Driving Home in a Roundabout Way

Let me tell you the story of my drive home from Virginia. I got a decent start at 8:30 loading the car and grabbing breakfast. Feeling ambitious, I asked the front desk about the local alpaca farm that was supposedly "minutes from the hotel." The lady told me some easy directions that I thought I could handle, and then some directions to a larger farm further down the freeway in the direction I was heading to get to NC. So I started off to the local place since I didn't want to make a day of it. The winding road was scenic and full of farms, but none that indicated an alpaca residence. The nicely paved road suddenly turned to dirt, but I persevered until it dead-ended at a busy cross-street that was not supposed to be there. In the end, I turned around and headed back to the freeway leading to home.

As I drove along, I kept my eye out for this other larger farm that was supposed to be outside of Lexington, off the freeway-- so close you can see it as you drive by. By the time I got to the heart of Lexington I had still no sight of an alpaca farm nor any signage. However, there was a sign that led to the visitor's center of Lexington, and as I'm not one to give up on a mission once it's in my head, I had to find out from the center if there was indeed a farm nearby.

At the visitor's center, a kind lady named Naomi told me that yes, there was a farm back up the 81 freeway (from the direction I had just come) and she drew on the map how to get there. During the conversation I found out she has a herd of Finn sheep which she shears and sells the wool. So I got her info in case I may someday like to try spinning Finn sheep wool. I got back in the car and debated whether it was a good idea to hunt down this farm or not. Since I've already invested some time, might as well. It was only 20 minutes of backtracking...

40 minutes later I was on another country road that had narrowed down to one lane and felt the intuitive feeling that I have somehow missed it. Noticing a car close behind me, I pulled over to let them pass, but the lady pulled up next to me and rolled down her window. "Honey, are you lost?"

"Yes," I laughed, "I'm looking for an alpaca farm. Do you know where one is?"

"Oh mercy, no. But I'm heading to a yarn store down the lane. Follow me and we can ask there."

So we drove another 10 minutes or so down the country lane. We drove across a very narrow bridge with no railings, over a very small creek, and I thought I was going to either break the little bridge, or miss it altogether. But me and the car made it across in one piece. I got out of my car and the woman was waiting with her hand stretched out to shake mine and introduced herself as Libby. The owner of Orchardside Yarn Shop, Carole, came out and Libby introduced her to me.

Carole invited us both in for a cup of tea and a visit of the shop. Libby brought her knitting in for Carole to help her with and I looked around at all the fabulous yarn and patterns. In the end, I got an easy sweater pattern to attempt my second attempt at making Paul a sweater (my first sweater attempt had built-in biceps and a crooked neckline), and the required knitting needles. Before I left, Carole informed me that I had passed the alpaca farm on the way and told me to go back along the road but turn left into the driveway past the bank and the fire department in town. My downfall was I guess I had not realized that that was "town" and had gone sailing right past it!

After saying my goodbyes and many thanks, I hit the road in search of some alpaca fiber to make the sweater in my newly purchased pattern. Although I found the farm with no problems the second time around, no body was home but the alpacas. The sweet animals were very hospitable and came over to say hi, but they couldn't help me with the fiber aspect.

Now feeling like this was a challenge to be met regardless of whether it was supposed to be an all-day event, I called the backup number that Carole gave me of yet another alpaca farm. Shirley was home, bless her, and said, "come on over." She gave me directions which led me back down the 81 in the direction towards home, covering the area that I had just backtracked. After more winding roads and more detailed directions such as turn left at the bus stop past the shack, I made it there in 40 minutes.

A bit frazzled but happy to have conquered the quest, I arrived at Misty Farms and was greeted by alpacas and many miniature dogs yapping happily at my feet. Shirley graciously invited me into her home and studio and brought out bags of alpaca fiber, mohair, merino and then showed me all different uses for the different fibers in the shape of hats, scarves, sweaters, socks, mittens, etc. I chose a very nice grey alpaca blend and some white 25% alpaca/75% merino blend to blend with the alpaca on my drum carder. Shirley suggested that for making a man's sweater with some shape (hopefully not so much that it has it's own biceps), I should blend alpaca with wool. Alpaca drapes and is 7 times warmer than wool, but the wool holds it's shape.

In the end, I was at Shirley's for about an hour, learning new spinning secrets and checking out her many spinning wheels, fiber and fiber-related gadgets. I was on the road again by 1:00 and made it home by 6:00. From Fisherville to Charlotte, it should have taken my 5 hours, but I made it a 9.5 hour journey. It was so fun, and what a beautiful drive it was!

A Call-Out to all Charlotte Spinners

Hi All, and good morning. Slowly I'm coming to my senses and am rounding up the energy to get packing for the drive home. I'm looking forward to this drive because this time I'll be doing it in the daylight on the way back as opposed to the 5 hours in the dark that I drove getting here. My camera is on charge and I'm allowing myself a few stops for photo opportunities of fall foliage.

The reason that I'm writing to y'all in this morning before I leave is that I felt the urgent need to make a little plea for help and better to get the word out sooner rather than later. I really miss spinning with other spinners. If there are any Charlotte, NC readers that know of a good spinning guild in the area and contact info so I can find out meeting dates/times please let me know! You can leave a comment on my blog or email me from my profile. Thanks so much!

Socializing Galore

Whenever I'm on these group projects at work, I feel like I'm back in school working on my bachelor's degree in geology. I think there are a few factors that contribute to make it feel that way:

1. We are outdoors working for many consecutive hours in a row (sometimes 12+), which is somewhat unusual in normal society
2. There is a presence of other geologists besides myself
3. We are working really hard to complete a project
4. Nothing happens without teamwork
5. I'm working with people who seem younger than they really are. For example field people seem to be perpetually college-age even if they are 38 and have 3 kids.
6. Social hour(s) afterwards is mandatory

Two of our fun team members on our hike this evening

I loved going on field projects for school, and I find that these real-world work projects can inspire the same feelings that school did, both good and not so good. They can be stressful at times and I'll long for them to be finished. Yet, satisfaction prevails most of the time and a sense of adventure, excitement of seeing new places, and enjoying the company of unique folks almost always accompanies it.

Tonight is my last night here in Virginia and I'm looking forward to coming home, for I miss Paul, and the birds have been on their own the last three days. But this project was a memorable one for the social life that we had after work. I liked this group of four, which turned into six one night when we were joined by two others working on the same site but different project. We went bowling one night, out to the movies the next, and this evening we even went on a hike. No alpaca farm visit was scheduled in the end, but that's ok. There's always next time....

I'll post more pictures of our hike-- maybe tomorrow. I'm zonked and need to go to bed!

Afternoon Tea for Two

We are loving the cooler weather of fall, and along with it comes one of Paul's other favorite pasttimes besides internet surfing for collectible Star Wars: drinking tea. Last weekend's High Tea at the Biltmore opened the season for us and so all the boxes of tea have come out of the cupboard. Since that event when our tea stash was rediscovered, I brought some of my Traditional Medicinal's Lemon Echinacea Throat Coat to comfort a fellow tea-drinking co-worker who had larangitis and I have been sipping some of my favorites such as Celestial Seasoning's "Sleepytime" tea, Trader Joe's "Bedtime"tea (notice any patterns) and just plain echinacea. Paul, being a traditionalist, has a favorite that he sticks with: English Breakfast.

I am not a tea snob by any means, and will dunk my teabag straight into a mug of cold water and microwave it (if I'm at work), but the best flavors seem to blend the good old fashioned way: steeped slowly in a teapot. 9 times out of 10 I drink it out of a mug, but if there's a few extra minutes to spare I like to go whole hog. China teacups on saucers really adds to the elegance of a nice relaxing tea.

We have a china pattern by Wedgewood, called English Cottage, that we have been collecting since our wedding when we were so kindly given a tea set. The tea set is probably my favorite part of our china collection, but Paul and I keep adding to our stash by finding pieces on Ebay that we can't turn down, especially since our pattern was discontinued just after we got married. We have two teapots so we can each enjoy whatever tea we "fancy" as Paul would say.

After the relaxing Tea for Two that we had, I left for Fisherville, Virginia where I will be working this week. It is a fun group that I will be sampling with. I hadn't met any of them until today, but by golly we seem like fast friends already. There are potential plans in the workings for evenings of bowling, skating, movies, miniature golf and, believe it or not, they are already working at how to get us a tour at the nearby Alpaca Farm after work for my sake. I don't know how we can possibly be coming home with any money if we have a social calendar like this, but how fun!

In all truthfulness, the time change has messed with us all so despite the fun plans, everyone was yawning and had to painfully admit they were too tired for anything exciting. My new spinning wheel has been whirling like crazy tonight and with potential alpaca fiber in another day or two- life is sweet! The only thing I could wish for is for Paul to be here with me.

South of the Border

We had a slow start this morning considering we set the alarm clock for 7:30. We were thinking: better to keep as close to our weekday schedule as possible so that the Monday morning wake up at 5:45 doesn't give us a swift kick in the pants. 7:30 came and went, and it wasn't until 8:30 that we finally got up. Oh well, so much for that plan!

We had an 11:30 appointment with our home sales agent, but we still mosied about in the morning- I spun the last ball of wool for Trish in hopes of getting it sent to her today, and Paul did his favorite sitting around pasttime- checking out Star Wars collectibles on the internet. By 10:30 we were running to get ready and luckily made it south of the border (South Carolina), being only 10 minutes late- still not ideal, but better than I thought.

We signed our paperwork for some changes to the original plan. We decided to have added a coffered ceiling in the living room and upgrading our cabinets with a beautiful cocoa glaze.

While we were at it, we stopped by the house to take more pictures.

Our beautiful view from the master bathtub

Paul has been keeping a video journal of the whole process complete with video footage of all the electrical sockets and wiring so we know where not to nail our pictures on the wall (he is an engineer so thinks of these little details).

The windows and doors have all been put in (except garage doors). It even goes well with the green paper I think. The paper is growing on me.

In the end, we never made it to the grocery store, the post office to mail the wool (they close at 3:00 on Saturdays we found out) or the helmet store. There's always next weekend! We have some important things to take care of tonight: baking a pumpkin pie and watching a movie. We need to enjoy some rest this weekend because I leave tomorrow afternoon for Virginia and Paul leaves Tuesday morning for Seattle. So in the next week if you don't hear much from this neck of the woods, you'll know why.

Drum Carder in Pieces

A month or so ago I had promised to find and post the pictures of my drum carder in the making. I am kicking myself now for not taking more pictures during the process, so this is not really very helpful for anyone who is looking for step-by step instructions. A lot of it was trial and error anyway, but if anyone is looking for some pointers of what to do and what not to do, let me know and I'll try and help.

Once I ordered the carding cloth, I made both drums and the drive wheels. This was the hard part because we don't have a lathe or a drill press or a router. Once the drums were made, I built the box around them to house everything.

Fully assembled-- my favorite part is the door gap, brush insulator thingy that I got from Home Depot, and cut down to size. It serves as the brush to pack the fibers tightly onto the large drums. It works like a champ!

Our New Lantern Named Jack O

"Oh, Bats," said I yesterday afternoon. "I better start peddling home early today." With the excitement of trick or treating in the air, I felt the mood of festivities sweeping the city and wanted to get home and start dinner so that we could eat the second Paul got home from work. Why? Pumpkin carving of course!

Paul had bought a pumpkin last week and specialized pumpkin carving tools, along with patterns to use for designing. He also bought ingredients for us to make a pumpking pie, which we will probably do this weekend.

After dinner, we cleared the counters, lined up the instruments and chose our pumpkin pattern (we were going to go with a traditional Jack look, but decided to try one of the elaborate designs).

Scoopin out the innards

Time to get serious-- we worked simultaneously so we could get the intricate pattern carved before midnight.


Bragging time! I have to admit that even though we didn't come up with this creation ourselves, this is the best lantern I have ever been a part of making!