Carolina

Ok, we are officially back from North Carolina. I have to say, this was one of the best trips I've been on. I have lots of pics! We left early thursday morning, and on 3 hours of sleep, the whole road seemed crazy and too fast for me. I dozed in and out of sleep, and once we hit the foothills, I finally woke up (slightly).


Here's a view from the road between Knoxville and Asheville. There were tunnels!
When we finally hit Asheville, we found a crappy hotel and tried to get some good rest.


We woke up the next morning and headed out to Tsali! Here is a view from the car, of the clouds making big ole shadows on the mountains.


Us getting hyped on the way!


We are finally there! I love the old national forest signs. they sure do rock.


Here is a black snake right in the middle of the trail. The trails at Tsali are great. If you use em right, they are like constant rollercoaster type trails. Smooth and rolling and downhill. Even climbing is pretty easy, since they have berms to roll some speed into the uphill. There are a few jangly rocky sections, but thats about it.


Here is a view off the trail into the lake and across to the mountains. There were actually houses on this lake, believe it or not!


Taking advantage of an overlook area!


Me and trail and bikes.


So we rode about 3-4 hours, and then luck hit when we cruised the campsite one more time to check for an available spot. It was so nice to camp here, there were nothing but mountain bikers in most every spot. I even fell asleep to the sounds of a whippoorwill and a guy who sounded exactly like neil young on a guitar. Even the voice was spot on. There's me cookin' up some pasta and corn on the cob!


We woke up the next morning to rain! Remember yesterday? Sunny, clear, etc? We got treated to some real Smokey Mountains this day. Here was our drive across Blue Ridge Parkway towards Pisgah National Forest.


Here's another shot. This shot here was by far the worst fog of it all. To give you background, in most parts on the parkway, you are on a complete ridge, with nothing next to you on either side. So what we should be seeing is views of valleys and mountains next to us. Instead we had the eternal abyss. They don't call em the smokies for nothin.


The highest point we reached was 6,000. Here is where the fog was finally clearing up a little. There were pretty pink flowers surrounding us in the valley and in the rocks above us.


Another valley shot.
So we finally reached Pisgah, and found a great trail to ride. It was called the Avery trail, and lemme tell you, im surprised that I did this thing! We had to climb up a dirt road for about 30-40 minutes, then reached the trail head. That was another 30 minutes of climbing, except that we had to carry our bikes too. It was so rocky and rooty and beautiful though. I wished I had taken time to get pictures, but it was a lot of work to get up the trail. Then when we peaked, we realized we had 50 minutes of descending. About 1200 feet of it. About 2 feet wide of trail, filled with rocks and roots and boulders of every kind. Drops, intense curves, etc. It was truly the best trail I had ridden EVER. When we started to level off a little, the trail turned from more dusty and rocky to more rainforesty. It was dark, and creeks, and vast views of cloudy hazy trees and small fields. The trail here was slightly muddy, and there were tons of log crossings. It was so great. Something really interesting about the dirt in North Carolina is that is it really glimmery. I had a huge mud splash on my leg and realized that when i flattened the dirt out, it was just like glitter. Amazing. Our tent is filled with glitter too.



Here are some shots of the depraved drive to hotelness. Read ahead, youll see.
After riding, and being amazed, we decided to just keep going and try to find a place to stay. We didnt want to camp, we hadnt had a shower in 2 days, and were hungry. We headed out to Asheville again, and from about 6-12am, we had a huge desperate search for a hotel. It was Memorial day weekend, people everywhere, takin our hotel rooms. Well we got to find food in Asheville, but no place to stay. So we ended up driving all the way to Tennessee, and finally, when we were about to give up and just sleep in the car, we found the best comfort inn in the world. AND they had 1 available non smoking room. woot. it was the best sleep i ever had.
We thought we were going to head on to Kentucky and do some riding and camping there, but after seeing the weather forecast for Monday, we decided it was better to just head home and relax an extra day, and get all our unpacking done.


Hooray. Back to Chicago.


And lucky we were to get home when we did. It rained our whole route all day Monday!


And Slammer was sure happy to be home!

lite em up lambs

Firstly, thanks for all your nice comments on my skirt! Its so great!
Secondly, yay I cut my hair again! I actually got it cut a few weeks ago, but it looked kinda atrocious, so I went ahead and fixed it yesterday, and I love it now! Also, last week I finally got my nose pierced. Its something I have wanted to do since I was at least 8 years old.

There. You can kinda see both in that picture.
Now Im off to North Carolina, but not before I tell you all my weird dream first.
Ok it starts out that Im looking out my kitchen window, and in the grass is a dead lamb (i know, sad and gross) and a bag next to it with flies coming out. I freak out for about a half hour on what to do, and finally I decide to call animal control. I look out the window again and see that a dog has dragged most of the lamb out to the middle of the intersection and has left it. The lady comes and she is really nice. I look at the intersection and the lamb is gone, back in the spot it originally was. We go out to the lamb, and all the sudden i notice a plug and a bunch of roofing supplies. I plug the plug in, and the lamb is actually part of a christmas decoration that lights up. So I notice the lamb light up and a santa's sleigh and everything all around me. Me and animal control lady laugh it up real big like, and thats it. I wish something in that dream meant something!? any guesses?
So in knitting news, i got through the first few rows of Lacy Cami again, and with 30 less stitches it certainly is going faster. We will see how much time I have to work on this thing on my trip!
Have fun everyone!

Meetin and Sewin

This weekend was pretty cool, except for me getting the good ole "hayfever". Seriously, my throat has been non stop hurty since satuday night. ugh. Anyways, Saturday, I went out to Downers Grove to Knitche, and went to the knit meeting and got to meet Monica and Lynette!! They are even more funny and nice in person, believe me! I got to meet a few other great people too, but I don't believe they have links. I didn't get to stay too long, but I got to meet everyone there and had a great time! I didn't buy anything either, although I really thought I would, considering that Bead Heaven is next door. They have such unique and pretty beads, but it was so crowded and I didn't really have too much time to browse. I got some progress done on the Lacy Cami, but then later I decided to rip the whole thing apart. I also started over and cast on about 30 less stitches. I kept ending up on the wrong number of stitches and it was driving me crazy. So I just had to start over.
Satuday we also went biking at some trails in Naperville, and I had a great time. There is a little dirt jump there that is just perfect for me, so I hit that a bunch of times until i had it semi-perfected. It was a lot of fun.
I didn't get any knitting done this weekend, but did do some sewing. I guess I just needed some instant gratification!

This was supposed to be a skirt, but I cut the material too narrow for the waist, so I turned it into an apron! Sorry its so blurry! I added a crooked front pocket, and used ribbon for the waist hold. Then I made a pull over strip thingy for the neck. It seems to be ok, and I made it double thick so hopefully no baked goods will seep through. No, Slammer is not trying to bite me, she was panting up a storm (it was HOT yesterday, finally!)


And finally some success! A skirt I won't be embarrassed to wear in public.


Here it is tried on, of course with Slammer hamming it up. I really am not forcing her to pose with me, guys. This dog loves the camera. Shes a natural.


Here's a zoom in of the buttons. I kind of made the edge pleated and sewn over to fold over the seam on the left side. It works for me! I'm actually wearing it today at work!

That's about it for now, we are taking our trip Thursday, so I'll try to squeeze in a post if I have time or get anything done! This will be Slammers first time away from us in 3 months, so I am trying to make it go as smoothly as possible! Have a great week!

Shiny Fiorina

I got my lacy cami yarn in the mail last Friday, so I ended up having something to knit over the weekend! The yarn looks so lush! I opened it and it was an even more beautiful shade of blue than I had expected from the pictures! Its a wonderful grey/blue, my favorite shade! So far I've only had time to do 2 repeats of the lace pattern, but so far its going smoothly.

The yarn is called Lang Fiorina, and its 100% cotton. I'm still proud that I found such a cheap substitute for the yarn the pattern called for!
Speaking of cotton, I found out about Lion's Cotton Ease being discontinued and saw it at a Hancock Fabrics near my work and totally stocked up. I think I have about 12 skeins in all??

All I know is that everyone says what a great yarn it is, and I've never even gotten to knit with it yet! It was on sale too!
Lelah hasn't gotten any wear, nor has x-back. Its been cooler here the last few weeks. I sure wish it would turn summer in these parts.
Only other new stuff I have to show you is some new earrings I made for my sister.

It's been a slightly busy few weeks for me, between slammer and other stuff. We started breaking her away from the crate, and she seems sooo much happier now. She has a problem with separation anxiety when she's in the crate it seems. This past weekend we started testing her, and keeping her outside of the crate and just shutting our bedroom door (with all the important stuff in it!) and keeping her free when we leave. She seems to take everything much better, and all her signs of stress have left almost completely. She runs to us when we open the door to come home and there are no signs of mischief when we inspect the house! We are so proud of her! We thought we were going to have major problems, because most everyone crates their greyhound since they were not raised in houses. It serves as a place for comfort for the dogs, but in our case, I think it was a little different.
Also, I don't know if anyone noticed, but I put a link up on my sidebar to the wedding pics. You have to get to them in a really wonky way, but they are there nonetheless!
Lastly, I am waiting for a package today and can't wait! I love mail so much! Sorry, its not a package of the yarny sorts, but more of the bikey. We are going to be taking a trip to North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend. I'm so excited! We have been planning out all the details the last few weeks. Its going to be a big ole' bike trip, which is just what I needed. So I ordered a bunch of new bike shorts and some jerseys from foxracing.com. I can't wait to see some of them. One of the shorts I ordered is a "skort" of sorts. They put the traditional bike shorts under a skirt wrap that is flexible and loose. Here's what they look like. Anyways, I'm babbling. Hope to have some more lace to show you soon!

Lelah and greyhound info!

Aww yea, you know I got the Lelah done!! Such a great pattern it 'twas!

I couldn't decide which to show so heres both flash and none!

And the official on the wood surface shot:

So I cast on for the small, which I found directions/suggestions for here. So cast on 132 stitches on size 9, and just went along as normal. I made mine extra long, cuz I wanted something different for those "cover up my belly" days. So I did 11 repeats of lace, and then when I got to the decrease row on size 7's, I decreased one stitch every 10 stitches, and then continued and knit up stockinette about 6-7 inches. Then sewed up a little elastic on the edge, threw that ribbon in there and blocked it and I was done! Its a very comfy top, and I can easily see myself wearing it on a nice summer day! I want to make more Lelahs, with different variations, like perhaps ribbon straps like Asana, or perhaps a Lelah with straps like Lauren's. She was even so nice as to post directions to how she did her straps in craftster!
Now its on to the lacy cami, but I'm still waiting for yarn in the mail, so we will see when I get to cast on! someones gotta help me find something to hold me over this weekend if I dont get it today!
On a different note, I know a lot of people out there are always thinking "gee I really wanna adopt a greyhound, but I don't know." If you are at all capable of taking good care of one of these great creatures, please, consider it! They are the sweetest things, and really deserve a good home after their "professional" career! As you all can see, I had about 3 months of a struggle, getting her used to her new schedule, but once that was worked out, she was a rockstar. They really thrive on a schedule that is predictable, and if you think about it, their whole lives have revolved around a strict schedule. Get up 4am, eat, train, eat, train, eat, sleep etc. At least this is what I have learned from research about them. Anyways, it seems there is a strain of flu that is causing a lot of dogs to get sick at the track. Here is a great link on metblogs about the whole dealie. Read it and think about it!

Slammy

Hey look everyone! its an unecessary shitton of pictures of Slammer! Click for the big!
                

Lelah goodness

ahh, I've casted on for the Lelah Top, and its going just peachy! Literally. I got some great Mango Microspun at Michaels the other day, and it seems to be just what I needed for this project! Here's progress so far:

It is knitting up surprisingly fast. I have 2 more repeats of lace left, and I can move on to the stockinette top, which surprisingly is going to be the hard part. I think if i have trouble keeping the top over my boobs correctly, I will just add straps. I think something along the lines of this will work out nicely if needed. Plus I will have tons of ribbon left over anyways!
Hope you all have a great mothers day!

Dye McHair

I've finally gone black! Sorry for the crappy webcam pic! (notice my halter??)

Projects Decision

I've decided to go along and knit the Lelah Top from Knitting for Boozehags. This girl's site rocks! Yet another trip was made to Michael's today for some yarn to complete this project.
I decided to go again with the Lion Microspun yarn. This stuff is seriously soft, and I noticed they had way more colors in stock this time too. It was between mango and this weird pinky color, and I went with the mango. I also got some olive colored ribbon and dark rusty orange ribbon to test out as the lace-in part. Im nervous about knitting this piece because no instructions are given for small, and only a few people have done it, so its gonna take some experimenting. It may have to be a do-over, but thats ok. I'm most excited to see the Microspun do its infamous draping thing. If yall remember, I used it for the lovely clapotis! Here's the stuff I got.

Any before-hand suggestions of which to pair up with the yarn? The color in the photo is not very accurate, so I may have to redo that.

I also went ahead and did some serious research on the Lacy Cami's yarn, decided that $20 is too much for one skein of yarn, especially for a summer piece, and found out that Lang yarn's Fiorina cotton (found for $2.somthin a skein) will be a perfect match, hopefully. Here's what I got! I almost ended up accidentally buying more light blue for the Lelah top, but remembered and went off on an orangy tangent. I can't wait to cast on tonite!
So heres the plan so far...
First, on to the Lelah top.
Then, Lacy Cami
Then, another xback
Then mayybeee the butterfly from rowan 37.
ya, theres the plan.

xbacker

Allz I need now is a tan and I'm set to go for summer! Xback is officially finished! I haven't blocked yet, but I'm not so sure it will make such a big difference. It's acrylic and nylon. Anyone block these items too?
Anyways, here's your much deserved photos! Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, but it was cloudy yesterday! Maybe Ill redo these.

The "X" back!

Heres my sexy gut photo!
It was a joy to knit, I tells ya! I think Im going to possibly make another one that is longer in green. I was going through all my patterns yesterday, and I wasn't really sure where to go next. There is that Lacy Cami in Vogue Knitting that Im really fiending after, but not sure of my capabilities with it. Another I wanted to do was Butterfly from the newer Rowan mag, but that one I'm unsure of because of $$ issues. Maybe I will have a slight lull between projects till I figure out whats next. Aw snap, you all know I will probably have something on my needles in 3 days. Im just playin.
Anyways, it was an awesome weekend, and I hope yours was too! I made some earrings this weekend too!