Happy Birthday to My Blog / Moving!

It's a few days late, but I've been chatting with y'all for a year now. Thanks so much for keeping me company.

As a birthday present, I've given myself a new address. Please change your bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc. to my new home:

http://www.flyinneedles.sands-edge.com/blog

See you over there.

Saturday Sky - 7 April 2007

It's chilly in North Carolina today. With out-of-town guests here, I entirely forgot to look up today. So, here's a cheater Saturday Sky from our trip to the Smokies last month. Enjoy!

Horses and Kid Socks

Lynn commented:
Ok you SO need to tell me abt this kid friendly B&B in the Smokies... We have a trip planned for the area and I would love to stay in a place like this......

I know how you feel! I wasn’t sure a kid-friendly bed and breakfast really existed. Many B&B’s have an outright “no kid” policy, and many that say they’re kid-friendly seem to just tolerate kids. This was the first one I came across in my search that seemed to actively embrace families. We were extremely happy with our short stay there, and will be going back. A word of warning: you may want to plan one full day to stay at the farm. The kids didn’t really want to go anywhere.



The B&B we were at is called Persephone’s Farm Retreat. You can find them online at http://www.bedandbreakfast.cc. If your kids like gathering eggs and petting animals, this is the place for you. There is a large farmhouse with rooms, as well as two cottages (full kitchens) down toward the paddocks. We opted for a cottage – there was no extra charge for the kidlets - and lucked out with a really nice family in the cottage next door. The kids all got along; they petted the animals and played with the outdoor games together. The innkeeper also has musical instruments on hand for those who play and a fire circle for evening fires when appropriate.

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What? Knitting content? OK!



Spring has sprung chez Flyin’ Needles. This is a sock for Tweedle-dee from some panda cotton we picked up on vacation. He says the yellow is like “having sunshine whenever you want it!” This kid is destined for marketing.

The Panda Cotton is treating me all right so far. It’s less bumpy than I had anticipated, which is a pleasant surprise. Also, it doesn’t annoy me nearly as much as Cascade Fixation does with its use of elastic. I have a hard time getting even tension with Fixation. That said, it can be a rather splitty yarn, and don’t think about frogging and reknitting large sections. “Rather splitty” morphs into “these seven strings are all one yarn?” at that point. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Saturday Sky - 31 March 2007

The sky wasn't much to look at this afternoon, but there were leaves! New, pretty green leaves all over our oak trees.

I almost had a lovely going-on-toward sunset sky for you. I was at the grocery buying copious amounts of spring water for my first batch of home-brewed beer when I saw the sun doing its thing behind some clouds. The backlit pinks and oranges against the dusky blue of the clouds were quite striking. "Ah, well," I thought, "the camera is at home."

When I returned home, hubby sent me directly back out for some honey. Great! I grabbed the camera and headed back to the grocery. The clouds were a little different and the sun a little lower, but it was still a nice shot. I framed it up, managed to get the electric wires out of the way, and hit the shutter. Nothing. Hmmm. I did it again. Still nothing. That's when I remembered taking out the memory card and putting it by my keyboard this afternoon as a reminder to post tonight. Oops. But, trust me, it was lovely.

The Car

My car got this way in a 24-hour period. What is covering it?

a) Dust
b) Yellow tempera paint powder
c) Pine pollen




Yes, friends, the answer is c. Welcome to the south. *sniff* *sniff* ACHOO! * This stuff runs like paint when it rains; it's amazing.



* Yes, I know pine pollen is too big to be causing my reactions. All the stuff that blooms at the same time, however, is another story.

In Which I Contemplate My Toes

My travelin' socks are done. The first one (on the left) was done mostly in Ohio, and the second mostly in Alabama and Tennessee. They are now off with their new owner, who pronounced them lovely.



Can you believe that's the color AFTER a bunch of dye came out in their first wash? I must admit, it was fun knitting them just to watch the colors fly by.



That said, I need to rethink this short-row toe thing. I like the way it looks, but it doesn't seem to fit my feet correctly. Maybe I'm still making the toe too wide, or maybe I just like pointy socks. This makes no sense, because I have square duck-type feet. Not that it helps when I swim, but there ya go.

This is my second pair of actual woolen socks, and I must say that I love the sproing of wool. This yarn was quite different than my first, in both the feel and the fact that it smelled. Of vinegar. I'm thinking maybe it was part of the dyeing process? At any rate, the socks bled like a stuck purple pig when I washed them the first time. I rather feared for the yellows, but they appear to have survived.

Details:

Started:	9 Mar 2007
Finished:	27 Mar 2007
Pattern:	Wendy's generic toe up sock + feather and fan
Yarn:	100% superwash merino wool from JitterBug, in the Mardi Gras (155) colorway.
Needles:	My little metal 4" needles from addi, size US 1.

Monday's Saturday Sky - 24 Mar 2007

We're back and slowly acclimating to life at home. Now, if I could find the energy to buy some milk for the fridge and groceries for dinner, we'd really be on our way. So, in the name of procrastination, I'm writing my Saturday Sky entry instead of doing what I should be doing.

We had a lovely time in Huntsville, though I am glad not to be living in a hotel. We spent most of our adventure time at the US Space and Rocket Center, though we did get out to Sci-Quest (a children's science museum) and a few playgrounds. On the way home, we stopped by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I love this place; it's lovely out of season as well as in. We spent Saturday at a kid-friendly B&B with lovely views. Here are some of my Saturday Sky photos from last Saturday:

The morning:




Mid-day, on the way over to Cades Cove:


Sunset, shortly before we had a nice little campfire:


I'm glad to be back! The second sock is almost done, so expect photos later in the week.