Technically Impaired

Yesterday I had the privilege of taking care of my great grand daughter for a couple hours. Here she is, now 12 weeks old. This experience showed me how ignorant I am of how to operate the items in use now for babies. Here's how my day went. It was time to give her a bottle. Every time I've taken care of Rylea before, they have left prepared bottles for me, but this time I was on my own. Luckily, I had asked how much she takes, so I could read the instructions on the formula can to prepare it. But, there was another piece that was supposed to go between the bottle and nipple-there were 2 kinds! Which one? Which side goes into the bottle and which end is up? Luckily, there was a dirty bottle assembled on the counter, so I could figure that out. Figuring out their microwave was not difficult, after I found the switch for the kitchen light so I could read the small numbers. The bottle came out, but it wasn't warm enough. Easy enough to change that, only to get it too hot. (I didn't use many bottles for my babies, nor were microwaves in use-we put the bottles in a pan of water which we heated until it was warm enough.) I remembered the old trick of holding it under cold water to cool it off. After feeding, the diaper change went fairly uneventful because I had used disposable diapers on my grandchildren so knew front from back. But then it came to the disposal! They have a diaper genie. I got the cover open, put the diaper in, but had no idea how to turn it into a diaper sausage so I just left it on top. Luckily it wasn't a dirty diaper. After a while, she was ready for a nap-I thought- so knowing she liked to fall asleep in her swing I tried that. What to do with all those straps for securing her in? I did figure that out after playing around for a while. Put the tray in front of her, and turn it on. Yeah, but how? I finally pushed the right button and got it to swing. When the time came to take her out, I tried reversing the process. But, it wouldn't turn off! That's OK, I took her out while it was swinging, I'd figure out how to turn it off later. I still chuckle thinking of me unlatching the tray and unbuckling the straps while she was swinging back and forth. I never did get it turned off, so resorted to taking out the battery. My grand daughter didn't laugh too hard when I told her!

Struggling to turn over. It's so frustrating!

In Memorium

I just heard that Ann Swanson from Two Old Bags died yesterday. The knitting world will miss her! She and her partner, Kate, just sold the business to Knitting by Design in Neenah, WI this fall.Check her obituary at http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=5&A=422818

Mn Knitters' Days 2009

MN Knitters' Days was again a great success. Here are some of the 40 participants. This year we celebrated our 25th year and I think I was at the first one when it was held at the Salvation Army Camp in Silver Lake organized by Judith Dahlen. It is now held at Villa Maria Center in Fontenac, MN.

Cheryl Oberle (left) was the instructor this year, teaching Fair Isle knitting and steeking. Sheryl Hill has been the organizer for several years and does a great job.

Some of the projects-a choice of mittens, wrist warmers or a cowl.

I Can't Help It!

My Great Grand Daughter, Rylea at 2 months old.

Rylea's half sister, Dani, on her second birthday. Elmo is her favorite!

October 12?

Knitting Purchases

In Decorah, I bought the Elsebeth Lavold book which was on the post about the Vesterheim Museum.

These are two patterns I got at the Sow's Ear in Verona, Wisconsin. They are both patterns of Amy E. Anderson, a Madison designer.

Chains 'n Balloons Sock pattern from Fiber Wild!, Galena's yarn shop and an apparently local designer, Amy Loberg. www.FiberWild.com The yarn is Classic Elite Yarns Alpaca Sox.

A couple weeks ago when I was in Ely, Minnesota, I was in Sisu Designs where I got two patterns by local designers. The scarf, A River Runs Through It, was designed by Susan Saari and the yarn is Classic Elite Fresco, 60% wool, 30% alpaca, and 10% angora. The man's sweater pattern is Tree of Life Cardigan by Susan Catton.

Mount Horub, Wisconsin

The near by town of Mount Horub was also a fun town. It had some shops, but the main attraction is their main street, also known as "The Trollway" because of the carved wooden troll statues. According to Norwegian folklore, the trolls bring good luck. It also has a new yarn shop which had opened three days before we were there.

The Tourist

The Gardener

The Accordion Player

Sweet Swill and her pet pig.


Lunch stop at a little diner in Mauston, Wisconsin brought us our dinner rolls! Note the size compared to the crackers. My husband and I each had some for breakfast this morning and only ate about half of one.

New Glarus, Wisconsin

From Decorah, we drove to St Charles, Illinois to visit with some of my husband's high school classmates. Then, we back-tracked (don't ask!) to Galena, Illinois to see the town. It is a fun, historic town, built when the Galena River was navigable and lead mining was being done. Lots of beautiful old homes, including many with history of Ulysses S. Grant as he lived in Galena for a time. Sorry, I took no pictures.

Our next stop was New Glarus, Wisconsin. It is the site of immigration from Switzerland and still maintains much of the architecture of Switzerland. All through the town are these decorated cows, plus lots of fun shops!

I had to get this picture of the bingo cow-done for "The Home" because bingo is the favorite activity of the residents of this home and every one I ever visited in my professional life.

While in New Glarus, we went to the nearby town of Monticello, to eat at the gourmet restaurant, The Dining Room at 209 Main. Oh, so good! http://www.209main.com/

New Glarus if the site of a brewery where Spotted Cow beer (plus some others) is brewed. It is well liked by my children, so this is what our trunk looked like coming home. The beer is only sold in Wisconsin. I actually learned of it from a friend in Texas who brings it home whenever she comes to Wisconsin for Door County Knitting Camp.

Vesterheim Museum

Last week, my husband and I took a road trip through parts of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Rather than posting one long entry, I am going to divide it into 2 0r 3. Our first stop on a cold, rainy day was in Decorah, Iowa at the Vesterheim Museum, a Norwegian, American Museum documenting the immigration of the Norwegians to America. This is the display of knitted items.

A new book has just been published, Norwegian Handknits-Heirloom Designs from Vesterheim Museum, by Sue Flanders and Janine Kosel. It is a good book based on items from the museum-behind-the-scenes, as they say in the forward as this picture shows just about all that were on display.

The special display when we went was called, Knitting Along the Viking Trail, featuring knitted items by Elsebeth Lavold, famous for her Viking Knits Project. All the Viking Knits patterns are inspired by Viking Age artifacts. Sadly, the display closes October 11. After seeing the display, I HAD to go to the yarn shop in town and got this book. Her fist book is called Knitting Along the Viking Trail, and now three more Viking Knits Collections have been published. I must get the others!

This blanket is made up of some of her swatches, some have been used in her designs. The following pictures are a couple of the sweaters on display. The pictures are not of real good quality because I could not use flash.

This is the inspiration for one of her designs.