My fave was Bella Lana.

Owner Cornelia Griffin was helping a customer block a project.  Such a friendly and supportive atmosphere in some LYS are not always present.  She gave me a little tour of the shop and explained her design process for creating the space. Bella Lana’s different from most yarn shops.  A former Bay area architect, Cornelia surveyed knitting friends on the ideal yarn shop environment.  Lighting and a de-cluttered environment were frequently mentioned.  (I’ll agree with that!)

There is one of each yarn in one of each color set out. This makes it easy to peruse. Nothing cascades on top of you when you pull a ball off a shelf.  If your like me you fantasize about swimming in a tub of soft merino singles but it’s tough to shop in cluttered environments.  The lighting’s very bright. Colors are true.

Sweaters for the store mascot (I forget the little dog’s name):

Second store visited is completly opposite Bella Lana in layout and form.

Stephen Be is a Mpls-based designer who specializes in radical and funky.  His store Stephen Be reflects that.

A clean entrance:

There are thousands of yarns in the shop which was once an old firestation.  I like the open room concept but the yarn is stacked to the roof, it’s hard to sort through.  Must work for some.

The shop also functions as a gathering place for knit groups, classes, concerts and community events.  Pretty cool!

Two distinctly different Mpls. yarn shops each with their own charms.

MN winter is wickedly cold. This year records were set.  In the 30′s -40′s 5 of my 7 days there it was balmy!

Thought I’d share a few outings I shared with family.

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First, a trip to the American Swedish Institute.  Part of their mission statement from their website:

The American Swedish Institute serves as a gathering place for people to share stories and experiences around universal themes of tradition, migration, craft, and the arts, all informed by enduring ties to Sweden.

The American Swedish Institute, a museum and cultural center of distinguished history and international reputation, exists to:

1. •Preserve and share the landmark 1908 Turnblad mansion;
2. •Celebrate and teach about Sweden and Swedish-America; and,
3. •Promote and practice the values of respect for all peoples and the environment that are exemplified in the Nordic countries.A view from the outside on that gray day.  It’s an ornate, beautiful mansion built from a working class man who made his fortune in the newspaper business.  They say they lived a modest lifestyle considering their wealth.  It’s in a not-so-great neighborhood.  So pretty, if you’re in Mpls. I recommend a visit.

    

   I’m part Swedish.  My grandma spoke a little but usually smiled and said she couldn’t when we’d ask her to.

   

   Karen found a cute little Gargoyle water spout:

   

   The mansion was all dressed up for Christmas.  Many rooms had trees and some were dining rooms set accordingly for several Scandinavian countries.

   The Danish room’s table setting.  Love the simple blue design on the china:

   

   Ornate, gleaming carved wood in that house makes it radiate warmth.  The fireplace and stairway in the entrance:

   

   

   

   One particularly warm day pop and I went for a hike in the Scandia – Wind in the Pines Preserve just a mile or so away from my parents’ home.  Though the wind was chill we wound through tallgrass into a treed section.

   Dad’s following park rule #6:

    

   

    

   Sis Karen and her hubby Wes and I took the dogs to the nicest dog park I’ve visited.  There are hiking trails, an open area, and ponds for amphibious dogs.  Dogs of all shapes and sizes played in the snow.  MN’s bone-dry and starved for snow. Just a couple of inches frosted the surface.

   Loki’s getting old.  But she still runs and frolics.  I’m a sucker for her personality and blue eyes.

   

   Bridger’s a big lug of a love-sponge.  He knows how to get me to pet him.

    

   

   All my sisters and I had solo sister bonding days which I really enjoyed.  Ali and I went to the Mpls. Art Institute and saw a show called Edo:  Japanese Woodcuts.  I saw my first (real) Hiroshige prints.  She also took me to a Cuban restaurant in Mpls called Victors 1959 Cafe.  Tiny, full of attitude and character, the food is divine.

   Karen and I did some power shopping and got killer post-Christmas deals.

   I asked Rachel to find some cool vintage/antique shops.  We hit one called Hunt and Gather that was unlike anything I’ve seen before.

    

   

    

   Want bowling pins?  How about old lockers? Check.  Maybe some flash cards with animals on them? Scrabble letters?  Check. Bins of letters and doo-dads? Check.

   

   Bread wrappers?

   

    

   Displays of refurnished, re-purposed, fantastically funky furnishings:

    

   

    

   

   This a cool little neighborhood with coffee shops, antique shops and more.  It was fun having time with each sister.  Looking forward to the next visit, probably in July.

    

    

This year the theme was “keepin’ it real.”  The list was trimmed to manageable gifts for folks.

First up,  my BIL Josh’s stocking.  Two years ago my nephew Lucca (his first Christmas) received his. Last year Ali got hers.  Ali and Josh are expecting #2 this summer so I’ll be knitting another stocking for a baby’s first Christmas. How exciting!

Pattern:  Cascade 220 Christmas Stocking (Freebie on their website)

Needle:  #9 – 16″ circ.

Yarn: Various Cascade 220′s and  Mission Falls Worsted Weight

Lined in cotton calico.

The family line up with a fourth to be added next winter.

Ali requested a neck warmer for Lucca.  This blue makes his little (mischievous)  blue eyes sparkle.

Pattern:  Boys Neckwarmer by AnitaDesign

Needle: #6 – 16″ circular to DPNs of same size

Yarn: Cascade 220 paints superwash

Mods:  Shortened it up a bit and CO 140 stitches to make it smaller. The pattern is for an 8-10 year old. Lucca is 2 1/2.

Modeled by my sister’s child-sized dress form “Thing 1.”  Or is it “Thing 2?”  Rachel has an Etsy shop called Sweet Pea and Company.  She designs and makes vintage inspired baby and toddler clothing.  Check out her shop.  I’m not just biased.  Her designs are a little bit sweet, funky, vintage, and make great gifts.

This was easy to make.  I didn’t bind it off until I tried it on him.  It fit!

Papa Frank  got a hat.  He’s wearing it on a hike in the photo below.

Pattern:  Botanic Hat by Stephen West

Needle:  #6  (should have ribbed on a #5)

Yarn:   Patons Classic Merino (lt gray) and Cascade 220 (Dark Gray)

The hat it reversible. I’ve made it before.  Will surely make it many times over.

The other side. Note how the slipped stitches form the sculptural columns.

Karen received a pair of fingerless mitts.

Pattern: Commuter Fingerless Mittens by Stephanie Sun

Needle:  Ribbing #3 and #4 for the hand

Yarn: Cascade 220 in Lake Chelan Heather (love this color)

Mods:  Many.  Knit two at a time on magic loop.  Knit to pattern they form a flap on the top which folds over your fingers and buttons to make a James Bond-worthy mitten.  I knit to pattern and they looked too short. Being short on time (har har) I ripped back and knit a plain ribbed top.  Here’s the funny part. She tried them on and they were too long!  She folds them over and it’s all good.  I forget not all have man hands, as I so, when I slip on mittens to be gifted.

Mom picked out these Peaches N’Cream dishcloth cotton my last trip in October.  I knit up these cloths on #6 needles. They will travel with her to their FL home.

Patterns from top to bottom:

Can’t find pattern for the cream colored one on top.

Chinese Waves by Margaret K. Radcliffe (My Favorite)

Old Trusty AKA Grandmother’s Favorite

Feather and Fan by Linda Smith

And Rachel received her belated (ahem…November) birthday gift. She also picked out a couple balls of dishcloth cotton in October.  I gifted them tied up with yummy Verbena soap.

Can’t find pattern for this one:

Chinese Waves by Margaret K. Radcliffe

Doily Style Dishcloth from Lily Sugar n’Cream

Now that I’m done with Christmas I can get to some of my knitting goals for the year.  I joined a dishcloth swap on Ravelry and will mail a little [ackage to my partner in a week.  The body of my ACER sweater is done. Tonight I’ll start the sleeves.  Going to attempt knitting from the shoulder down.  Scary…

I really like the shark part.

Keely’s a talented and adventurous gal who commercial dives.  She also is a trapeze artist and volunteers at a place that keeps wild animals who perform in movies…and rides the Baja Peninsula on her motorcycle every year…and her fave color is pink.

Keely’s a really interesting gal.

Go Keely!

This one’s pretty easy to get to being a short down-hill walk (about half a mile each way, I believe.)

Being the day after a three-day stretch of work I was exhausted, needing decompression.

A field of mustard along Pierce Point Rd on the drive out.  A thin ribbon of road, it’s the best kind.

Sticky Monkey Flower on the trail down.  Butterflies dig it and the Miwok Native Americans used it as an antiseptic agent.

I parked my butt here on a blanket, removed my shoes, letting my senses reboot.

Turkey Vultures were flying in a figure eight type pattern directly overhead.  Made me a little uneasy I’ll admit.  Then I noted them landing beside the rock pile against the sandy cliff in the background.  Wings outspread and hopping about they must have been picking apart some sort of carcass.

Knowing they weren’t scouting out my beached figure I closed my eyes and napped. It was glorious.  Then I woke, ate lunch, read, knit, and repeated.

A bathing beauty. I enjoy watching vultures fly.

Remember my mentioning in THIS POST the Point Reyes Penn. being formed of granitic rocks capped in sedimentary rocks?  Here’s a great example of that.  As a cute aside, a little girl ran up, scampered to the top of this pile of granite and peered down at my sitting form below.  ”This is dollar bill mountain,” She exclaimed. According to her folks she once found a dollar bill atop here and was searching for another.

Dusk nearing.  The other end of the beach has rocks one can pass over at low tides but they look really dangerous to me.

I haven’t figured out how to take decent dusk photos.

Headed back up in the dark. On the way home was treated to a full moon rising. Stopped at Nicasio Lake to watch its yellow path stretch across the black surface.

Stunning.

What a day.

Tomales Point.  Dramatic and grand it’s also a geologic marvel.

An aerial photo would help explain the geology of the point.  I found the website of a photographer named Robert Campbell.  Yow!  Stunning.  Visit this link and find the 4th photo from the bottom titled “Point Reyes Station and Tomales Bay.”

Consider Tomales Bay a finger on the pulse of the notorious San Andreas Fault, poking the little town of Point Reyes Station.  Said bay and Olema Valley running south are called a Rift Zone.  The great earthquake of 1906, which demolished most of San Franciso, wrecked havoc on the little farming communities in this area.

This geology info I’ve gleaned from a meaty but useful field-trip booklet by the USGS.

The Point Reyes Peninsula calls the Pacific Plate home.  It took an 80-100 million year long ride up the coast from Southern CA.  Marin County sits on the North American Plate.  Most of the rocks on the east side of the Tomales Bay are sedimentary in nature (mostly sandstone) with some pillow basalt from underwater volcano action mixed in.  The peninsula’s make-up is much like what’s found on the Big Sur coast down south,  more ancient granitic rocks frosted in sedimentary covers.  Makes sense.

This map shows how the peninsula connects to the mainland:

On to Tomales Point.

Back to Robert Campbell’s website.  Find the last photo on the page, titled “Tomales Point.”  Imagine walking out to the tip.

That’s this hike.

One drives all the way out Pierce Pt. Rd. to its end.  There sits the old Pierce Pt. Ranch. Once the most successful and largest dairy farm in the area, it ceased operations in 1973.  The site includes the home built in 1869, a large barn, a school and numerous outbuildings.

This photo I took on a later, fog-free trip from the road above it.  I like that you can see how the ranch sits in relation to the bay (on the right), the Pacific on the left and the point.

The ranch house:

Left the buildings and headed out the trail.  Walking through this felt like I was floating along.  It’s open and treeless up there.  Maybe this is why early sailors feared sailing off the earth?

Looking back at McClures Beach  (that’s a future post):

Looking ahead at the ragged coastline. Cue the sun:

Cue parting clouds with angelic voices singing down:  I got a view of what was to come.

There’s a gap mid frame above.  My pics of this area did not come out. It’s called (?Windy Gap?).  Pierce Point Ranch once had a second farm here.  Must’ve been a harsh place to live and work.  Long gone, now it’s spring is a favorite spot for Tule Elk.  Nearly hunted to oblivion they were reintroduced and now thrive.  Here are some I passed by:

Many stop above the old farm site making it a 4 mile round trip.  I went to the end.  It’s a bit of a sandy slog past the gap but well worth it.

At the end I planted my butt down and listened. Waves, birds, and the offshore buoy’s steady bell were a perfect foil for a sort of meditation.

Once I had my fill, I retraced my steps back.

9.5 miles out and back.  A handful of rolling hills keep the mostly flat hike honest. It is wide-open.  Be ready for weather changes and bring warm clothing if you go.

Back at the ranch (har har) a raven (my favorite bird) was tapping at and making noises at a window. Was it trying to enter?  Did it think it’s reflection another bird?  Amusing.

Should make a beautiful spring flower hike I suspect.

Even if you pooh pooh the idea I bet everyone does it.

Jan. 1st rolls by and a wee (or huge?) internal voice says, “Hey you! You need to do more of that, less of that, be better at, or skip it in this new year.” Insert your chosen directive.

Consider Knitting.

I’ve decided to make some 2012 knitting resolutions:

1. Knit every day. Really. Even if that means keeping a mindless dishcloth on the bedside table and completing a few rows as I fall asleep.
2. Buy no new yarn.  Gah!  I’m having a hard time with this one and almost added “for 6 months” to that. But this spring I’ll rescue my stored stash from Denver and haul it out here. This will be a stash enhancement of epic proportions.  Should provide a helluva fix.
3. Finish a minimum one item per month
4. Knit three sweaters for myself
5. Learn to double knit
6. Knit two socks at once, toe up, magic loop method
7. Write and publish a knitting pattern of some sort
8. Join a knitalong on Ravelry
9. Join the dishcloth swap group on Ravelry and participate in two swaps
10. Join and participate in the Marin Knitters Guild
11. Finish all 2012 Christmas gifts by December 20, 2012

Lists motivate me. Let’s see if I can do it. I’ll let you know if I’m slipping. Feel free to send a virtual kick in the arse.