A Month of New Things

Posted by Emily

February has been a busy month! Shortly after my last post, I spent the weekend in Meadowlands, Minnesota. The town is in the middle of the Sax-Zim Bog in northeastern Minnesota, about 40 minutes west of Duluth. The region is quite unique in both geology and ecology, both factors that contribute to a distinct community of birds, which in turn brings in birders to the frozen tundra of northern Minnesota every February for the annual Sax-Zim Bog Birding Festival.

It was a crazy weekend of waking up at 5:00 am to board a school bus and ride around looking for elusive birds until 7:00 pm. This might sound like a masochistic experience, given that the low temperatures are around -15º F and highs around 20º F (which is really warm for the area!), but the draw of these unique bird communities brings over 100 people every year to the festival alone. I added about 15 new species of birds to my life list, which sounds like a shockingly high number unless one takes into account that I've only been keeping track since August, 2009. I can only identify the common backyard birds reliably. Oh, we did not see a Great Grey Owl, for those interested.

On the way back from Meadowlands, I made two stops that are worth noting. The first was in Two Harbors, Minnesota, which is just north of Duluth along the North Shore of Lake Superior. Along highway 61 in the middle of town is a little building containing one of the best rock shops I've ever been in, the Agate City Rock Shop. Rockhounds know that the North Shore of Lake Superior is the place to go for Lake Superior agates and this shop specializes in them. The owners are lovely people and know their stuff. I picked up a lovely piece of potassium feldspar as a teaching specimen and will definitely return the next time I'm in that area.

I also stopped at a tiny but very well-stocked yarn store in Knife River, which is right in between Duluth and Two Harbors. Playing with Yarn has tons of yarns crammed into a two-car garage turned store. I picked up a couple skeins of Noro Daria (it's discontinued - gotta grab it when you can!) and two beautiful skeins from Mountain Colors, a company that my lys doesn't carry.

Since returning from my trip, I've been knitting like a fiend! I don't have pictures yet, but I'll talk about the projects anyway.

Bob's Slotted Scarf (Ravelry link) - A small slotted scarf knit from Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in the Beverly colorway. Bob is a dear family friend who was our next door neighbor when we lived in Winona, Minnesota. My mother suggested that Bob might enjoy a hand-knit scarf to wear, since his house uses a wood-fired stove that heats only two rooms. I spent a long time hunting for the proper yarn, a worsted weight, variegated, washable wool, and when I stumbled across Shepherd Worsted and saw the name of the colorway, the search ended. Beverly was the name of his late wife.

Lynda's Wristwarmers (Ravelry link) - A very simple pattern of worsted weight, washable, green and purple Araucania Toconao yarn. This is a thank-you gift for the spinning wheel my aunt Lynda gave me!

Kureyon Moebius (Ravelry link) - I am absolutely in love with Cat Bordhi's moebius patterns and this one turned out really well. I will definitely post some pictures of this when I take them because the colorway is unusual and the moebius didn't turn out quite like other Noro moebii.

Bonbori Moebius (Ravelry link) - I mentioned my love affair with the moebius... My lys and place of employment has a ton of Noro Bonbori and it has been a bit of slow seller. Since I had a couple skeins begging to be knit at home, I decided to whip up a quick shop model so customers could see how lovely Bonbori is when knit up. It has a tweedy look when knit into a fabric, which is not what one would expect looking at the ball. The next time you're in Borealis, look for the green moebius by the Noro and you'll see my first shop model!

I have two nearly finished objects, too. Well, one nearly finished object and one that was done but needs to be ripped back and redone.

DNA Toy (Ravelry link) - Using Ella Rae Superwash Classic, I whipped up Baby's First DNA by Kimberly Chapman for my boss, the manager at Borealis. All I have left is sewing the base pairs to the backbone and then a quick trip through the washing machine! It took less than a day to knit, so it's a very quick and very easy project. I think the design is great for small children because it has so many places to grab.

Purple Dawn Shawl (Ravelry link) - The Dawn Stole by Grace Anne Farrow, currently on time-out for bad behavior. I finished knitting this in about two weeks, but the applied I-cord took several more weeks because it's annoying and tedious. I finally finished the I-cord yesterday, only to realize that it is SUPER tight. I've mentioned Emily Gauge before, but this is something else entirely. This was a cold shower to a... well, use your imagination. Suffice to say, if I left the I-cord the way it is, the stole would only block to 3/4th the pre-blocked, pre-I-corded knitting fabric. When this thing gets parole, I will be ripping out the entire I-cord, redoing it on larger needles, and will be picking up fewer stitches.

Other wips:
Painted Shawl (Ravelry link) - I started this on a lark the other day and adore it. Schaefer Yarn has the most gorgeous colorways. Knitting with this skein of Nancy makes me feel as though I'm painting with the yarn. I will hopefully finish it up tomorrow; it's a very fast knit.

February Socks (Ravelry link) - aka Annie's Blue Socks. I've got the first sock done and it fits! Shockingly, I have exactly 51 grams of yarn left, so I can just barely manage a second sock of the skein of Opal. This pair won't be done in February, but I still think I can hold to my resolution of twelve pairs of socks in a year (1.5 done, 10.5 to go!).