KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

This is a long and picture-heavy post - better grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. ;-)

What have we been doing? Let me think. I'm so relaxed - hanging out in a cabin and doing only the things you really want to is fabulous. I can't tell you how much I needed this vacation. I think all of you who anticipated that I would be very mellow when SAFF rolls around are 100% correct. I will be totally ready for fiber excitement. And SAFF is now only two days away. WOW. I remember when Jen and I talked at the end of 2006 about reserving our hotel rooms.

SO, what have Hubby and I been up to?

SUNDAY - 10/21/07

As usual, I got up early and actually caught the sunrise. Well, the part that you can see from our porch:

Later, we had coffee on the porch, and I started swatching for the Koolhaas Hat (from the Interweave Knits Holiday 2007 issue):

The designer is Jared from brooklyntweed. Check out his blog on the story how he got the idea for the design of this hat. Pretty cool. Even Hermione had to model the hat:

Poor thing. In this picture, she very much reminds me of the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. If you have a few hours, you seriously can knit the hat in one day. And since I'm on vacation, I did. :-) Hubby took a few glamour shots that night:

Yarn: Handpainted Pure Wool Knitting Felting Yarn from Serendipity in South America - 100% wool (approx. 160 yards per hank)
Needles: Magic Loop Knitpicks Harmony US # 6
Modifications: I cast on only 88 stitches (rather than the 104 that the pattern called for) and only did 3 pattern repeats (instead of 4 or 5) since my yarn is a lot thicker. Of course, that also helped finish the hat more quickly.

Noticed the t-shirt? Told you, I wear silly t-shirts in my leisure time. This one is from Curb Your Enthusiasm and says F-HUGH!. Hubby and I love that show. (Maybe because Hubby and I are sorta like Larry and Cheryl?) We own all the seasons available on DVD, and can’t wait for the current one to come out.

Between casting on and binding off the hat, Hubby and I went to Asheville. We strolled around at Hardlox - the Jewish Food & Heritage Festival:

Asheville is such a pretty little city.

The woman at the back had hand-dyed handspun with her and she also gave a little introduction about how to grow, harvest, spin, and work with flax. Very interesting.

We went to a little art gallery called Ariel Gallery and I bought a beautiful hand-woven chenille scarf, made by Carmen Grier.

They had a bunch of very interesting felted pieces by Lisa Klakulak on display, and I had to snap a few pictures. She sure does some felting that's different from mine…

I think her art is very cool, but I think she has some issues.

And we did some window shopping. So much knitted stuff everywhere!

Of course I had to buy some yarn at the Asheville NC Home Crafts Store - from Turkey of all places - but I like the colors and I have never seen that brand of yarn.

Love the blues and the browns all mixed together. Since I bought that new scarf book, I keep looking for interesting scarf yarns. Never thought I would do that…

Next stop was Biltmore Village. We were too late for Biltmore Estates - and I have to say also too stingy to spend $39 each to go inside. Anyway, we walked around the cutsie little village and I stumbled onto another yarn store, the Yarn Paradise. The store had quite a good selection and I walked away with just a few things:

Back home, we sat on the porch, and it was so hot that I needed only shorts and a tank top. And we caught another sunset, which was the last one so far:

Because ever since Sunday night it has rained. And Hubby says he can tell you why it has been raining ever since…he has the power. He claims that throughout his adult life, every time he goes anywhere, it rains incessantly. He says he has gone to places facing their worst drought disasters ever and it has rained on him ceaselessly. He jokes that he should rent himself out, but then if he wanted it to, it wouldn't rain a drop.

MONDAY - 10/22/07

Besides celebrating our third wedding anniversary, Hubby and I and the children went for a drive and visited the grounds of Warren Wilson College. The college was mentioned in one of our tourist brochures for trails to walk the dogs. And we had a very nice walk and discovered the cutest farm animals - lots of piglets.

The tri-colored ones are my favorite. Hubby and I would have a potbelly pig - too bad they don’t do well inside. They like to root and dig up your carpet. I admit I have a problem with that. I think dealing with tons of dog hair is a bit easier… We also saw a real turkey – yup, the blurry feathery thing way in the background:

And tons of crows. A bit creepy - reminded me of Hitchcock’s "The Birds":

TUESDAY - 10/23/07

Yesterday we didn’t do much but lounge around. And guess why - it was raining. Gee - what a surprise… I knitted a lot and watched a bunch of Desperate Housewives episodes online. I can’t get over what you can do with a laptop - and a wireless Internet connection - in a cabin in the middle of nowhere…

Since I had a second ball of the yarn I knitted the Koolhaas Hat with, I also knitted a scarf with reversible cables (from Cables Untangled - love that book), and I'm working on a pair of fingerless mittens. A whole matching ensemble. I have a feeling it's going to be cold and rainy this weekend at SAFF. Well, let’s hope for the best!

WEDNESDAY - AKA TODAY - 10/24/07

It's still raining, but Hubby and I decided to drive around anyway and maybe explore some of the local nature highlights. First we went to the North Carolina Arboretum. That was totally fascinating – they have a tremendous Bonsai Garden:

They also have a lovely greenhouse and a nursery. I'm glad we didn't have Sugar Ray with us - he would have had no fun at all...

We wandered around until I got tired of the rain and got back into the car for some more driving. Hubby and I love to just drive around and enjoy the scenery.

It finally stopped raining for a bit and Hubby and I took our chances to walk the dogs around Lake Lure. And Hermione and Noah enjoyed their walk:

Those dogs are the best car buddies! OK, I am biased but just look at them! :-)))

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Now we're back at the cabin - I'm going make dinner and then I'll knit some more. The rest of the family is dozing away. I don’t blame them. Hubby did all the driving and Hermione and Noah are just pooped from all the excitement of the ride and the walk.

I'm not sure if I’ll blog again before SAFF. Actually, I should spin some tomorrow to get in the groove before my spinning class on Friday. But not to worry - I'll take tons of pictures at SAFF. If you go to SAFF, I hope I get to see you at the meet & greet spot in the Blue Barn. The Atlanta knitting/blogging/spinning community reserved the space every day for four hours:

See ya!