I was talking to a friend this morning; relaying how I was proud of myself this weekend. Since it’s finally getting cooler and the leaves are just starting to turn, I’ve been spending a lot more time outside and in Nature on the weekends. Lately, I’ve been going to Hemlock Bluffs for my hike. It’s the closest one to me, and while it’s pretty short (only 1.2 miles on the longest trail), I usually go round twice.

It’s not a flat trail, it has some ups and downs. It’s weird because for a short trail in the middle of the city, it has interesting spiders, and other insects, and a huge array of mushrooms. See Mushroom pictures, below. No I haven’t eaten any. There are lots of Destroying Angels, which have the potential to kill you - so you must always use caution.

This last weekend I walked the largest trail at Hemlock but I did the whole thing in 20 minutes. I was proud because it normally takes me 25 minutes. See, I’ve been trying to do a little “trail running” when I can. However, I found out first hand on Saturday that it can be dangerous. I was running down the trail going downhill, I picked up too much momentum. I got to the bottom and was I afraid I couldn’t stop. I should have just followed the trail around and let the upcoming incline stop me, but no, I thought I would run onto a small wooden landing near the bluffs. I assumed that the wood planking would provide enough traction to stop me. Nothing could be further from the truth. The wood was damp from the rains. My foot hit it and slid. Luckily, I just ended up on my knees with no real injuries save a bruised and skinned knee and my pride. LOL

But Sunday, I went back and was able to do it in 19 minutes. That’s just over a 15 minute mile, if my calculations are correct. And today I went back again and ran the odd 1/10 markers. See, this particular trail has 15 markers on it that I think correspond to the tenths in the mile. If that makes sense. I ran the odd ones. That may not sound like much, but if you know where I come from, you’d be proud of me too. =P

So anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the mushrooms we found along the trail at Hemlock Bluffs.

Here are a few of my hats…. All are for sale on Etsy now.

So, here are a few snaps of what I’ve been up to lately. Here’s what’s been on the spinning wheel.

Here is my first thrown bowl, fired and glazed. It’s pretty terrible, but hey it was my first try!! It’s porcelain clay with what I believe is New Albany Brown and Iron Red or maybe Copperhead. I’m thinking one of them wasn’t mixed up right.

I didn’t really like my flower pendant before. I thought the blue was too light, so I reglazed and refired it. here’s the end result. And a couple of other pendants I did at the same time. The one with the hearts is still not 100% finished.

Here’s a small pendant that ended up with too much glaze and thus the leaf motif basically disappeared.

It that time of year again. The leaves are starting to change, people are bringing in the crops (unless like me you weren’t able to grow squat this year), and hearts and minds start to turn towards the cooler months, gift giving, and those less fortunate than ourselves.

I’ve come across several initiatives in the past couple of days that I would like to share with you. First, While I was reading the Crochet Dude’s blog, I found out about the 2009 Special Olympics Scarf project. Now this holds a special place in my heart. I worked with the Special Education students in my high school for 2 years. Once I graduated, I went back and did some volunteer work for one semester in college. Furthermore, those special kids actually stamped (personalized) the napkins we used at my first (and now defunct) marriage. Either way, I’m definitely onboard - and I hope you will be too. Although, I’m hearing that Delft Blue is selling like hotcakes, and is relatively hard to find at this point.

Another scarf project I’m planning on is 60 Scarves in 60 Days. This one is a lot more generic, and actually is running longer than 60 days at this point. No, you don’t have to knit 60 scarves, all you have to do is make one. The good thing about this one is that you pick a charity near you to donate your scarf too. I think this would be great for those SNB groups.

And last but certainly not least, this on I found out about from Deb, my SIL’s sister. (Does that make her my SIL too?). It is being organized by Kathryn Hall at Plant Whatever Brings You Joy. Your gift of a scarf is destined to go to the little girls in Pakistan. Also a worthy cause, these scarves you will send to Kathryn for shipment (at least that’s my understanding.)

Anyway, I hope you will take a moment and look over these efforts, see if one fits you, and donate.
Thanks.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
– Gandalf,
J.R.R. Tolkien 

So the hurricane (a tropical storm, actually) came and when with little more than a rain shower. There was some minor flooding in areas and some high winds, but nothing serious. Demented, I know, but I was a little disappointed.

So I did have a chance to pick up my high-fired items at the studio. Overall, I’m not that pleased. Here is that bowl.

Before:

After:

My incense burner…
Before:

After: (This is actually my favorite of the items I’ve done so far.)

And a little pendant.

It’s interesting. I lived in Texas for 32 years of my life. In all that time, I think that I’ve only really been in one tornado. Furthermore, the area of Texas I used to live in was calling ‘Tornado Alley’. I mention that in the interest of mentioning this. I’ve been in North Carolina now for less than a year and I may have the opportunity (?) to be involved in a hurricane.

We received notification this morning at work that we should do our ‘hurricane preparations’ before we leave the office on Friday. What all does hurricane preparation entail? Well at least here in this building, it means close and secure all windows, and turn off all electric devices. I was also amused to read that the bottom floor of our building may flood if it rains too much, as the city’s drains are blocked and the Chapel Hill folks won’t come out and fix it.

It’s funny to me, when we got all that rain a week or so ago, I just thought we were having a rainy streak, come to find out the morning all the streets in Chapel Hill were flooded and cars were stalled out in the street that we were experiencing hurricane Gustav. Shows how much attention I pay to the news and the weather, huh?

But the path for Hanna, at least the last time I heard, was going to be heading straight through RTP. I’m thinking I need to make sure I have clay, yarn, and project ideas ready in case it is just too miserable to go out this weekend.

*Update* I’m being told now that the storm will likely not hit us, but that we may still get lots of rain. I guess we’ll see. Stand tuned…

The Barbarian and I didn’t do a whole lot. It rained here Saturday. Sunday we drove out to Eden, NC to got to the drive-in movie theater that’s there. We saw Babylon A.D. and Tropic Thunder. Babylon A.D. was a little bit random. Almost like it was an American adaptation of a foreign script. And while Tropic Thunder held promise, I’ve come to realize that I just don’t like Ben Stiller.

Monday, we hiked Umstead again. 5.5 miles on the Loblolly Trail, which we haven’t done since that initial trip to the park last year. It’s a tougher trail with lots of up and down areas.

So when we weren’t out, I did quite a bit of crafting. Crochet hats mostly. I’ll try and get some pictures posted shortly.

The Barbarian has always dug Rasta hats. I’m not sure why. He’s never had dreads and now he doesn’t even have long hair. Even still. Years a go, I crocheted one for him that had a big smiley face on the back. That’s him in the picture - not me.

I was really proud of it. But in the end, even in winter, it proved to be too hot for him to wear, and so it got donated a couple of months ago.

I found one just recently at PurpleSageDesignz. Angelika was nice enough to write down the pattern for me so that I could mimic her design, since the Barbarian had already picked out his yarn (organic cotton). So following her instructions, here is the hat I made.

The Barbarian thought it could be bigger and he also thought it was a bit too hot. So I opened up the back rows, went one row wider and one row longer. Here is the result, which I am happy to say he is pleased with.

That being said, and me being bored, I decided to see what would happen if I made one and felted it. Well, I left it in the washer a bit longer then I intended (and I have a tendency to forget that the spin cycle will cause additional felting too) so it ended up a bit smaller than I intended. But I still think it’s cute, and I will probably wear it. It’s crocheted from my Reverend Blue Jeans yarn.

I’m working on another now that will be the color of Grape Jam (also my handspun.) I figure if I can’t sell the stuff, I might as well use it.

I think I remember mentioning that I had finally finished spinning my 4 oz of BFL top in the Couture colorway??? Maybe not. Either way, I did finally get done, and let me tell you I am as pleased as punch at the end result. It’s not as purple as the pictures somehow make it. But it’s soft. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the colorway.

But I couldn’t really decide what to do with it. Monday, I found this patter online. I was hoping that it would be relatively easy and that it would show off the handspun nature of the yarn. I think it does.

It was supposed to be a scarf, but I used the smaller of the two skeins and thus it’s going to be a headwrap!

So we just completed our glazing class Monday night. And I’m sure that only 10% of what we heard actually stuck. But I did get an opportunity to start glazing the first project I worked on in the class. It’s supposed to be a bowl. And that’s supposed to be a turtle sitting in the center. I used wax to create ‘waves’ (stylized) around the bowl, and then glazed.

It should work out that the wax will keep the glaze from entering those portions of the clay. I should end up with ‘wave’ shaped areas in the glaze where the plain glaze shows through. I will take this back to the shop on Thursday so it can be high-fired.

BTW - I did get my macaroon photos loaded. Whee!