Hiking

Yesterday a friend and I went up to North Georgia for a bit of hiking at Tallulah Gorge State Park (I call it hiking even though we technically never left a trail and our packs both weighed less than 50 lbs.).

It was a great day for hiking, 70 F/21 C and overcast, and the views were spectacular. We decided to hike down into the gorge to see some of the falls better.

There's a suspension bridge across the gorge. Very cool looking even though the swinging motion made me a little nervous.

There are over 1000 steps down into the gorge but it was worth it. Isn't this picture amazing?

The trails around the rim of the gorge were lovely with all the falling leaves.

Before we stopped for lunch we decided to hike to Inspiration Point.

Inspiration Point is perched almost at the very tip top of a 1000 foot bluff.

Not many people can say this was their view for lunch yesterday:

Just as we finished up lunch it started drizzling and by the time we got to the car it was starting to rain. We timed everything perfectly and were on the road back home by the time it really started to come down.

Needless to say, I needed a lengthy nap yesterday.

Today I'm dyeing up some yarn. I have a custom order of Juniper Moon Farm cormo that needs to be done as a prize from the EEROP/Project Hope Christmas knitting drive from over the summer. I'm also going to dye some yarn for myself (something that doesn't happen very often)! There is a new mystery knit along designed by LISMI that I'm hoping to get around to during the Christmas holidays that I would like to use my self dyed yarn for. I would like to start it before then but I still have Christmas knitting to get to, though it is coming along nicely. Oh, and I have to start Thanksgiving cooking today too :)

Vacation

After much anticipation, my week of Thanksgiving vacation has arrived! I'm looking forward to relaxing and spending time with my family. And eating. I'm really looking forward to that. To kick off my vacation I spent this weekend with my family at Stone Mountain Park.

They were having their annual winter festivities so my parents took two of my younger cousins out for the evening. I came along to help with crowd control and to get my first taste of the holiday season. There was a snow angel (who does a presentation at the end of the night complete with a snowfall).

And I had my first Santa sighting.

Seeing Santa was pretty cool (even for a grown up).

Having the whole week off has put me more in the holiday mood than in previous years. In the past I've felt like Thanksgiving just sneaks up on you and then, once that's over, it's pretty much Christmas. This year I feel like I'm actually prepared for turkey day and Christmas parades and carols and all that jazz. And I've been itching to make some warm winter wear (even though the temps are back up in the 70s (Fahrenheit)/ 20s (Celsius) this week). Something cozy and thick and wool. What am I knitting with though? Cotton. At least it's red and green... (pictures of works in progress to come later).

Sometimes I Over Do It

I wish that statement applied to making cakes or exercising or even online gaming but it does, in fact, refer to my tendency to try and juggle as many balls at once as I possibly can. You can imagine the outcome. At some point along the way my body will just throws up it's hands and says "Enough! You won't slow down? I will make you slow down!" and then I get grossly sick. Like strep for the 4th time this year sick. Like tossing and turning all night because I felt feverish sick. Like waking up with body aches sick. Yeah, something like that. Oh, and did I mention I was supposed to be baby-sitting all weekend? Um, yeah...Not happening. At least not until tonight when my antibiotics have had a chance to fully kick in and make me feel less like a zombie. Let's focus on happier things shall we?

When I was at SAFF I started making some fingerless gloves for myself. It was freezing there and fingerless gloves seemed like something that would be good for the cold. And I had a little sample yarn left over from dyeing to try.

Well, this is the almost finished product but you get the idea (they have been completed since this picture was taken). This is in my Olive: I Love colorway and I've really fallen in love with this color and dye job.

Still working on grad school stuff which pretty much takes up the majority of my free time. There's a ton of reading to do and then 4 one page long discussion postings I have to make a week. I'm enjoying it but that does mean my other activities are severely limited and mostly relegated to eating and sleeping.

I did manage to start my Christmas knitting last week. I've got quite a few things I'm ambitiously thinking I can finish in just 6 (or less) short weeks. Won't show you the projects here because there are quite a few gift recipients who read this blog but I will show you the nice project bag I got from Joann's Fabric and Craft store for buying a butt load of yarn.

Grad School

I can officially say that grad school is a major time suck. That's all I've done for the last 2 weeks: grad work. Grad work and getting ready for SAFF. And going to SAFF set me back on really accomplishing anything. Not that I didn't enjoy going of course. Thus, I have declared this weekend to be a Do Nothing Weekend of Freedom. The only thing I have scheduled is a massage with my massage therapist on Saturday (at my house so I don't even have to leave) and church on Sunday. The rest of this weekend will be for accomplishing long neglected tasks such as laundry, washing dishes, logistical/business stuff for the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project, watching Interview With the Vampire, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, designing a vest for a mystery KAL that starts Monday, making s'mores, reading blogs, knitting, making placinte, sorting yarn, and organizing my online finances. That all sounds like a terrible lot of stuff but it's all stuff I actually want to do, crazy as that seems. Well, maybe not the laundry or washing dishes so much but I do need some clean clothes and dishes (oh when am I going to find a man to help me with all these menial tasks....). I'm so glad this weekend is finally here. I may not be able to sleep tonight from all the excitement....

Including 2 of the whooping 5 pictures I took at SAFF.

 The full booth, which was TINY! 6ft by 8ft. But Steph and I made it work.

 Me in the booth. Get the full effect if it's tininess?

Where to Start

Ok, so I have a very limited time to do a post. I've got to hit the books tonight and do some work on papers and discussion postings. So, where to start...

Got a huge package in the mail the other day from a member of the EEROP group. It was stuffed to the brim with the following goodies:

9(!) hats,

fingerless mitts,

socks for Socktober Madness,

and 2 great sweaters! I love the little toggles and believe me when I say these will keep a child warm in the winter.

I finished another hat for Teanne and her mission trip in December.

And this was my view yesterday as I was working on grad school stuff:

Love this weather!

SAFF Confessional

So, I have to confess something...until yesterday I wasn't really looking forward to SAFF.

I know, I know...sacrilege! Before you string me up by my toes let me explain.

1. I'm going this year as a vendor. This means I won't have as much time for perusing wares. And everyone knows I love a good fiber festival. But me in a room full of yarn and I'm like an alcoholic in a brewery, I just have to have some.
2. I'm not a salesperson. This sorta hurts the whole vendor thing. It's not like I won't tell you everything you want to know about my yarn but you have to ask first. I'm not about to hard sell you as soon as you come within shouting distance of my booth.
3. I'm not competitive. At least not in the sense that I'm looking to be the next Sanguine Griffin or Holiday Yarns or Miss Babs or any of a dozen other indie dyers. I work an 8-4 job everyday. I'm starting a non-profit. I'm involved in my church. I go to knit nights. I'm a full time grad student. Oh, and one day I'd like to have a social life.
4. I'm a Knitter. With a capital K. Not a Dyer. Dyeing is my hobby. I just happen to dye a lot so I have extra to sell. Not as much as someone who spends hours a week dyeing, week in and week out. But more than a healthy hobby should accumulate. And I'm ok with that. But see #3 above.

So basically I was feeling all uninspired about going to sell my yarn and feeling like everything I dye is sub-par and just being super critical of myself. This, of course, did nothing to help my enthusiasm for heading to a major fiber festival.

And then I booked my room.

And I starting thinking about the North Carolina mountains in the fall.

See more breathtaking photos here.
And I remembered the alpacas.

And the llamas.

I love this picture so much.
And the bunnies.

And the market.

And then I remembered the best part of all...

the fair food.

Suddenly I'm ready to go.

Weekend

I've had a very busy weekend and it's not even Sunday yet! My grandmother moved from Arkansas to Georgia early, early, early this morning (I think they got in around midnight) so I went to her new house yesterday to help my mom put the finishing touches on things. Of course, I was late getting there because I was waiting on a parent to pick up a student until 4:20 at the school (lesson here: do not try and drive anywhere in or around Atlanta at 3:00 on a Friday). I stayed until a little after 11:00 at my grandmother's place sweeping, attempting to put magnetic closers on cabinet doors, putting together a bed, blowing up an air mattress, and cleaning. This morning I woke up earlier than I would have normally for a Saturday and drove to north Georgia. I have a friend who works at a boarding school/farm on the weekends and I went to help and meet some of the kids. I'm thinking about volunteering up there some so I wanted to get a feel for the place. I had the random chance to ride a plow horse backwards while I was up there! Bareback too nonetheless. Which is just as weird as it sounds. After getting home this evening I took a shower and put on my pajamas. All before 6:00 p.m. I sat down for a few minutes and finished sewing the edging on the prairie hat.

I think it turned out more Little House than I had originally thought. I think the original color of grey that they used in the book was what actually made it more sophisticated. Oh well, it's still cute. Just need to add the pompoms.

I'm still cranking away on the wave scarf.

I get a some time in every morning to do a few rows. I'm thinking 6 repeats of the 80+ row pattern should make it long enough.


Tonight I'm going to cast on for another hat so I can help Teanne when she goes on her trip to Romania in December. I'm thinking this one:

This hat is also from 60 Quick Knits. Speaking of charity knitting... I received some cute little socks from knitwitchery for Socktober! Can't wait to see what else starts coming in.