Back from 'Buquerque

Future yarn source?

I made it back from Albuquerque late last night. It was an awesome workshop! I had high hopes of visiting the LYS but with the precious free time we had, I chose mountains and such over yarn...

View from the hotel room:

The Tram was closed for maintenance but we did drive up as far as the ski lodge on the other side for this view:


More mountains (can you tell I've never been around mountains before?):

Weirdest food tried? Enchiladas (made with blue corn tortillas) topped with a fried egg!

Point Me In the Direction Of.......

.......Albuquerque..Anyone else remember the Partridge family song??



I'm headed to Albuquerque for a couple of days of training. I'm going with 5 other people so not sure what our free time will consist of but there is one yarn store I'd like to get to (the only LYS). I'm looking forward to slightly cooler temperatures and mountains...oh yea..and the training!

MN Yarn Crawl

ETA: Here's a link for a pic of the gnomes.

I went on a Minnesota Yarn Crawl of sorts while on my recent magical MN weekend.

Yarn/Patterns=Ravelry links
Stores=WWW links

My first stop was the Yarn Garage. Wow! What a a selection! Floor to ceiling full of yarn...plus very friendly staff!!I walked out with some Independently Dyed Yarn (supposedly from a band in England I'm a sucker for a good story), Ty -Dy sock yarn, and a cute sock pattern.

Our next stop was The Tangled Skein-love the name!! There, I couldn't help myself and bought some Schaefer Yarn-Anne and Patagonia cotton yarn(from the clearance shelf).


The next day I convinced my brother in law to drive to New Ulm where I visited the Nadel Kunst (no website) and found some really fun patterns for pumpkins, snowmen and snowbabies, along with a pattern for a gnome. I also picked up some Trekking sockyarn.

Sunday I drug my sister to her LYS, Mary Lue's Yarn & Ewe and really had a good time. It was probably my favorite store. Not only did they have great yarn, but nice sheep-themed items (including nightshirts and journals)! I ended up with some locally spun wool/mohair blend, Araucania Ranco Multy, Trekking XXL, and a few other sheep-themed goodies.


I loved seeing different yarn stores and discovering "New to me" yarns. Now if I could just find the time to knit it all up!!

MN Recap

Whew! I finally have some time to write about my quick trip to Minnesota last weekend.

I originally went to see my niece in one of her final performances (she graduates in the Spring) of college theater. She played the role of Ellen in the University of Minnesota-Mankato's production of Miss Saigon. I, of course thought she was brilliant but I may be a bit biased. Here's a link to an early EARLY rehearsal of her performance.

Mollie, infact picked me up from the airport Friday morning and we spent the rest of the day at the Mall of America-can you believe there's an amusement park INSIDE the mall?

We stopped at a few yarn shops as we made our way from Mpls to Mankato (another post for that) and an apple orchard. Just have a few left from the "peck" of apples I brought back.


I also brought back some zucchini from my sister's garden which I used some in this Orange Zucchini bread recipe today. I was even able to freeze another 4 cups of shredded zucchini for future use.


The quirkiest thing I brought back? Why it's an old Choo-Choo Cherry cup my Mom had from the set we used growing up.

She gave each us kids a cup for remembrance. Anyone else remember the Funny Face drink packs?

Next post will be about the 4 yarn shops I squeezed into my visit!

Back From Minnesota!

I just made it back from a quickie trip to Minnesota! Flew in Friday morning and just got back a few hours ago. I'll write more about the purpose of the trip and the yarn shops I visited in the upcoming days. Until then, here are some pictures of the mini-Fall I was able to experience to tie you over.

Skunk Cake

Episode from school today:

8th grader as he enters my room: WHOA! Miss! Did someone lay a stink bomb in your room??!!

Me: What are you talking about? I don't smell a thing..

Next 8 students who enter my room: Peeeee ewwwww!! What's that smell???!!! Gross!!! Someone farted!!!


I finally get them settled down and turn on a fan to move the air around wondering if a student from the previous class pooted on his way out. Then about 10 minutes later ask one of my students what exactly it smelled like....Her response: A cake and a skunk....

Duh! That makes sense! I'm right next door to the Living Skills classroom/kitchen where they were baking cakes and it did smell like a skunk when I first entered the room this morning-actually several areas on campus did. I must have gotten used to the smell being in it all morning.

Skunk Cake!!!

..sigh...another exciting day in Middle School.....

Crunchy Minnows

Thought I'd share about some new things I've stumbled across.

1. Knit Map-What a great way to search out yarn stores! It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing. Plus it was fun to see all the yarn stores I'd go by if I was driving from here to Minnesota via I35 by just clicking and dragging my way north.

2. Former SA SnBer Kim has opened her own Etsy shop and is selling memory boards. When I spied a purple one I just had to get it! I've already placed one of my knitting pins on it and just love it!

3. "H D" is my favorite premium ice cream so when I saw this flavor I just had to try it. It's so good and hard to portion out the 4 servings per package (I can usually squeeze out three). They also have a Dark Chocolate Pomegranate that's delicious too!

4. This morning I decided to treat myself and try the outrageously priced oatmeal from S-bux. The oatmeal was actually quite good-although easily can be done at home much cheaper-which I will do in the future. But what really caught my eye was the new hot chocolate flavors, specifically the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. Good grief it was yummy! I had finished it in a matter of minutes!! It was a bit rich though and would probably go for the "tall" rather than the "grande" next time and/or try it with nonfat milk and sans whip cream.


5. Finally, from the "miss" department were these:

Officially they are rice crackers wrapped with seaweed (I thought they'd be a healthy snack), but they taste like crunchy minnows to me...And that's not a good thing! I'm sure if you like that type of thing, you'll like these. Me, not so much, but then again I don't like things that taste too fishy.