Asheville & SAFF 2006 - Part 2
So, day 2. We woke up .. me way too early, and tried to cook breakfast for ourselves. It ended up amusing indeed, but nothing we couldn't handle. We made muffins in some nifty silicone cups I had picked up. They were yummy, but it was a bit of a hassle in the tiny tiny kitchen we had to work with. WE got a bit of a late start, and then had to stop at this little place to try their fresh apple cider .. which was phenomenal. It's a pity we left the gallon we bought in the damn house when we left Monday morning. Then off to Asheville to peruse the Fiber Fair.
It was cold and rainy, and not entirely a good day to do anything but maybe stay inside and shop. And shop we did. I didn't do a terrible amount of shopping that day, but I perused. A lot. We stayed and talked with a nice older woman who had Angora rabbits for sale, and I very nearly came home with one, as they are just -so- cute. But I think that's something I need to wait until we have more space to do. But she was nice to chat with. I did pick up a delicious hank of what is a take-off of Prism's "Wild Stuff" yarn in a beautiful green colorway. I just love the yarn, though I'm not sure yet what to make with it. Larissa has a phenomenal shawl she made out of something like it, and I want to do that, but I'm not positive I'll have enough of this yarn to make it, so I'm holding off for now. Most of what I did Friday was explore, and ogle all the delicious natural animal fibers that are out there. Most of what was there was either sheep's wool or alpaca, but there were some places selling some amazing angora (which I picked up at a later time.)
That night we went to the Japanese steakhouse Jason and I enjoyed on another trip up there, and had a wonderful dinner chatting with our tablemates. It was a delicious dinner, and afterward we headed home to the cabin, to get a fire started and enjoy recalling our experiences. Larissa bought more than Brandon and I that night .. though we were no slouches either. With the warm fire, we curled up and chatted, and knitted, and had a wonderful night, making plans for the following day. The -plan- was, we would spend a few hours at SAFF, then head up the Blue Ridge Parkway towards Boone, to have dinner at Shatley Springs way up in the mountains. (Those of you that know the mountains know why I stress the word 'plan' .. but I'll get there eventually.
So we went to bed to the sound of the rain and water rushing in the stream behind the house, and woke up too early the following day .. to discover that the weather had broken .. or was starting to at least, and we got ready as quickly as possible and headed to SAFF. More yarn was bought .. including yarn for me to knit my first garment - the sweater I'm currently working on - and some more yarn for a shawl or two, and some deliciously soft angora, and two different farms' alpaca in gorgeous neutral colors - browns and whites. And I also bought a walnut swift .. which I like much better than the expanding umbrella swifts out there. (And I hear that Larissa had Todd make her one also in the same style, which I think is just cool!)
Then, after finding an Atlanta Bread Company to grab a bite to eat at, we headed to the Parkway. And it was nice when we started. I took so many pictures it's ridiculous. Just about every overlook had to be stopped at so pictures could be had. And had they were. We also met a couple that had four adorable dogs .. not Yorkies, but something similar, and they all were the sweetest little things and we got to pet and snuggle them a bit before both of us headed our own ways. And I saw a girl with the same camera I have .. a testament to my husband's good taste.
But as we kept driving things got cold. -Really- cold. So cold Larissa couldn't come out of the car much at all, and I had to find gloves and a hoodie that was thankfully left in the car. And eventually, we stopped at a little place with bathrooms and I noticed what looked like snow on the side of the mountain. And we also discovered a tree we'd not recognized, that was bare of leaves but had little red berries everywhere. And so after quick bathroom breaks, and me standing on a pipe to get a good shot of the frost, we headed onward. The next stop was a little gift shop area, and the forest ranger employee inside told us that the parkway had only opened up this far a couple hours before because the wind was so bad. We also discovered what the 'snow' we saw was, because from there we could see it was everywhere, and was actually ice on the trees. It's called a hoar frost, or rime ice, and it forms when the moisture in the clouds freezes on contact with the trees on the side of the mountain. At this point, the temperature had plummeted from near 60's in Asheville to around 30-something.
We kept going now, and headed up towards Mount Mitchell. Once we got up there the ice was everywhere, and the wind chill was like 19-degrees. It was frigid. Sadly, it was something like 4pm when we got there, and we were barely a fifth of the way to the restaurant we wanted to go to. At that rate, we'd have made it there sometime on Monday night I think. So we turned back, and headed home through the little towns. We traveled past Elmore-Pisgah, which is where Peaches n' Cream cotton yarn is made, though we couldn't stop because they weren't open. *sob* Next time, maybe. We got a wonderful meal at the Biltmore Depot Restaurant right in Biltmore Village, and had a darling of a waitress. It was an enjoyable time all around.
It was cold and rainy, and not entirely a good day to do anything but maybe stay inside and shop. And shop we did. I didn't do a terrible amount of shopping that day, but I perused. A lot. We stayed and talked with a nice older woman who had Angora rabbits for sale, and I very nearly came home with one, as they are just -so- cute. But I think that's something I need to wait until we have more space to do. But she was nice to chat with. I did pick up a delicious hank of what is a take-off of Prism's "Wild Stuff" yarn in a beautiful green colorway. I just love the yarn, though I'm not sure yet what to make with it. Larissa has a phenomenal shawl she made out of something like it, and I want to do that, but I'm not positive I'll have enough of this yarn to make it, so I'm holding off for now. Most of what I did Friday was explore, and ogle all the delicious natural animal fibers that are out there. Most of what was there was either sheep's wool or alpaca, but there were some places selling some amazing angora (which I picked up at a later time.)
That night we went to the Japanese steakhouse Jason and I enjoyed on another trip up there, and had a wonderful dinner chatting with our tablemates. It was a delicious dinner, and afterward we headed home to the cabin, to get a fire started and enjoy recalling our experiences. Larissa bought more than Brandon and I that night .. though we were no slouches either. With the warm fire, we curled up and chatted, and knitted, and had a wonderful night, making plans for the following day. The -plan- was, we would spend a few hours at SAFF, then head up the Blue Ridge Parkway towards Boone, to have dinner at Shatley Springs way up in the mountains. (Those of you that know the mountains know why I stress the word 'plan' .. but I'll get there eventually.
So we went to bed to the sound of the rain and water rushing in the stream behind the house, and woke up too early the following day .. to discover that the weather had broken .. or was starting to at least, and we got ready as quickly as possible and headed to SAFF. More yarn was bought .. including yarn for me to knit my first garment - the sweater I'm currently working on - and some more yarn for a shawl or two, and some deliciously soft angora, and two different farms' alpaca in gorgeous neutral colors - browns and whites. And I also bought a walnut swift .. which I like much better than the expanding umbrella swifts out there. (And I hear that Larissa had Todd make her one also in the same style, which I think is just cool!)
Then, after finding an Atlanta Bread Company to grab a bite to eat at, we headed to the Parkway. And it was nice when we started. I took so many pictures it's ridiculous. Just about every overlook had to be stopped at so pictures could be had. And had they were. We also met a couple that had four adorable dogs .. not Yorkies, but something similar, and they all were the sweetest little things and we got to pet and snuggle them a bit before both of us headed our own ways. And I saw a girl with the same camera I have .. a testament to my husband's good taste.
But as we kept driving things got cold. -Really- cold. So cold Larissa couldn't come out of the car much at all, and I had to find gloves and a hoodie that was thankfully left in the car. And eventually, we stopped at a little place with bathrooms and I noticed what looked like snow on the side of the mountain. And we also discovered a tree we'd not recognized, that was bare of leaves but had little red berries everywhere. And so after quick bathroom breaks, and me standing on a pipe to get a good shot of the frost, we headed onward. The next stop was a little gift shop area, and the forest ranger employee inside told us that the parkway had only opened up this far a couple hours before because the wind was so bad. We also discovered what the 'snow' we saw was, because from there we could see it was everywhere, and was actually ice on the trees. It's called a hoar frost, or rime ice, and it forms when the moisture in the clouds freezes on contact with the trees on the side of the mountain. At this point, the temperature had plummeted from near 60's in Asheville to around 30-something.
We kept going now, and headed up towards Mount Mitchell. Once we got up there the ice was everywhere, and the wind chill was like 19-degrees. It was frigid. Sadly, it was something like 4pm when we got there, and we were barely a fifth of the way to the restaurant we wanted to go to. At that rate, we'd have made it there sometime on Monday night I think. So we turned back, and headed home through the little towns. We traveled past Elmore-Pisgah, which is where Peaches n' Cream cotton yarn is made, though we couldn't stop because they weren't open. *sob* Next time, maybe. We got a wonderful meal at the Biltmore Depot Restaurant right in Biltmore Village, and had a darling of a waitress. It was an enjoyable time all around.