State Fair
I am so beyond tired, I fell asleep on the couch while nursing Sophie after putting Julie to bed. Yet, here I am ready to tell you all about the wonderful day we had at the State Fair and maybe a few other things as well. We got up and out of the house as quickly as we reasonably could for a Sunday morning, which meant that we left just before 10. Here's Sophie all bright eyed and bushy- tailed haired ready to go.
Here we are waiting to buy our tickets to get in. I wanted to take a picture of the long line behind us, but I felt a little weird facing a bunch of strangers and taking their pictures. This is a pretty good view of our "State Fair Stroller" - a hand-me-down DuoGlider that someone gave us, which we couldn't fit Sophie's car seat into when she was smaller, so we had to buy a new one anyway, but this one was great to take to the Fair because we didn't have to worry about spilling stuff on it or potentially running it through a pile of horse poo or something. It worked out great.
First stop was the Creative Activities Building. I could have spent hours in there, but unfortunately the rest of my family has limited patience for staring at wooly crafts. A couple of beautiful modular garments caught my eye, so I thought I'd show them to you - these are not mine, just ones that I think are pretty cool. A jacket...
Sorry for the really bad picture, but it's hard when you're carrying a baby, shooting through glass, and the subject is half-hidden behind other garments. This is a skirt, made out of hexagonal modules.
Alright, and now for a little bragging. Here is my little baby hat that won the blue ribbon. Again, sorry for the poor photography. The lace blanket in the upper right of the picture is also mine, but it didn't get a ribbon. I can't wait to read the comments on that one - that was the piece I thought had the best chance of all of them.
Here is the baby sweater that won a fourth prize - it took a little searching to find it hidden in a corner at the bottom of the display.
I found the "monkey dresses" that my friend had told me about. They are amazing. It's one of those things that you have to see to believe. This first one is knit, and those little white things under each monkey head are name tags.
This one looks woven, it really made me laugh. It's an amazing design, just - well - hard for me to wrap my brain around, and very funny.
This collection was also amazing. It's what looks like an antique miniature doll, and someone crocheted a teeny-tiny wardrobe for her, with all the accessories imaginable and a dollhouse and a snowman to boot! I didn't see this one till I had already pushed the limit on time allowed in the Creative Activities building by my family, so I didn't get that good of a look at it, but it was neat. I really wish I could go back to the fair some week day by myself for a couple hours just so I could go hang around the crafts and stare at them all more thoroughly. (And of course I would eat more fair food too.)
Next stop was the new-this-year butterfly house. Joe almost didn't want us to go in because you had to pay an extra $3 per person, but we all did go in and it was worth it. It's a big room, full of butterflies of different varieties roosting and fluttering about. They were landing everywhere, including all parts of people. There were little kids walking around with up to ten butterflies all over their bodies. There were the standard monarchs, plus at least four or five other varieties, including some large ones. Julie didn't want to touch one while we were in there, but she enjoyed looking at the ones on Mommy and Daddy, and talked about them afterwards. It was really neat watching the ones that landed on my hands stick out their long curly tongues and taste to see if I was something to eat or not.
This was also really cool - a wall of hatching Monarchs. You could see some in their cocoons getting ready to hatch, and we stood there and watched one come out of it's cocoon and start to unfold its wings over the course of about 10 minutes.
After that, we headed to the carousel. The look on Julie's face as she rode it was priceless. And there was no electrical tape holding things together as far as I could tell.
We found a nice grassy, shady spot on a steep hill behind the roasted corn stand to spread out our blanket and eat a picnic lunch - mostly greasy fair food, plus a few things from home for Julie. I had a corn dog, fried green tomatoes, roasted corn and lemonade. We got french fries and corn for Julie, and I ate some of the fries too. Joe had a Gyro and some cheese curds (which I tasted as well.) I love eating at the fair. It's not food that you'd want to eat all year round, but I feel like you have to let yourself go a little now and then. I regret a little bit not getting a funnel cake or an elephant ear, and there is a really good brownie stand across from Creative Activities that I would have liked to patronize as well, but my stomach was full, and the family only has so much patience.
After lunch, it was almost time for the parade, so we scoped out a good spot and sat down to watch it. Julie really enjoyed the marching bands, and I enjoyed sitting there with both of my girls on my lap, looking down to see them both smiling at the drums and the uniforms. I wish someone had taken a picture of us at that moment. By that time in the afternoon, it was getting very crowded - here we are headed toward the animal barns - just look at the sea of humanity!
The plan was to walk through the Miracle of Birth building, then go see the other animals. But I was getting too hot and tired, and I could tell that everyone else had had enough too. We made one last stop for snow cones, and headed out to our car. Here's Julie with a blue tongue, eating the last of hers in the car while we waited to get out of the parking lot.
What a day!
Oh, and I have an update on Julie's pants. I stayed up way too late last night finishing up the legs so that I could join them together and work on the top part. It feels good to see this project starting to look like what it's going to be when it's done. I'd really like to finish these before Julie's birthday on September 12th so I can wrap them up and give them to her as a gift. That means I've put the blanket on the back burner for the moment - a very difficult thing to do, but I'm still going to try for at least one square a day, just not more than that till the pants are done.
Also, here's a picture of the second skein of yarn I dyed. The more I look at this mess, the less happy I am with it. I was really going for paler versions of the blue and teal, but what I got was just splotchy, uneven mess. I suppose I can go back and overdye it like I did the first, only this time I'll have to do all three colors, plus the burgundy where the white is now. I admit, I've been lazy about doing much research at all on getting the dyes to saturate properly - I'm just mimicking what I've seen other people do on their blogs. I did soak the yarn in warm soapy water before dyeing it, and I did let it sit for plenty long in the dye bath. The yarn wasn't twisted or otherwise tightly constrained as far as I could control, either. I may have to reconsider using the Ball jars and maybe switch to doing one color at a time in a flatter pan. This makes me unhappy, though, since even though I'm using food-grade dyes I don't like the idea of using my food-grade pans to cook them in. I'm going to table this project for the moment and come back to it once I've forgiven the current skein of yarn enough to try to fix it. Thanks a bunch for all your kind comments about the first skein!
Tomorrow, an announcement on the sport weight yarn. I've made up my mind about it, but this post is too long already, and I figure I've lost most of you to boredom by the end of this post anyway.
Here we are waiting to buy our tickets to get in. I wanted to take a picture of the long line behind us, but I felt a little weird facing a bunch of strangers and taking their pictures. This is a pretty good view of our "State Fair Stroller" - a hand-me-down DuoGlider that someone gave us, which we couldn't fit Sophie's car seat into when she was smaller, so we had to buy a new one anyway, but this one was great to take to the Fair because we didn't have to worry about spilling stuff on it or potentially running it through a pile of horse poo or something. It worked out great.
First stop was the Creative Activities Building. I could have spent hours in there, but unfortunately the rest of my family has limited patience for staring at wooly crafts. A couple of beautiful modular garments caught my eye, so I thought I'd show them to you - these are not mine, just ones that I think are pretty cool. A jacket...
Sorry for the really bad picture, but it's hard when you're carrying a baby, shooting through glass, and the subject is half-hidden behind other garments. This is a skirt, made out of hexagonal modules.
Alright, and now for a little bragging. Here is my little baby hat that won the blue ribbon. Again, sorry for the poor photography. The lace blanket in the upper right of the picture is also mine, but it didn't get a ribbon. I can't wait to read the comments on that one - that was the piece I thought had the best chance of all of them.
Here is the baby sweater that won a fourth prize - it took a little searching to find it hidden in a corner at the bottom of the display.
I found the "monkey dresses" that my friend had told me about. They are amazing. It's one of those things that you have to see to believe. This first one is knit, and those little white things under each monkey head are name tags.
This one looks woven, it really made me laugh. It's an amazing design, just - well - hard for me to wrap my brain around, and very funny.
This collection was also amazing. It's what looks like an antique miniature doll, and someone crocheted a teeny-tiny wardrobe for her, with all the accessories imaginable and a dollhouse and a snowman to boot! I didn't see this one till I had already pushed the limit on time allowed in the Creative Activities building by my family, so I didn't get that good of a look at it, but it was neat. I really wish I could go back to the fair some week day by myself for a couple hours just so I could go hang around the crafts and stare at them all more thoroughly. (And of course I would eat more fair food too.)
Next stop was the new-this-year butterfly house. Joe almost didn't want us to go in because you had to pay an extra $3 per person, but we all did go in and it was worth it. It's a big room, full of butterflies of different varieties roosting and fluttering about. They were landing everywhere, including all parts of people. There were little kids walking around with up to ten butterflies all over their bodies. There were the standard monarchs, plus at least four or five other varieties, including some large ones. Julie didn't want to touch one while we were in there, but she enjoyed looking at the ones on Mommy and Daddy, and talked about them afterwards. It was really neat watching the ones that landed on my hands stick out their long curly tongues and taste to see if I was something to eat or not.
This was also really cool - a wall of hatching Monarchs. You could see some in their cocoons getting ready to hatch, and we stood there and watched one come out of it's cocoon and start to unfold its wings over the course of about 10 minutes.
After that, we headed to the carousel. The look on Julie's face as she rode it was priceless. And there was no electrical tape holding things together as far as I could tell.
We found a nice grassy, shady spot on a steep hill behind the roasted corn stand to spread out our blanket and eat a picnic lunch - mostly greasy fair food, plus a few things from home for Julie. I had a corn dog, fried green tomatoes, roasted corn and lemonade. We got french fries and corn for Julie, and I ate some of the fries too. Joe had a Gyro and some cheese curds (which I tasted as well.) I love eating at the fair. It's not food that you'd want to eat all year round, but I feel like you have to let yourself go a little now and then. I regret a little bit not getting a funnel cake or an elephant ear, and there is a really good brownie stand across from Creative Activities that I would have liked to patronize as well, but my stomach was full, and the family only has so much patience.
After lunch, it was almost time for the parade, so we scoped out a good spot and sat down to watch it. Julie really enjoyed the marching bands, and I enjoyed sitting there with both of my girls on my lap, looking down to see them both smiling at the drums and the uniforms. I wish someone had taken a picture of us at that moment. By that time in the afternoon, it was getting very crowded - here we are headed toward the animal barns - just look at the sea of humanity!
The plan was to walk through the Miracle of Birth building, then go see the other animals. But I was getting too hot and tired, and I could tell that everyone else had had enough too. We made one last stop for snow cones, and headed out to our car. Here's Julie with a blue tongue, eating the last of hers in the car while we waited to get out of the parking lot.
What a day!
Oh, and I have an update on Julie's pants. I stayed up way too late last night finishing up the legs so that I could join them together and work on the top part. It feels good to see this project starting to look like what it's going to be when it's done. I'd really like to finish these before Julie's birthday on September 12th so I can wrap them up and give them to her as a gift. That means I've put the blanket on the back burner for the moment - a very difficult thing to do, but I'm still going to try for at least one square a day, just not more than that till the pants are done.
Also, here's a picture of the second skein of yarn I dyed. The more I look at this mess, the less happy I am with it. I was really going for paler versions of the blue and teal, but what I got was just splotchy, uneven mess. I suppose I can go back and overdye it like I did the first, only this time I'll have to do all three colors, plus the burgundy where the white is now. I admit, I've been lazy about doing much research at all on getting the dyes to saturate properly - I'm just mimicking what I've seen other people do on their blogs. I did soak the yarn in warm soapy water before dyeing it, and I did let it sit for plenty long in the dye bath. The yarn wasn't twisted or otherwise tightly constrained as far as I could control, either. I may have to reconsider using the Ball jars and maybe switch to doing one color at a time in a flatter pan. This makes me unhappy, though, since even though I'm using food-grade dyes I don't like the idea of using my food-grade pans to cook them in. I'm going to table this project for the moment and come back to it once I've forgiven the current skein of yarn enough to try to fix it. Thanks a bunch for all your kind comments about the first skein!
Tomorrow, an announcement on the sport weight yarn. I've made up my mind about it, but this post is too long already, and I figure I've lost most of you to boredom by the end of this post anyway.
posted by Shelly Kang at 10:27 PM
9 Comments:
Not at all, it was an exciting post from beginning to end. I was pretty much thinking I wouldn't do the fair with my family this year, but you made it sound like so much fun. I'm gonna have to rethink that one.
I so want to visit the Minnesota state fair! Not the one here, it's much too hot, but Kathy is always telling me how cool yours is. Unfortunately, school here always starts about the second week of August (!!), so we can't go.
Looks like both your girls, and their parents, had a really good time!
Bored? Hardly! :) Sounds like a really fun day. Could almost smell the grease when you were describing the food. I think it must be lunch time!
I read about your nice day with your family :)
The fair looked like a great time. Great pictures.
Before you over dye all of your yarn, try knitting a swatch with it. Don't wind the whole skein into a ball though, just try to separate enough for a swatch. It will be much easier to reskein that way, if you truely don't like how it looks in the swatch either.
I dyed a few skeins I didn't like, but once a swatch was done, I changed my mind about it.
I'm so jealous that your fair has started! Ours doesn't start till the 9th. And congratulations on the ribbons! I never care if I win, just that the stuff that beats me is really better.
Glad you had a nice time!
Oh, how I miss going to the State Fair. The one or two summers that I was home at the right time in college, my mom and I would go on a weekday together, just the two of us. It was great fun, and oh, the junk food!
Now that they are essentially empty-nesters, my parents love going to the fair with their best friends.
Looks like an awesome day. Thanks for sharing pictures that show us a slice of American life we rarely get to see.
Your comments are not boring. We have a local agricultural fair here in October. It's totally run by volunteers, and is great fun. The weather is often iffy, but no one cares. Looking at the handcrafts, and the quilts is very inspiring.
I'm enjoying your photos of the dying attempts. Are you trying to pull all the dye out to start again? Surely you aren't going to pitch the yarn! It may not be what you were expecting, but it looks pretty good to me.
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