February Dreaming

Hatching lots of knitting plans, mostly for hats....

Happy Valentine's Day

Doubleweave Pick Up
Finished, but not blogged yet!

Wishing you and yours a happy Valentine's Day!

Knitting a Cowl

Inspiration
During a moment of panic while I was weaving my First Time at WEBS Scarves, I believed more yarn was the answer. I stopped at Hub Mills Store in Lowell to pick up a few balls of yarn that went with that warp.
Later, I realized I didn't need that extra yarn for that project after all.
So I wanted to find something beautiful on ravelry to make with this ball of yarn.


Motivation
I put my started knitting projects in one place recently when I was cleaning up for houseguests. I realized I should finish something! This cowl project seemed like it would be quick and easy, plus the yarn is soft and gorgeous.



Goals for this project:

• Use this extra ball of yarn
• Make a cowl that's pretty and warm
  

Pattern: Lush-ious Swirl Cowl by Linda Frydl
Yarn: Princess by Classic Elite, Color 3432 (Majesty's Magenta)

Merrimack River Eagle Festival, Feb. 12, 2011 in Newburyport, MA

Each winter, bald eagles congregate in areas of New England where there's reliably open water on rivers.

The Merrimack River in Amesbury and Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA is a great place to watch bald eagles in February.


To make it even simpler, the Mass Audubon’s Joppa Flats Education Center and the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge sponsor a free eagle festival. (If you google, you may find an eagle festival near you as well.)


Last year, we printed their eagle viewing map, and headed down for the day. We saw eagles perched in trees, doing aerial acrobatics together, and successfully fishing then eating the fish on an ice flow.


It's so helpful to have a group of people to help you spot the eagles, even though many eagles can be seen with the naked eye. Plus, you can ask other eagle watchers where they've seen eagles to know which viewing spots are best that day.


Definitely take binoculars and a spotting scope if you have them. Many people stop by without even binoculars, and people let them borrow a pair. Plus, the sponsoring groups usually have a few spotting scopes at each viewing stop.

There's plenty of space for photographers (although with this year's deep snow it might be a little tougher.)


The photos in this post were taken by Jim (Mr. LifeLoomsLarge) in February 2010 at the Merrimack River Eagle Festival.

For more info, visit the Audubon Society's webpage about the event.

Cool Upholstery

Perhaps I was a little too interested in the upholstery at Blue Moon Evolution in Exeter, NH when I had lunch there on Monday.

The Blue Moon Cafe has evolved into a restaurant open for lunch and dinner. The market is no more.



You can check it out yourself if you go to the Winter Fuzz Fest in Exeter on Saturday, January 29. (Unfortunately, I can't make it to the Fuzz Fest this time.)

Concord, Massachusetts

We visited Concord, MA on a cold but sunny day this week.




Snowbanks and icicles were among the wintry delights of Concord.


The excuse for our visit was the Quilts from the Concord Museum exhibit at the Concord Museum. The exhibit consisted of two rooms with quilts hanging on the walls. The quilts all tied into Concord history in one way or another.

For me, the two most memorable things were:

• The first crazy quilt I've ever seen that looked beautiful instead of like a mishmash.
• How modern some of the fabrics looked, even though they were part of quilts that were over 100 years old.

Unfortunately, photos were not permitted inside the museum, so I can't show you any of the quilts, or the fearsome icicles along the courtyard roof.

We had a great lunch afterward at the Colonial Inn.

A gazebo!!!

I definitely want to return to Concord in the summer. There are lots of historic houses, including Louisa May Alcott's, Nathaniel Hawthorne's, Ralph Waldo Emerson's....plus the Minute Man National Historic Park.

Squirrel Appreciation Day

Really? There's a special day for squirrels?



How did you celebrate it?

Bailey appreciates squirrels every day. He loves to chase them or just watch them out the window!