Shepherd's Harvest 2013

Well, that is a mighty hefty amount of knitted goods on one person, eh?  That is because I was dressed and ready for the Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival and there are no limits on how many knit items you can wear when going to a fiber festival.

The festival is held annually at the Washington Count Fairgrounds in Lake Elmo and has become an annual tradition for me.  It is the biggest and best outdoor fiber event in Minnesota.

I was feeling the siren song of spinning, weaving (of various sorts) and rug hooking yesterday.  I say it was a siren song, because I want to focus on knitting and sewing and jewelry making this next year and adding in more crafts would spread my time and energy too thin.  So, I just took some photos and stepped away from the temptation.

These spinning wheels from Hansen Crafts were new to me.  Are any of you spinning like this?

Flax processing demo

whack! whack! whack! flax.

Hillside Honey!  I got a jar last year and this year I got two!  The price is quite fair and the honey is delicious!  I go through a lot of honey with my weekly granola batches, so it feels wonderful to have a honey stash in the cupboard.

This little boy was really fun to watch.  The musician was playing a jaw harp just for him.  The music made the kid bounce up and down subtly, mesmerized.  Totally fun to watch their interactions!

peg loom weaving

The weather was intense at the festival.  We experienced rain, snow, sleet, and ice as well as brutal winds and a few precious moments of sunshine.  Everyone was really bundled up!  My friends and I had packed a picnic, which we ended up eating in the car.

Rug hooking - Hooker's Wood & Wool

If you wanted to impulse buy a bunny, the offer of to go boxes made it entirely possible.

Rag Rug Weaving - This one was really hard for me to walk away from.  It seems really gratifying!  I took a pamphlet from J. Eldon Co. and will possibly get one of these looms in the future.

 A peak of sunshine!

Other than the honey, I purchased 3 cones of Habu Silk/Stainless Steel yarn and 2 skeins of Merino Laceweight yarn (Sun Valley Fibers).  I plan to make Paulina with these two yarns held together.

A few more notes:
I also liked Brickyard Pottery's sheep pottery.  A sheep spoon rest might be in my future.
I plan to keep this fall fiber festival on my radar.
I'm not exactly sure what this Sheep & Fiber Farm Tour is, but I am excited to find out.

Beer Tasting

first pour of the evening

As you probably know by now, Paul is really into beer and some of his friends are, too.  Last month, a few of them got together for a tasting.  Each person brought one or two special bottles of beer and everyone tasted each beer.  Since we were hosting, I got in on the tasting, too.  It is really fun to have a small portion and pay really close attention to the flavors (and color and mouth feel and all of that fancy stuff).

Since then, more people have shown an interest in participating and the decision was made to make this a monthly event.  Here are a few pics from 2nd tasting, which was primarily held on our back deck (yay!).

Doug

Tuyen

Paul

Matt

Ryan and one of the beers he brought

This time I wasn't the only girl!  Ryan's girlfriend Beth was there, too.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of her but I did get some pictures of the cute bottle cap candles she made.  I've come to realize the person to my immediate left tends to be missing from my pictures in settings like these.  The lens I use likes a bit more distance from my subject.  Next time I will have to make a point of switching seats for a bit.  Sorry, Beth!

I enjoyed the tasting while knitting away on my Buttercup.

We went through a lot of pretzels as both a palette cleanser and a strategy for warding off the buzz.

photo by Paul

The lineup of the beers we tasted.  My favorites were from Olvalde Farm and Brewing Company.  Bonus: the swingtop bottles get reused for kombucha!

Warmth, Birthdays and Crocheting

What a difference a week makes!  The past weekend was filled with sun, warmth, sandals, short sleeves, breakfast on the deck, sunbathing, birthday parties, pet sunbaths on the front porch and wonderful time with friends.  While we were at a friend's backyard birthday party (Happy Birthday, Carrie!) enjoying a bonfire, our neighbors were throwing their own backyard birthday party.  We came home to some errant balloons high up in our maple tree and a strand of crepe paper in our apple tree.  Their party knew no bounds!

In between doing some yard work and taking care of other responsibilities, I made sure to spend time listening to Fanny's warm, purring belly.  She loves it when we open up the windows and give her reign of the front porch. Her world expands during spring and fall and she relishes in it.

On Sunday, a group of friends and I drove down to Jen's house in Waseca to get a crochet lesson and hang out together.  We've missed Jen since she moved too far away to attend our regular knitting group.  

Maya

Those first steps into crochet-land are humbling for skilled knitters.  The language is different.  Luckily for us, we had Kala as our tour guide.  She was a patient teacher and helped us break the codes of sc, dc, ch, hdc, etc.

Jen and Kala

Flannery

Kelaine and Miles

Miles was there to keep our spirits high and check our work.

Miles

Thanks for the lesson, Kala!  I learned a lot.  Although, I am sure I am going to need further support since I still have a lot to learn before I tackle that fancy bolero pattern I have my eye on.

Kala

100% Happy

Tchazo is 100% happy because he had a birthday recently (11!) and to celebrate, he has been getting Spot's Stew stuffed Kongs every day for the last week.  Plus, they send treats with his medicine, which is entertaining for us and eventually good for him.

Paul and I are 100% happy because we just celebrated our 11th anniversary (we celebrate the anniversary of our first date).  The server who took our pictures was battling an orange wall.  I swear we did not go spray tanning before dinner.

We enjoyed each others' company and an utterly satisfying dinner at Spoonriver.  We don't usually repeat fancy restaurant choices for our special occasions, but we did this time with no regrets.  Paul's mom had given us a generous gift card for Christmas, which we held on to for this occasion.   Plus, Spoonriver is just so darned good it is worth going back to it!  They start with perfect ingredients and then prepare them to perfection.  Spoonriver's food is the sort of food that leaves me feeling satisfied and nourished.

I've been making the most of our Sprinter season by working on a lot of indoor projects (hooray for purging and organizing!) and developing long term plans for our yard.  I have my heart set on minimizing our grass/lawn and maximizing edibles on our tiny patch of this planet.  The possibilities make me 100% happy.

Paul is 100% happy because he has been working on perfecting his homemade pizza and found a new cast iron pan method he is keen on.

I haven't been much for blogging or taking photos lately, but I have been doing my best to appreciate all of the opportunities for happiness in my life.  Sometimes this happiness stuff means letting go of worries, perfectionism and the need to accomplish a lot with each day.  I have to work at it because it doesn't come naturally to me.  Fortunately, this is an area where Paul and I complement each other.  I share my sense of urgency and my drive to accomplish things with him and he helps me remember the importance of letting things go to make time for life and space for happiness; I contribute a list of (mostly) crossed off tasks and he makes a perfect pizza and insists that we slow down and savor it.

The Winter That Won't Let Go

One of the amazing things about the part of the world that I live in is that it has 4 distinct seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.  That is not so much the case this year.  As the local weatherman has said, this year we have Sprinter. Evidence: On April 19th, I awoke to a backyard that looked like this:

Over the next few days, that snow mostly melted away, partly due to some cold rain storms.  Then, on April 23rd, I awoke to this:

I had regretted not grabbing my camera on my way out the door after that earlier storm, so you can bet I didn't make that mistake twice.  I  took a few shots on either side of my morning bus ride and marveled at the trees during the ride.   The world was flocked, like they do with fake Christmas trees!

It was hard not to be taken in by the beauty...even if all of this snow is robbing us of a proper spring and pushing back our growing season!

We are predicted to have weather in the 70s F this weekend.  Fingers crossed that we make some progress towards the spring we are all craving so very much.