Knitting news, now with added butterflies!

I finally finished the Arrow Lace socks today. Never again will I let a second sock linger for months waiting to be finished.

I had noticed that the first sock seemed a bit looser than the new one, but I figured I'd just stretched it out from trying it on. Turns out I knitted the first sock with size 1.5 needles, and the second with size 1s. I think this is at least part of the reason why they have completely different color pooling. They both fit fine and look identical in terms of the patterning, so I'm happy.

While out in the woods, I cast on for Cozy with the cone of Art Fibers Ming Jag gave me for my birthday. This is some wonderful yarn. I'll do a couple repeats and see if I still like how it's turning out on size 9s.

I've also started a new Secret Project for Mom, which can be viewed here by non-Mom persons.

I bought 8 kinds of herbs at the Herbfest in Wake Forest on Friday and got those planted in containers this weekend with help from Jag. While we were planting, we were repeatedly dive-bombed by a really pretty butterfly that turned out to be a black swallowtail. It was very interested in my gone-to-seed parsley plants, and it turns out that black swallowtail caterpillars prefer to munch on members of the carrot family, like fennel and parsley.

I tried to take some pictures, but its little wings were beating about 50 times a second. If any of the camera nuts who read this blog can advise me on what settings work for pictures like this, I'd be much obliged. I played around with the shutter speed and aperture in manual mode, but I get dark and/or blurry pictures at high speeds no matter what I do. Maybe my camera just sucks. Or maybe I need to haul a Klieg light around with me.

And Jag's favorite:

Which of these things is not like the others?

Which of these things just doesn't belong?

Fairy Stone Park Visit, Part II

On Monday we decided to head out on the Lakeshore Trail, a 1.1-mile non-looping path that ends at the dam between Fairy Stone Lake and Philpott Lake.

Shockingly, the lake is visible for large portions of the Lakeshore Trail. We averted our eyes as best we could.

This little rise led to a nice overlook at the top.

As we hit the back half of the trail, the sun came out!

The section of the trail near the dam, which winds into the woods following the path of a little creek, was one of my favorite parts of the park.

There was even a little waterfall (although probably pretty dinky compared to Little Mountain Falls, which we didn't have time to visit on this trip).

Someone had scratched out a picture of the sun on the back of the "Hey moron, don't try to row your boat over the spillway!" sign at the dam. It clearly had some effect, because this was one of the few non-overcast periods of our entire stay.

We felt the approving presence of Bob Ross here. The lake was really lovely and the trees were very happy.

These trees are upwards of 6 Jags high. Very tall indeed.

Here I am at the dam, wearing my ridiculous pants. Also my bra seems to have just given up at some point.

And here's Jag, looking all hiker-y in his spiffy hat.

The trails in this part of the park were VERY well-marked. Some might say ridiculously so. We extended our walk by hooking up with the Turkey Ridge Trail for a while, and looking down the path here, FIVE separate blazes can be seen at once. (Click on the picture to see a detailed view.)

In case this wasn't enough of a hint, there's a sign letting you know that the trail is THAT way. You know, in the direction of those THREE BLAZES RIGHT THERE. I can only assume that a Boy Scout troop wandered off this trail at some point in its not-as-well-marked past and was devoured by rabid beavers. Maybe next year they'll hire people to stand near the trees waving those lighted airplane guide sticks.

End of Part II

Fairy Stone Park Visit, Part I

The day of the trip started out sunny and nice. We had a big brunch at Eno River Eatery (one of the Briggs/LeCoco/Courtney's clones) and headed out around 1.

As we drove into Virginia, the weather got worse. The resulting downpour got so bad that we pulled over for a little bit, but the storm blew through pretty quickly and settled down to a drizzle.

Yay! We have arrived! The party can start now! According to the GPS, the trip took a mere 2 hours and 4 minutes.

We stayed in Cabin 12. All of the cabins have heat/AC, a kitchen, living/dining room, bathroom, and 1-2 bedrooms. Our cabin was listed as having a "limited lake view", which was pretty decent with the trees not yet leafed out.

The cabin also had a nice screened porch. The cotton ball someone had used to plug one of the holes in the screen gave it an exciting "GOOD GOD IS THAT A GIANT SPIDER EGG-CASE????" feel.

The kitchen was small, but very well-stocked for a state park facility. Microwave, stove, fridge, coffeemaker, and all the basic pots/pans, dishes, mugs, glasses, bowls, etc you'd need.

The mini-stove was cute even though it tried to alternately undercook and incinerate our cinnamon rolls.

The living/dining room was decorated in Early Mildly Depressing State Park B&W Photos and had a fireplace (with a bundle of firewood waiting) and some furniture from This End Up's reject pile. Actually, the furniture was fairly comfortable. The approximately 10-watt bulbs in the lamps were more annoying.

The view from the screened porch was nice. We especially enjoyed it when we walked out to have a little sit-down after unpacking and realized we'd locked both the doors behind us. Neither of us had shoes, and it was still raining. Luckily Jag still had his car keys, so we drove up barefoot to the ranger station (about a half mile down the road) to borrow a spare key from the very nice staff. It was 4:10 when we arrived and it turned out that they close for the day at 4:30. Good timing. Walking that distance barefoot in the rain would have pretty much sucked.

It continued to rain for a bit after we completed the Key Exchange of Humiliation. We took a stroll down the back yard to check out the lake.

Yep, still raining.

Miraculously, the skies cleared after a bit, so we took a walk down to the beach area on Fairy Stone Lake. The Beach Trail is about a half mile each way and parallels the main road.

It remained sunny out for upwards of 20 minutes!

These tree roots looked like a face to me.

Across the lake is a large hill, formerly the site of iron mines, called Stuart's Knob. We explored that trail system later in the trip.

The beach (which is clearly, how do you say, artificial) was pretty quiet at this time of year. Swimming doesn't start til Memorial Day, but there were a number of people fishing. No boats for rent yet, either. Next time we definitely want to bring/rent a canoe.

We stopped by the live bait vending machine to check out dinner options.

There's a little amphitheater down by the lake, complete with podium and hookups for a projector. It didn't look as though it had been used in quite some time. Not sure how much call there is for doing Powerpoint presentations in the middle of a state park.

End of Part I

Heading to the woods

I'm about to head here with Jag on my first real vacation in years. We'll be back on Wednesday.

Before I head out, a short crafting update. I made another fabric collage, this time adding a bunch of beads, a wooden ladybug and some fabric paint for outlining the various parts (Jag's suggestion).

I liked the fabric paint so much, I added some to collage #1, and I think it's a big improvement. And now I think it needs some beads, too.

I won't be making any collages during my vacation, but I did pack 4 knitting projects!

My next big knitting project

...will not be one of these.

DONE!!!!!!

My hair is a mess! There is evidence that I read quilting magazines and do crossword puzzles in the potty! I look like a dork! But who cares, the Simple Knitted Bodice is DONE!!!!!!

Now to weave in a couple of ends and give it a bath. Probably not tonight, though. Better pictures will be forthcoming.

Sidetracked again

I did not finish my sweater this weekend (although there's at least 4 hours to go before bed!), but I did get the second sleeve done. I'll start working on the neckline after dinner. There's still hope of completing and wearing this thing before summer.

The reason I didn't finish the sweater is that I decided that I HAD to try making a fabric collage. I've never decoupaged anything or used rubber stamps, but I was suddenly seized with the urge today. So after running out to Target at 10am to get a staple gun to attach the fabric background to the canvas, I spent the next couple hours playing with my quilting fabric stash, Mod Podge, rubber stamp, and copper craft paint and inking pad. It was a lot of fun and I'm happy with the result. At this point it just needs to be sealed with some kind of noxious spray (not sure if I'll go matte or shiny).

Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the "vase" fabric looks awfully familiar.

I even stamped the sides. Call me Ms. Thorough.

Incredibly close

Only 5" of sleeve and the neckline are left to do. It's supposed to be in the 50s next week.....

Weekend grab bag

I've had a very busy weekend, but not much of it has been stuff that's really blog-able. I had a great post-Geek-Beer dinner with friends at Watts Grocery, went for a somewhat muddy but otherwise great hike in Little River Park with Jag, met Jag's parents (who are very nice), helped my mom shop for a dress to wear to my cousin's upcoming wedding (she found something flattering, comfortable, AND affordable, which isn't easy), and made a huge pot of corn chowder. One of the highlights, though, was coming home from shopping to find this very nice surprise from Jag on my kitchen table. (The little one in the wineglass came with a short stem, and emergency measures were taken.)

I have no real knitting progress to report because I haven't had time to do much knitting for a while. I did manage to get some quilting done on my long-abandoned Other Pink Quilt, however, because I dragged it to the Wednesday craft night I often go to with Jag. I love quilting the knotwork pattern, it's much more fun than outline quilting. I need to build up quilting callouses on my underneath fingers again, though, or I'll end up bleeding all over the darn thing.

On a knitting-related note, I found a really cool pattern for a shawl. While working on my arrow lace socks, I've noticed that the eye of partridge heel looks great with hand-painted yarn, and I've wished I could make a sweater or something that had the same effect:

Well, someone designed an Eye of Partridge Shawl, which is just too cool. I have some sock yarn that really wants to be made into this shawl.

Nothing Gold^H^H^H^HPink Can Stay

Her early leaf's a flower....

But only so an hour....

Bye bye, cherry blossoms! See you next year!