Northern Minnesota? Then you probably aren't too far from Northwest Wisconsin where I'm from. The DNR states there are 178 or so packs of wolves in Wisconsin......248 wolves? Most of them being in the northern part of the state. And although I don't have any records of anybody being killed by a wolf in Wisconsin, there have been confrontations...and even deaths in other states and Canada. I don't think that arming myself with some thread and sewing needles is going to stop a pack of hungry wolves.