Wednesday in Mitchell

It's tempting to snark on The World's Only Corn Palace, in Mitchell, SD. It's a building with minarets and onion domes smack in the middle of the South Dakota prairie, and... it's covered with corn. But it's an amazing building covered with corn, and the former cross-stitch designer in me is fascinated by pictures made using nothing but corncobs and a few nails. The building is actually very pretty, and nearly snark proof. And it is a major state tourist attraction (perhaps #5 after Mt. Rushmore, Wall Drug, Crazy Horse, and anywhere Kevin Costner has actually stood).

I had a wonderful day in Mitchell- Cafe Teresa is a lovely cafe with great food (I had a grilled herbed cheese sandwich and an apple for lunch), wine (of which I did not partake- I had to drive 110 miles back home), and a small wall of yarn. Teresa (owner) was warm and welcoming, Deb, who organized the signing, was great fun as she did a little one-on-one knitting lesson with a student. If you guys think I knit fast- consider that Deb knitted 160 caps for the Hockey Association between November and March, on size 7 needles with 88 sts. One hundred and sixty...

They set up a great table for me, with a sign and flowers, and I put out some projects from I Heart Felt. We had a good stream of knitters and unwary cafe customers lured by Deb's sales pitch. That's Deb sewing ends in on a beautiful Alpaca sweater. Barbara and Ellen were there but they refused to pose for pics. A pair of German tourists wanted to buy several of the projects, not realizing that it was just a display and not souvenir stand (their English was superior to my German, so they did understand my apologies eventually).

And of course, I bought some yarn- 3 skeins of Alpaca With a Twist, Baby Twist, 110 yds, a sort of iced sage color, probably sport weight (it's lighter than worsted anyway). I think it wants to be a cabled hat. Or maybe mittens... or maybe both...