Minneapolis Street

We have never eaten at Murray's (I hear it's great!), but I love that the access cover on the street in front of it is stamped to look like meat on a grill. Awesome!

Clear Morning Light

Sometimes I struggle a bit with, "Am I in the right place, doing the right thing?" 

When, Minnesota tells me: "Yup."

Blue Sky and Clouds

I'm heartbroken by the violence and hate in the world, but it keeps turning. Even on rainy days, we have to try to remember the sun. 

Where I Always Wanted to Be

Color Study: Blue

Why yes, yes it is. :) 

Pelican Lake in July

Blue, white, green, and a touch of red. The perfect view of summer!

Biking to Downtown

I still can't believe that this is so close to my house, and all I have to do is take the bike path!

Lake of the Isles

I love it! It's such a pretty place to ride around!

Ed. note - CLEARLY, I didn't take this photo today. Rain, rain, go away, come back in the middle of the night so that I can go on a ride!

The best? The Best.

Yup, we're the best.

The Witch's Hat

An old water tower near the University of Minnesota is called the Witch's Hat because, well, it looks like a hat!

It's completely worth the small hike up a hill to see this view of the city. 

Construction

One of the things I love about the bike trail is that you, literally, get views of the city you can't get any other way. 

I've been admiring this strange-looking configuration of steel over Highway 100 for weeks and weeks - but there's no where you can shoot a photo of it from a car, safely. 

On a bike? Easy peasy. It's right on the bike trail!

Just a Little Yarn Bomb

In front of French Meadow Bakery, home of the best gluten-free fries in the Cities. 

Power Out

A tree fell on a car and blocked 13th Av S in Minneapolis, Minn. Taken on Sunday July 19, 2015.
Photo by RACHEL WOOLF.

This is not our street/house, thank goodness!

About 240,000 people lost power after Friday's storms, and we were two of them. It went out around 1 a.m. on Saturday and came back on (for us) around 1 p.m. on Sunday. So, 36 hours.

Other than cleaning out the fridge/freezer and sleeping in the basement, where it was cooler, it wasn't that bad. We read. I knit. I cut out and pinned sewing projects to try. I KNOW, I thought I had too much free time and money, so I've been trying out sewing.

I showed Dee that you can light up a room pretty well by pointing a good flashlight at the ceiling. (Thanks,  years of photography!)

The storm made me grateful for so many things. Our street was still open. None of the big trees in the neighborhood came down. We have a gas hot water heater, so even without power, we could take hot showers. Our basement is mostly finished and we have a futon down there, so it's a nice place to sleep. We even have a tiny bathroom down there, so if we ever had to wait out a long, bad storm, we could do it in relative comfort!

Tiny Bird

I saw this tiny bird with a big sky as a backdrop and I'm mostly just happy he didn't fly away when I got closer.

"One Lifetime Isn't Long Enough" and Weekend Class Savings

After our visit to the American Swedish Institute (which is just amazing, on so many levels), I thought, "Huh, maybe I'll do a knitting pattern incorporating that amazing Hilma Berglund quote."

It's kind of a good thing that I didn't start on that thought! This week, I picked up Swedish Handknits and, well, there's a glove design that does that right on the cover. :)

P.S. - This Sunday, I'll be at Park the Street 2. Come say hi!

P.P.S. - There is a HUGE sale this weekend on Craftsy classes. Every class is up to 50% off. (If you click through this link to check it out, it helps me no matter which class you choose, so, you know, please do so!)

All I See Is Blue

This is another swatch, plus my hat, wrap and coat. It's COLD! What are you casting on this week? 

Building Skills

We live just a few blocks from a great bike trail, and earlier this summer, we bought bikes.

I haven't regularly ridden a non-stationary bike in over 20 years, and it's funny how just a little over 3 miles on a "real" bike feels like more effort to me than over 6 miles on the exercise bike in the basement.

The world seems both slower and faster on a bike. There are restaurants and coffee shops that are actually faster to reach from our home on a bike, and on the way we get to enjoy the sight of the creek and watch birds fly overhead.

One thing I've noticed about myself in the last year - I'm kind of a competitive person. I love being really, really good at something. But, I'm also very happy when I'm just starting out and can keep my expectations low. That's where I am on the bike. I'm out of breath. 10 people just passed me on nicer bikes than mine. A little old lady passed me. A teenager is passing me without even steering because he's texting with both hands. (How do they do that?)

Well, so what? I'm better off than I would have been sitting on the couch. Even when I was a sort-of athlete in high school, I got out of breath easily. It's just the way I am. If I keep going, it will be easier next week. If I have to stop for some reason and my fitness level goes down, I'll just start over. I don't have to be great at this, it's just for me and I enjoy it. There are not a lot of areas in life that are that low-stress, and I cherish it!

Knitting in Art: The Asparagus Vendor

This is a detail of a painting at the wonderful Minneapolis Institute of Art. It's by Pieter de Hooch, a Dutch painter who finished this sometime between 1675 and 1680. It's a depiction of a household in the rising middle class. But it raises a question for me: is that lovely red stocking most likely to be knit or woven? 

Well, in Folk Socks, Nancy Bush points out: "By the end of the 1600s, one to two million pairs of (knitted) stockings were being exported from Britain into other parts of Europe."

So, even though we can't see the knit stitches, I think she might be mending a knit stocking, not seaming a woven one.

Workshops at Linden Yarn & Textiles

I don't have all of the details on pricing yet, and I will put that on the Teaching and Travel Schedule page when I have them, but I just confirmed that I am teaching two workshops at Linden Yarn & Textiles.

What - Beyond Basic Sock Skills

When - Thursday, 10/9 and Thursday, 10/30 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where - Linden Yarn & Textiles, 5814 Excelsior Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN 55416

Contact - Chris at 952.303.3895 to sign up!

Students should bring smooth yarn of any weight and needles that work well with that particular yarn. The needles should be the same type that they use to make socks (dpns or circulars). Students will also need a spare circular needle of the same size or smaller than their working needles.

- How to work the “new” ssk.

- Three ways to increase, m1L, m1R and m1P. How they play well together and when to use them.

- How to work the “Extra Needle” cast on, the easiest, fastest provisional cast on, ever.

- Learn two ways to start toe-up socks.

- Work Jeny’s Stretchy Cast Off, using either a knitting needle or a crochet hook.

- Use dental floss to make grafting easier.

- Pick up stitches from gussets with confidence, every time.

I hope to see you there!

Sky + Lake + Trees = Minneapolis

Can you even believe this is just 15 minutes away from the center of a large metro area? Minneapolis, you're beautiful and I love you.

Yarnbomb in Minneapolis!

I didn't do this, I swear, but isn't it adorable? I love site-specific art! It's on 50th and France.