Grandma again!

It's been a long time since I posted and I joked to my daughter Anita that it took another grandchild to make me start posting again! Yes, it's true, Anita and Dave had their baby early this morning 2 1/2 weeks early. So meet Jordan!

And here is the proud papa!



This grandma got caught without some projects done! I never believed that he would come so early. So I'm off to do some knitting....

Our State Fair

I'll take a little break from catch up posts to tell you about our visit to the Minnesota State Fair. We think it's the best state fair. Certainly it ranks right up there and it sure is fun. This year I entered 3 things in the competitions. Two pieces of tatting - I won a first for the wreath Christmas ornament in the upper right hand corner (picture taken through glass so it's not very clear) and a second for the earrings in the lower right. I also was brave and entered the very competitive knitting category. I knew that there were so many entries in knitting that my chances of winning anything were slim to none and indeed I didn't place, but I'll be interested to see what the judge says about it. I entered the Vine Flower Dress that I made for Abigail. I didn't even take a picture of it at the fair. It took me a long time to spot it and it wasn't displayed so you could see it very well - understandable when you saw how much knitting there was to display. The yarn that I used was hard to splice without it being obvious and I'm sure they'll note that. Here is Abigail wearing it. It turned out so cute - of course the model helps too!!


The fair is a good place to people watch. I spotted this young man - think he's a little bitter?


And of course there is the food. My daughter suggested we try the deep fried "gourmet" pickle chips. I'm glad I shared them with the Compadre. I'm sure that my arteries will thank me! This must have been the year to go to the fair (staycations and all that) because it was more crowded than I've ever seen it. When we went into the food building to get the pickle chips it was so full that we couldn't move. More than a little claustrophic! I wonder what the fire marshall would have said. I was glad to get out of that building.

We go to the fair every year. I don't always enter my things in it but it's always more fun when I can look for my entries and see them displayed.

Catching Up

I've been wondering how to get all I have to catch up on in one post. Maybe I'll just have to catch the highlights! It's been such a busy summer and I've been neglecting my blog.

So, before my son's wedding, in early July we went on our 2 week vacation to Colorado. I had gotten a cortisone shot in each knee and I timed it perfectly so I was able to do a lot of hiking. I also made an attempt to hike up a mountain again. Did you catch that? I attempted it. No, I didn't succeed - and I decided that I like the valleys just fine! The mountains towering above us in the valley are beautiful and much easier to enjoy!! The guidebook said that the hike up to Mt. Sherman was "easy". Ha!!! For a billy goat maybe. We lost the trail at one point because of snow fields and ended up on an area of scree. The rocks were largish and unstable and I am afraid of heights. At one point I almost sat and cried - I was afraid to go forward and couldn't go back. Yikes. We met several people that were just picking their way along without hesitation but I just couldn't do it. I ended up crawling along until we found more stable footing. While we were doing that we observed other people hiking across the snowfield to avoid the rocky area and that's the way that we got down - still not easy but more doable. I hiked up to the pass or saddle area of the mountain to humor the Compadre. This is a picture at the pass - as high as I got. He claims that the best part of hiking in the mountains is seeing the other side. Oh, I didn't mention that there were gale force winds blowing up there too and it was cold. We weren't the only ones that didn't continue.

We did do many, many enjoyable hikes during our trip. I logged 34 miles of hiking. I had great intentions of continuing to walk when I got back but....


On our way to Colorado we visited Pete and Carol, some good friends who live in Texas. Yes, I know that Texas isn't really on the way to Colorado from Minnesota but they live in the panhandle and it wasn't really that much out of our way. We really enjoyed our visit. While we were there we were able to see the church that Carol is pastoring and meet some of the people from the town. The town was getting ready for their annual festival and they had a fund raiser that I had to participate in. It was called horse drop bingo - and it is played just like it sounds. The field is marked out in a bingo card and a horse is let into it and the first place he, er, drops his load so to speak, is the square that wins. I didn't win but it was fun just imagining the game. I wish that we could have seen it! Rural people have a different perspective than us city folks!

After we got back from vacation we had to hit the ground running. A wedding happening in two weeks and....we had decided to have almost all the windows and the front door in the house replaced . What were we thinking!!! That meant of course that the workers had to get to all the windows. And I have stuff!! So we moved and cleaned and shoved the piles into the areas that didn't need to be accessed and somehow it got done. Then of course after the job was done I needed to move it all back. I took the time to organize the "fiber room" and now I can actually use it! And since I had to move all my fiber related books out of the bookcase that they were jumbled into I organized them and even entered them into Ravelry. At least all those that Ravelry currently has in the system. I found a couple of duplicates that I gave to Amy. What I should do is print out a list of my books and carry it with me so that I don't by duplicates any more. The downstairs family room/sewing area is still a disaster area but I'll get to that the next time I have some panic deadline - maybe Christmas. I know myself. In the meantime I'm enjoying the newly clean areas and hoping that I can keep them that way.

Amy, Eric, and Abigail came for the wedding and we had to try to babyproof this house. It was next to impossible so we blocked off areas and did a lot of supervising of Abigail. This is getting really long so I'll catch up on their visit in my next post.

Excuses, Excuses

I've been taking some flak because I haven't posted much lately. I've got some good excuses! Here's the first one. My youngest son got married on August 1. Granted, as the mother of the groom I didn't have quite the responsibilities as when my daughters got married but nevertheless I'm using it as excuse number one.

Megan and David's ceremony was a beautiful outdoor one. It was a perfect day - even the weather cooperated! It was actually "cold" on August 1 in Minnesota. And no, for those of you that don't live in Minnesota, it's not always cold here - usual temps in August are hot and humid!

Abigail was a very cute flower girl!!

I wore the shawl that Amy made for me and Amy wore one that I have that Kelly made as a shop sample and that I bought. I don't know what pattern Kelly made but I do know that it took only 100 gm. skein of sock yarn.

Busy times here

Yes, we've gone on vacation, but we're back now. As soon as we got back we had our windows replaced in our house - which of course meant that a lot of stuff had to be moved because I have so much crafty stuff in this house and a lot of it lives in front of the windows. That means of course that it all has to be moved back. And last but not least we're getting ready for the wedding of our youngest son. So, in honor of the approaching wedding I thought you'd all like to see this video. Looks like it was a fun wedding!

A School Lunch Story

When I saw today's comic For Better or for Worse I laughed and laughed because it reminded me of a real life episode in this former school lunch lady's career.

Back in the "old days" in school lunch we made most of the food on site, from scratch. Including the bread. And during this period in my career I started my job at 6 AM at a school about 50 minutes away. So that meant that I had to leave home in the winter before the radio station announced the school closings for bad weather. This particular day I made it all the way into the school and so did my assistant despite horrible freezing rain that coated the roads with ice. We had a discussion about what to do but since school hadn't been called off we started the day's menu. Including the bread. All the while we were worried about the weather and how we would get home if our day was canceled. So of course as soon as we had the bread rising we got the call that we could go home. We had a discussion about what to do with the bread dough - we wanted to get back on the road as soon as possible before the roads got any worse and so we made the decision to put the whole bowl into the freezer and deal with it later. Now we're talking about a lot of bread dough. My memory is fuzzy but I think we used to use at least 30 pounds of flour in each batch. A lot of bread dough. I bet you can guess what happened. The next day when we got to school we couldn't believe what we saw. That dough took long enough to freeze that it had time to rise and overflow onto the floor of the freezer where it then froze into a large immovable lump. The custodian got out his ice chipper and it took a long time to chip away the frozen dough even with his help (and teasing). We needed that bowl to make that day's batch too - so the bread was late in getting started for the day. And it took a long long time to live down the "thing that ate the freezer" stories.

And just because every post needs a picture - here's one of Abigail "walking" her baby doll.

Two Years Ago Today

My Dad died two years ago and I still miss him. Funny how anniversaries bring events and people to mind. Really, today is just another day in June but to me it isn't. About this time two years ago today we were gathered around Dad's deathbed singing Amazing Grace as he left us to go to heaven. I still can't sing that hymn without tears.

Dad was a gentle soul, a wonderful father and a faithful husband to my Mom. He had a grace about him even during trying times. He was a WWII and Korea vet, he served in the Navy working with radios and radar. He was a smart man, he went to college when he got out and became an electrical engineer and worked on computers when they were first beginning. But most of all, he was our father. I still catch myself thinking I've seen him when I see an old man from the back that walks like he did or stands like he did. Or I remember him when I hear music that he liked or go to an event that he would have liked. I wish I had spent more time with him when he was alive, I wish that I would have had him over for dinner more often. Towards the end he was disoriented and confused but he sure loved to eat! I know I'll see him when I get to heaven but for now all I have are the memories.

Thanks Amy

I'm a lucky Mom. My daughter Amy knit an awesome shawl for me - it took her a year to do it! She told me that she wanted to knit something for me and I suggested a shawl. She thought it was a good idea since she didn't think that she'd ever wear one and she'd been wanting to make one. Heh. I gave her a pattern and yarn and she agreed. I did warn her that it was a hard pattern but she's never been one to back off from a challenge! She reminded me a few days ago on the phone that this was her first lace project!! She also admitted that she had a very hard time parting with it. I can see why, but I'm very glad she did!

So here I present - Sivia Harding's Shetland Garden Faroese Shawl, made by Amy. Wow! And Thanks.

Spinning with a Bunny

I told the group at knitting this afternoon about this and they wanted me to post this picture that I took at the Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival . It was really a cool thing to see. The bundle of fur in her lap is an angora bunny and she's just spinning directly from the it! The bunny was happy to oblige. Oh, and I asked, his name is Spot. This was the only picture I took at Shepherd's Harvest - I remembered my camera just as we were leaving. Camnesia - forgetting that you have a camera and should be taking pictures!

Happy Mother's Day

You may have seen this before but here it is with words!

Ketchup and Diet Coke

I'm sure that our knitting group is like most others and many topics come up for discussion when we get together. A few weeks ago some of our group (I'm looking at you Miss T) were totally grossed out and appalled when this "recipe" was discussed. Apparently it's a Weight Watchers idea and several of the group vouched for its tastyness. I decided what the heck, I'll try it. So I mixed 12 oz. of diet Coke and 1 cup of ketchup together and poured it over chicken breasts and boiled it all until the sauce was of BBQ sauce consistancy and then....we ate it! The Compadre pronounced it good and he saved the leftover sauce - he wants me to make it again!! I think that my homemade BBQ sauce is better but this is sure easier. I wonder if the diet Coke makes all the calories go away?

Guest post by Amy

I haven't been blogging much lately. I keep writing blog posts in my head and then never get around to posting them! I even told the Compadre yesterday that I'm tired of my blog!! I hope I get over it! Anyway my daughter Amy came to the rescue. Here is a guest blog post about their trip to Canada. She got to go to knit night and the Yarn Harlot was there! How cool is that - I'm jealous.

Canada, by Amy

A year ago I wrote a guest blog about my trip to the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival. Well this year we took a family vacation to Toronto, Canada instead. It was well worth it!

Day 1

Eric wanted to go to Toronto for a couple reasons and they both had to do with sports (for the record, I like sports too). The first thing we did in Toronto was go to the Hockey Hall of Fame. We could have spent all day there if we weren’t so wiped out. It was a lot of fun and Abigail enjoyed walking around (the exhibits were safely behind glass).

I wanted to go to Toronto for several reasons, the first of which was to go to the Lettuce Knit SnB. I was hoping to meet Laura of Cosmicpluto Knits (blog) and Stephanie of Yarnharlot (blog) and I met both! Of course I almost chickened out of talking to either of them, but Abigail makes it easier to talk to people. Stephanie remembered Abigail from last year when we saw her speak. I somehow managed to cast on for a toe up sock and I bought yarn in a gorgeous rust red for Laura’s B-side Cardigan. Space was tight and Abigail got cold outside so we left early, but I was still on cloud nine for the entire walk back to the hotel (at least a mile) and I think I talked Eric’s ear off. Of course, afterwards I think of all the dumb things I said or didn’t say to the people I met. Sorry mom, I forgot to tell them that you knit the sweater Abigail was wearing, not me.

Day 2

On our second day of vacation we went to the CN tower, which is the tallest building in the world. We went up to the glass floor level and looked down at the ground beneath us. Abigail was completely unfazed by it and was more interested in the cheerios I had.

Day 3

We went to the zoo, based on a lot of recommendations. It was a very long subway and bus ride, but well worth it for Abigail. She loved the tigers, the elephants and the hippos. She even tried to make the elephant noise that Daddy made. She especially enjoyed walking down the trails by herself. We really wore her out.

After she got some rest, we went to a Blue Jays game where Abigail got to run around some more. It wasn’t very crowded and we let her walk up part of the steep ramp by herself. Unfortunately, she wanted to run around during the game too and Daddy only saw half an inning.

Day 4

We were walking through the mall when we saw on a TV that the Blue Jays were in the 3^rd inning. Whoops! We had tickets to that game! We rushed back to the hotel and sure enough, our tickets said 1pm NOT 7pm like we thought. We made it to the game in the middle of the 6^th inning, which turned out pretty well. Abigail sat through several innings and then I let her run around while Daddy saw more of the game. Afterwards, Abigail got to “run” the bases, though I don’t think she thought much of Ace, the Blue Jay’s mascot.

Day 5

We’re all glad to be home. While waiting at the gate to board the plane, Abigail handed us her pajamas. We changed her and she slept the whole way home and then some more!

Perfect, easy peeling, boiled eggs

Back when I worked in a commercial kitchen making perfect hard boiled eggs involved steaming them in the steamer in a perforated pat for exactly 14 minutes. It was easy. But now that I'm retired I have to use the stove and boil them. Can you believe that I had to do some research into how to make the perfect boiled egg? And what I found was that there are many, many opinions on how to do this. I wanted an egg that didn't have that gray overcooked edge on the yolk and that was consistently easy to peel. Two separate problems to solve. I already knew that 10 minutes of boiling gave me an acceptable egg most of the time but the problem was the peeling. I like to make deviled eggs for pot luck type of situations and you want your deviled eggs to look appealing (get the pun) hee, hee. So with my research here is what I worked out. Your mileage may vary, this is what works for the altitude in Minnesota. I know for a fact that it doesn't work in the Colorado mountains at 9,000 feet - the eggs have to cook for some unknown time longer - I'll work on it when we go to the cabin this summer.

Take the eggs out of the refrigerator and put them into a pan. Fill the pan with HOT tap water and put it on medium heat. Bring to a steady but not hard boil and boil for 10 minutes (use a timer). When the timer has about 2 minutes left to go, prepare an ice cold water bath for the eggs. Put a tray of ice cubes into a bowl and fill with cold tap water. When the timer goes off, immediatly drain the eggs and rinse with cold tap water. Then put them into the ice cold water bath and leave them until the ice melts. When you peel them, crack them all around the middle of the egg and the shell should just come off in large sections. Works for me - try it and let me know if it works for you. Popular folk lore says that you should only use old eggs for boiling but I've used them fresh from the farm and it's worked.

Here's one of the things I do with boiled eggs. This "recipe" comes from my grandmother so that must qualify it as an heritage recipe - except that my kids and the Compadre think it's gross so the recipe is bound to stop with me. Anyway, take a peeled egg and slice it. Drizzle oil and vinegar on it and then sprinkle salt and pepper on it. Mmmm, brings back memories every time.

If Only I Could Remember My Camera

If I could remember my camera then I would have wonderful pictures of the cute alpacas that I saw at the Minnesota Alpaca Expo last Saturday. It was a fun day. Although I have no knowledge whatsoever about judging alpacas it was fun to watch. Everywhere you looked there was a cute alpaca head looking back at you! Some of my friend's alpacas placed very well. I had the most fun watching the kids with their alpacas play "Simon says" during the lunch break. Little kids with their alpaca on a leash leading it around the ring. Cute and cuter. But sorry, I forgot my camera, you'll just have to imagine it. Oh, and there were vendors - yarn vendors. I bought another kit to make yet another tulip sweater for Abigail! I love, love, love making that sweater and Abigail looks so cute in it. Christmas present here we come.

And if I had thought that there would be a camera opportunity I would have brought it to the sock machine get together last Monday. We got a tour of the wooden box factory that is a family business for one of our members. It was like going back in time - the boxes are made with very old technology and this is one of the only places that makes wooden berry boxes. We saw the basswood logs being made into the thin veneer and scored and sliced into the pieces for the boxes and then watched them being stapled into the actual boxes. I just love factory tours and this was especially great because of its history and because I know one of the people involved.

I learned how to make the tiny felted mittens on my sock machine on Monday too. They are fun to make. The idea is to make coin purses out of them by sewing velcro in the top. When I got home and showed the Compadre what I had learned he started laughing! He pointed out that the entry for Monday on the Yarn Harlot's daily calendar was about making mittens because they're a small project. And she had the idea to sell them as small purses (tongue in cheek) because you don't need as many mittens as you do socks. And here I was actually making small mitten purses! Talk about a coincidence.


I'll leave you with a picture of a different baby! This is Natalie, she's the daughter of my nephew and his wife. They were visiting last week. Also in the picture is my son and his fiancée and my daughter. What a cute baby.

It Was A Very Good Trip

The Compadre and I went on a quick trip out east to visit Abigail – and her parents of course. The Compadre was on spring break. Funny, now that I don’t have to worry about the school schedules the Compadre does. We had such fun playing with a 15 month old Abigail. She is enjoying her mobility as she walks all over. Her other grandparents came too and so Abigail had what we called “staff”. If she started out walking somewhere she looked to see if someone was following – and if no one was she made sure one of us did! Amy was a little worried that when we all left Abigail would be a handful but as of our last phone call she handled it fine.

For such a short trip we packed in a lot of visiting, yarn shopping and eating out. I visited Amy’s favorite yarn shop – Stitches with Style on the way in from the airport. It was fun to see that Abigail is such a regular at the shop that the staff gets down on the floor and plays with her. She’s also been well trained that she leaves the yarn alone!! She does have her own yarn that she can play with. I did have to stimulate the economy there and I bought some sock yarn and a cool necklace made out of slices of aluminum knitting needles. We ate at wonderful Malaysian restaurant twice while we were there. I wasn’t too adventurous but I did eat a dish called Fried Pearl Noodles. The noodles were kind of the shape and consistency of gummy worms but they tasted like fried rice. Very good. We also visited Amy’s other favorite yarn shop Vulcan’s Rest Fibers. This shop is in a small town on the Chesapeake Bay. I wished we had had more time to explore the area. This shop had spinning and weaving supplies. Of course I had to stimulate the economy there also and I bought some more yarn and some roving. I wanted Amy to use some of the roving to practice her spinning but she is reluctant to use “good” fiber to practice. Keep spinning Amy, you’ll get better and better and then you’ll be happy to use good fiber.

Abigail was dedicated at their church on Sunday. It worked out that the dedication could be scheduled when we were there and so that was a bonus. We got to meet a lot of Amy and Eric’s friends too. Abigail wore a dress for her dedication that I had made when my girls were little. This particular one is one of a matching set that I made for Amy and her sister and it was worn by Anita. I need to re-learn how to smock so that I can make some cute dresses just for Abigail. Another bonus was getting to know Eric’s parents better. It was fun to spend time with them.

Take a look at this

I've been working making bread from the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day cookbook but I have to say I need to do it a few more times before giving you my review. But in the meantime I discovered this video of a 93 year old woman giving her stories and recipes from the depression. I can remember my mother feeding us pasta with ketchup on it and as kids we liked it!! She has a total of 10 videos if you like this one.

Quick Turkey Alfedo Soup

Yesterday we had a biggish snowstorm. Yesterday I was scheduled to drive my younger son from work to school because his car died and he needed me. Yesterday the Compadre had class to teach in the evening and he was sick. I'm sure the snowstorm wasn't a blessing to everyone but to us it was. School was canceled so I didn't have to drive in the snowstorm and the Compadre got to come home and have a sick "evening". He's a busy man - he only gets to be sick for one evening. Tell that to his body!

So I was planning to have the evening to myself because the Campadre would be teaching. My dinner on those nights is usually leftovers, or popcorn, or whatever I can scrounge up - you get the picture. Confession is good for the soul I hear. But the Compadre came home and he wanted something to eat! And he was sick. I checked the cupboards for chicken soup and the cupboard was bare (of Campbells chicken soup that it). So I remembered that my daughter - you know, Abigail's mother - had told me of a yummy alfredo soup that she made. With the wonders of cell phone technology I called her up and asked her for the recipe. She told me how she made it and then I proceeded to make it my way. And it was yummy!

It all started with a Pampered Chef recipe that Amy had. The basic premise is a jar of alfredo sauce and a can of chicken broth. It also included broccoli - but if you remember my last post - I can't do broccoli. So, here's what I did.

I found a cup of cooked diced turkey meat in the freezer and put it in a pan.
I dumped a jar of alredo sauce in the pan
I added about 3/4 of a box of shelf stable chicken broth (about 24 0z.)

I stirred it all up and started it heating.

Then I added:

1 cup of sliced carrots
1/2 cup sliced celery including the leaves
1/2 of a medium onion, diced
1 clove's worth of chopped, bottled, garlic

I cooked the soup until the vegetables were done and then we sat down to eat it. Yummy. Turkey soup for the grumpy, sick, Compadre. He pronounced it good. And it was super fast to make.

By the way - if you have extra cooked turkey or chicken meat, dicing it up and freezing it in small baggies make for easy meals later on. And if I had some, homemade broth would have been better - less salt and all the other mystery ingredients in the boxed stuff. I'll have to get on that - soon.