sheep! My dad told me months ago that some local 4-H kids had some Jacob Sheep. I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to sheep breeds, but what I DO know I have gleaned from the pages of Spin-Off magazine and even I know that Jacob Sheep are known for their fiber. At that time I was thinking about calling and offering to buy a fleece when it came time to shear. Well then my mom had run into a family friend who was knitting a project knit from YARN that she'd gotten from this family! So Mother and I trekked out there to visit the sheep and I bought 4 skeins of 2 different shades of heathered grey from them! They raise the sheep and a man shears them every June and they send the fleeces to a mill to be picked, carded, and spun. I was SO INTERESTED to hear all this and they are going to call me when they have a new batch of yarn! They were also going to check with the mill if they can get some picked and carded batts for me to spin myself!

I had a fun but busy weekend and now I start another busy work week! A few girlfriends and I were going to go out for some green beer tonight, but any more our Urban Family is more like Ladies Aide because come 2100, we were all too tired to go anywhere or do anything! I hope everyone had a fun day though! Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Slainte! :)