mountains alive, morbid fascinations

Sunday was a great day. We took a long hike along Slate Stone Ridge in the high Pisgahs. It felt so good to push hard up the mountain, get really sweaty and tired just walking and seeing beautiful things.

We did see a lot of beautiful things, too; lots of wildflowers: bluets, galax, fairy wand, flame azaleas, mountain laurel, and sundrops were all blooming, along with a lot of other things I can't name. We flushed up some quail, and we saw deer and red-tail hawk and heard lots of songbirds.

One thing that was unusual for us, was that HWWLLB and his family had never been on this trail before. They all grew up hiking in the Pisgahs and seem to know every hill and holler, but this was a new spot for all of them. And the view! When we came out to a big bald rock we had about a 200 degree view, with nothing but hills and trees as far as you could see. Sitting there looking out, you could imagine that the whole world was just forest. It was a wonderful feeling.

In the car on the way home I made the little hat to go with the baby wrapper.


luckily there's a model head in my attic for just such occasions. thanks bugeart!

And here's a shot of the wrapper - finally finished.


i love love love the blue sky alpacas organic cotton

I'm excited about the small world of knitting projects open to me right now. I could finish the colorbox sweater, or make a pair of socks from my new copy of Knitting Vintage Socks and some lovely Secret Pal sock yarn, or get out the ribbon yarn I ordered eons ago to make a crazy but elegant top I've been planning for this fall's Stitch & Bitch charity fashion show/auction (gotta start early). (I'm not using that awful rainbow yarn color, by the way).

But I also have my eye on the little Dia de los Muertos dolls they have in the crazy summer edition of Knit.1. There's not a picture of them on the website, but they are at the end of the cool Frida Kahlo section. I like this Knit.1 - at least, I like all the crazy colors and photography and wacky patterns. But I kept checking the cover thinking it was an advertising circular for Lion Brand - since every single pattern is knit with Lion Brand yarn. But no - it claims to be a Vogue Knitting magazine. I don't get it - looks like the spawn of an unholy alliance to me. But I still love those dolls anyway... so morbid/cute!

Although you know, as much as I love Frida Kahlo and her paintings and all her chunky jewelry and morbid fascinations, she did not look like Salma Hayek in real life! Not at all! She was short and squat and had a big moustache and a unibrow, so stop it with the willowy babes already!

Whew, rant over. Thanks. I just hate how beauty has only one shape these days: skinny chick with bazoombas. There are other beautiful shapes besides that one. In fact, that one is kind of freaky if you ask me.

So what was this post about? Mountains or something, I don't know. Anyhow, thanks for reading. And check out the espresso art. So cool!