Here they are.....

It's County Fair time again!  (jeez, I can't believe it's the end of July already though......)  Here are the items this Nature Knitter has completed in the past 12 months for entry into Open Class competition at the 2012 Olmsted County Free Fair.  (Award information has been listed after each picture.)  

 Wool Houndstooth Check Mittens

Blue ribbon (first place)

Glitter Shawl

(knitted from *1 ball* of a wool/alpaca/nylon/metallic blend yarn) 

White Ribbon (third place)

Celeste Shawl

(knitted from Red Heart Stardust yarn - 70% superwash wool, 25% nylon, 5% glitter yarn)

Blue Ribbon (first place) plus Grand Champion Purple Ribbon and Best of Show Award Plaque

Click on the photo to enlarge so you can also see the copper metal beads knitted into this lovely pattern

Basic Knitted Mittens

(knitted from washable acrylic yarn)

White Ribbon (third place)

Wool Cables Hat

Blue Ribbon (first place)

Rainbow Beanie

(crocheted with Brown Sheep Nature Spun sport weight yarn) 

Red Ribbon (second place)

Undergrowth Hat

(knitted with Brown Sheep Nature Spun sport weight yarn)

Blue Ribbon (first place) and Reserve Grand Champion Pink Ribbon

Top view of Undergrowth Hat



I stopped at the fair with these entries shortly after noon last Friday -- I didn't see what any of the other competitors had brought in then, but I'm optimistic some of these items will do well in the judging that was held on Saturday, July 21st.  I'll post results later this week.



Weekly Recap

Well, even with my good intentions of trying to stay caught up with this blog and post more frequently, I just never found the time to get around to it this past week, so I'll give you the recap here in one big post.

Got my first 2012 life bird checked off the list: the Spotted Towhee that's been hanging around Austin, MN since October. I got in touch with the nice family whose backyard this bird visits regularly and they allowed Mr. Johnson and me to come and hang out in their sunroom on Saturday (when the bird was MIA) and again on Sunday (when the bird finally showed up again). I took a ton of pictures, but this was one of the best ones. Isn't this a handsome birdy? And I think it's amazing how well his colors camouflage him in this backyard setting. He spent a lot of time scratching around under these shrubs and would only come out momentarily, but thank goodness for the continuous shooting feature on my camera that enabled me to capture this photo
After seeing the towhee in Austin on Sunday morning, we turned around and raced back to Rochester to watch my niece Kathryn perform live on the 58th Annual Eagles Cancer Telethon. She did a splendid job singing "I Hope You Dance" in honor of her Grampy. The biggest disappointment was that she only sang one song. Kathy has a beautiful voice and we don't get a chance to hear her sing very often. Way to go Kathy!

Monday night was Holly's final test to pass the Intermediate Obedience class at PetSmart. Mr. Johnson's been working pretty hard with her on her sits and stays and all that practice paid off when she passed the class! She still gets pretty excited when she goes in to PetSmart, so the loose leash walking was what had me worried, but she did well on that portion of the test too and got her "diploma" and official graduation photo. Way to go Holly!
Winter has (finally!) officially arrived in Minnesota.We got several inches of snow this past week and the less welcome sub-zero temps to go along with it. But that did bring lots more activity at the birdfeeders and and fairly large flock of deer into the backyard on Friday nite for feasting on corn. Because the ground has been bare for so long, the deer were able to find food elsewhere and haven't been visiting us, so it was neat to see all of them once again.

I spent quite a few hours last week doing some therapeutic knitting. The stupid hard drive on my laptop at work died and I had to get a replacement installed. Unfortunately, not all the programs I used were recoverable and several significant queries that I need to run every day that are fairly vital to my job are still not working correctly, so my frustration level has been at about an 11 on a scale of 1-10. Grrrr! Hence the need for therapeutic knitting.

First project finished was this fluffly scarf. The yarn is a weird kind of mesh, and you actually just loop the meshes over each other on the knitting needles. I like how it turned out but I'm not sure how much I'll actually ever wear it because I really don't need any extra "fluffiness" on my front, plus it has a really annoying tendency to get snagged on my earrings and that's just not working for me. So this scarf will probably become a nice donation item for some worthy cause I support.
I ended up getting pretty heavily into "mitten mode" this week too with the purchase of the beautiful Cloisonee Mitten pattern on Ravelry. So I dug through my closet for some pretty colors and this was my first mitten attempt. Love it!
Of course, this pattern inspired me to "think outside the box" and so my second attempt was a glove -- a combination of two different patterns. I really liked this one too!
In my ongoing resolution to finish some old projects in January, I got one step closer to being able to wear these houndstooth mittens by (almost) finishing this one. I really need to get these done because they're super warm -- the stranding between the checks makes these mittens doubly thick (plus they're wool).
And finally, after languishing on the kitchen counter waiting to be washed and blocked, my Annis Shawl (a Knitty pattern) is also done! The yarn is a beautiful mohair/silk/nylon blend with a little tiny silver thread also woven in. These photos don't do it justice, but the fuzzy, sparkly yarn combined with the beads make this one of the most stunning shawls I have ever knitted.
I'm looking forward to an opportunity to wear this shawl somewhere and I'm sure it will be lovely and warm too.

Those "sticks" you see holding the edges of the shawl are called blocking wires. You put them through the stitches when the shawl is wet and then pin the shawl out to the shape you want it to be when it's dry.

So that's all for last week, I wonder what this next week will bring.......

Midwest Birding Symposium Update

By now you probably know that I'll be attending the Midwest Birding Symposium in Lakeside, Ohio in just a little over 3 weeks. I'm also one of the lucky few chosen to be an "Official Blogger" at the Symposium. I'm really looking forward to this road trip with my best birding friend Lynne (also chosen as an Official Blogger). And if any of you have any good tips on the best way to get through the Chicago expressway system with a minimum or stress and/or profanity, please share them with me in the comments.

It looks like there's a multitude of fun activities and events planned for attendees at the Midwest Birding Symposium, but did you know there's going to be a raffle too? I understand that the money collected for raffle tickets goes to benefit a variety of birding, conservation and natural resource groups. I checked with the folks in charge of the symposium to see if they were still looking for raffle items and if they'd be interested in any of my handmade fiber treasures. The answer was "Yes!" So for those of you who are attending the symposium, please be sure to register to win one of these following items I'm donating:

8-Pointed Star-Shaped Ripple Afghan

Stripes are Pink Camo and Cafe Au Lait

I'm still crocheting on this one -- it's about half done and already pretty large. It will definitely be big enough to cover an adult -- probably even an adult and her small dog or cat!

It's 100% acrylic plus machine washable and dryable.

Lace Shawl

Knitted with silk/wool yarn and adorned with beads on the entire shawl

(click on the photo to enlarge)

Included with the shawl is this adorable copper shawl pin in the shape of a little birdie (from my personal collection)

Haven't registered for the Midwest Birding Symposium yet? No worries because there's still time and space available. If you think you can make it to the festival this year, I even have a discount code for you to use. Mention MBS2011BB25 on your registration to take advantage of the group discount rate.

Hope to see you there and if you can't make, check in with the Nature Knitter blog on Sept. 16-18 to get all the latest news from this "Official Blogger."

County Fair Results

For the first time in many years, I entered some of my knitting projects for open class competition at the Olmsted County Fair. The entry process can be done totally on-line now, so that really streamlined things on entry day. I was kind of disappointed last year when I went to the fair and saw that there really weren't many handknitting projects entered in the fair. I thought with all the people that seem to be knitting these days that there would have been much more, but maybe people just don't do that anymore? So I decided that this year I would try raising the competition bar a bit by entering a few of the items I've finished in the past year. Here are the results of my fair entries and I've included the judges comments that were attached.

Gray Wool Mittens

"Nicely done. Decreases accentuate linear look. Warm, interesting cuff design."

Fair Isle Tam

"Colors work well together. Even floats inside."

If you're not a knitter and wonder what "even floats" mean, she's referring to the color not in use that's carried along the backside of the knitting project. If you're ever with a knitter and that person picks up a colorwork garment and turns it inside out, this is what we're looking at.....

Blue Swirly Cable Hat

"Interesting cables, shaping and cables work well together. Yarn accentuates cables."

Baltic Style Mittens

"Nice Braided Cuff. Interesting color combinations with muted and bright. Warm material. Even stitches and floats, nicely done."

Norwegian Wedding Gloves

"Exquisite! Yarn choice accentuates the lace. Great job, no finger gap, workmanship is superb."

Was awarded the burgundy "Honorable Mention" ribbon on these also. I've never seen or received this ribbon before, so I'm not sure if it's something new or what the deal is with it exactly.

Batik Shawl (knitted with 100% alpaca yarn)

"Love interplay of cables and lace, interesting to look at -- even the back is interesting. Very even, lovely piece."

I love the interplay of cables and lace on this pattern also -- one of the main reasons why I chose to knit this shawl, and it earned me the Reserve Grand Champion award!

Of all the years I've entered projects at the fair, this is the only time that I can remember receiving blue ribbons on everything. I was pretty happy about that. One year (sometime back in the '80s) I did get a Grand Champion ribbon and trophy on a large lace knitted shawl, so this year's reserve grand champion ribbon was pretty exciting too.

On all of my judges comments, the following statement was included: "Thanks for sharing your talent with Olmsted County." I hope that seeing my knitting projects at the fair will inspire and encourage other knitters in Olmsted County to think about entering their projects in the fair next year.

(I apologize for the poor color on these photographs -- I took the pictures late last nite under artificial light so they look pretty crappy.)

Last Day of January

We finally made it to the end of January -- it always seems like a really long month each year. We had a little bit of snow all day and I was able to snap a quick photo of this beautiful male cardinal while I was eating my lunch today. There's nothing like a brilliant red cardinal to brighten up a gray winter day.

Yesterday I finished a little shawl that I started last August. This is the Multnomah Shawl, and you can find the free pattern by clicking here.

I like these little wool shawls because they're nice to dress up any outfit, plus they're actually pretty warm too. An added bonus of this shawl is that the green in this variegated yarn is an exact match to this godawful green blouse I bought on clearance at JCPenney's a few years ago. Now I know I'll be wearing this green blouse much more often (notice my happy face!)

The other neat thing about this shawl is that I got the chance to use one of the new shawl pins I purchased last week from one of my fellow Etsy shop owners. This cute little flower shawl pin is perfect on this shawl. If you're looking for a shawl pin, please check out some of Amy's other cute designs at this link to her website.

A couple months ago, a new yarn shop opened in Winona, Minnesota. It's called Yarnology and I've already made several trips down there where the wonderful shop owners have everything I need to satisfy my knitting addiction. Last weekend they had their grand opening celebration so Mr. Johnson and I made the drive to Winona again so I could take part in the grand opening event and sign up for a drawing. The really nice thing about going to Winona (in addition to Yarnology) is that we have usually have time to drive through the scenic Whitewater WMA and look for birds & wildlife, plus Winona has lots of restaurants and we get a chance to try a new one on each trip. Anyway, getting back on track here, last Sunday afternoon, I got a phone call from Gaby (one of the Yarnology owners) letting me know that I had won a prize in their drawing. Woo-Hoo!! And look at this fabulous prize I won.......

A beautiful lacy shawl pattern and 10 skeins of Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool yarn to knit it with (plus a little package of T-pins for blocking). On the way home, I also picked up 2 tubes of glass beads that will look beautiful on this shawl. I was so happy to receive such a wonderful prize and can't wait to get started on this shawl (as soon as I finish a dog sweater for a co-worker and the last Special Olympics scarf). I'll be sure to post pictures of this shawl once I get started on it.

Recently Completed Knitting Projects

I haven't shown you any photos of knitting projects lately, so that's what this post is going to be about. Last year, one of my resolutions was to try an keep an accurate record of knitting projects I started and finished during the year. I printed out worksheets and actually did pretty good until the middle of November when I was just so busy with knitting projects that I didn't take the time to keep track for the last few weeks of the year. However, I was pretty faithful about recording my projects for the rest of the year. In a review of the list, here are the results for 2010: Projects started was 112! Projects completed was 98. Ideally the number of completed projects would be greater than projects started, but only in a perfect world (which also explains why I have so many unfinished projects stashed all over the house!)

I've already decided I won't be keeping track of any knitting projects this year -- at least not officially. However, here are a few of my FOs (finished objects) for 2011.

A co-worker asked if I could make an earflap hat for his wife similar to a hat they saw on the Columbia website. I didn't have a pattern, but drawing on my years of knitting experience and components of several different hat patterns, here's how the hat turned out. It had to be purple and pink with long tails on the earflaps. I knitted it with Vanna's Choice 100% acrylic yarn, so it's machine washable and dryable (plus the yarn is really soft). I really like how this hat turned out.
Here's one of the scarves I'm knitting for the 2011 Special Olympics USA Scarf Project. I found out about this project from another knitting friend's blog. I've pledged to knit 3 scarves in these "official" colors of blue and turquoise. All of the athletes will have a handmade scarf to wear when participating in the 2011 Special Olympics. I'm sure it will be quite a sight to see all of them wearing these beautiful scarves.

I like to try new yarn colors. I picked up this ball of Patons wool a couple weeks ago because I was curious to see how this weird color combination would knit up. I probably will not buy this yarn again, but I'm sure there's someone who will see these half-mitts in my Etsy store and will love them enough to buy them.

Lastly, here's a small shawl I finished last week. I started it on Dec. 24th and the yarn used to knit this was Berroco Sox Metallic. (Ravelry members can download this pattern for free -- it's the Dane Shawl.)

I wore it to work yesterday. I love that it will coordinate with a lot of different colored tops. I know I will wear this shawl often.

Here's the back view. I was going to be just a few yards short to finish up this shawl but then I visited Yarnology (where I originally bought the yarn), the lovely owners there had a partial ball of this yarn in their backroom and graciously loaned it to me so I could finish up my shawl without having to purchase a whole 'nother ball. Now that's what I call "customer service!"

This yarn is beautiful with a silver metallic thread running through it. It was hard to photograph, but if you look real close a the photo below, you might be able to see it.

Pet Update

Penny has "faved" another one of my current knitting projects. This is Jennifer's Afghan, a pattern from a book I read recently entitled "Dropped Dead Stitch." (I bet you non-knitter's didn't even know that there was such a thing as knitting-themed murder/mystery fiction, did you?) Anyway, I stopped mid-row on this afghan, so it ended up being a nice little tube and Penny was able to tunnel inside for her afternoon nap!

Here's my sweet Sophie terrorizing a streaked gopher we caught in the live trap the other day.

I was so happy to see her getting so excited about this little gopher because a week ago Sophie almost died! She had injured her paw in a leap off the bed a few weeks ago and was unable to walk on it. A visit from her vet determined there were no broken bones and I chose to pursue the less expensive Ascriptin therapy (vs. a pricey NSAID prescription which also required a liver & kidney blood test prior to starting the medication). I received all the standard warnings about aspirin's affects on the stomach lining and was told to watch Sophie's stools especially for anything that might indicate internal bleeding due to aspirin irritation.

After a week of trying to restrict her activity, Sophie's limp was almost gone, so I discontinued the Ascriptin therapy. Then after another week, she jumped off the bed and re-injured the paw, so I started her Ascriptin again (half a pill in the morning and the other half in the evening). Last Monday, she was much more lethargic than usual and napped on the couch for almost the entire afternoon. I didn't really think anything of it until suppertime rolled around and she was only mildly interested in her treats and then left the table without even begging for plates to lick (extremely unusual for her!) I asked Mr. Johnson if he had noticed any change while on "poop patrol" earlier in the day and he said he hadn't. Then shortly after supper he had her out and she conveniently pooped for us and Mr. Johnson reported that her poop was black! Uh-Oh! I knew that wasn't a good sign and lifted one of Sophie's lips to find that her gums were an extremely unhealthy shade of light pink (almost white). That's when I knew something was really wrong. We loaded her into the car and whisked her off to our local Affiliated Emergency Veterinary Service hospital. A battery of tests (including blood, x-ray and ultrasound -- to rule out tumors) were done and it was determined that Sophie was severely anemic, due to a GI bleed triggered by the Ascriptin I'd been giving her for the previous week. Poor Baby! She had to spend the night and part of the next day at the hospital. I brought her home Tuesday afternoon with a couple weeks' worth of special intestinal diet food and she's been receiving lots of TLC while she recovers from this GI bleed and associated anemia.

Sophie's almost back to her old self now and that's why I'm so happy to see her getting so excited about a streaked gopher in a trap again -- because a week ago, this photo wouldn't have been possible!

(and in case you're wondering, this gopher escaped unharmed because once the trap's tipped over, they just have to run onto that door and it opens right up--guaranteeing a speedy escape!)

9 out of 10 Cats Prefer

9 out of 10 cats prefer to share their home with a knitter!

And if you're wondering about that 10th cat, it's only because that kitty was unlucky enough to choose a non-knitting hooman to share its life with.

Some Finished Knitting Projects

Here are a couple of knitting projects I finished recently. First is the Brandywine Shawl designed by Rosemary Hill. I knitted it with 1 skein of Lana Grossa's Meilenweit Multiringel (a sock yarn). It's not a huge shawl -- more to just keep your shoulders warm or drape around your neck like a scarf. It was a pretty quick and easy shawl to knit. If you would like to try this pattern, you can purchase the pattern on-line by clicking this link. The pattern price is $6.50, and Rosemary is very generously donating $5.00 of the purchase price to Doctors Without Borders for Haiti earthquake relief. To date, Rosemary has sent over $7500 from sales of this pattern!
Here's a close-up look at the pattern. I'm donating this shawl to a silent auction for the Minnesota Master Naturalists annual meeting in May.

Next project is this Baltic mitten with a Twined Herringbone Edging on the cuff. I'm going to start teaching some more classes at my local yarn shop and this is one of the classes I'd like to teach, so I thought I'd better knit one up quick and take it in to show the owner and get her opinion on whether she thinks any knitters would be interested in taking this class.

It's feeling like spring here in Minnesota (finally!) Normally my knitting slows down a little bit this time of year, but I'm hoping with teaching more classes, I can keep my knitting mojo going through the summer.....I still have plenty of unfinished projects waiting for me!

Meteorological Spring

According to my friends over at the KTTC Precision Forecast Center, yesterday (March 1st) marked the first day of Meteorological Spring here in Minnesota. And after the winter we've had so far, I'll take spring in any way I can get it! Here's a look at what's left of our woodpile (nothing!)Last fall we had a full cord delivered and there were 4 stacks of wood piled 5 and 1/2 feet high between these poles. I kept the thermostat set at about 65 all winter and with my getting home early in the day from work, was able to start the fireplace most days and keep our house pretty comfortable. I was happy that we never had any gas bills over $100 this past winter and that's the first time for many years. In the end it probably all comes out the same though, because if I remember correctly, that cord of wood delivered last October cost us around $185. Oh well, Sophie and I enjoyed quite a few nice naps on the couch in front of the toasty fireplace. :-)

Even though there's still a lot of snow in the backyard, we can really notice where it's melted quite a bit. However, in the spring, this isn't always a good thing, as you can see by what's starting to show up underneath my birdfeeders. Here's what below where my 2 thistle seed feeders hang on the deck. Yuck!

And here are a couple more feeders in the backyard. Double Yuck!!

I can already see that I've got lots of cleaning up to do this spring (as soon as I can get my wheelbarrow out of this snowbank!)

Melting snow is also revealing quite a large number of Sophie's "deposits" from the long winter. Definitely time to start watching where I'm walking again!

After my last disastrous knitting project, I decided to start a new hat pattern on Sunday afternoon. This is "Quincy" from Jared Flood's "Made in Brooklyn" pattern book.

I really love the way this hat turned out! (keepin' it for myself too!) The main part of the hat is knitted in a strip, then you give it one twist and graft the ends together (so it becomes a tube). Then you pick up stitches around the top edge of the tube and knit the top of the hat. I love the beautiful details of the top and the I-cord edging all the way around.

I really love all of Jared's designs in this pattern book.....the hardest thing is going to be deciding which pattern I want to knit next!

Happy Meteorological Spring Everyone!