New Contest!

I hope everyone is off of work today! Not me. I am still dyeing yarn for the Sock Summit plus I have the club shipments to get done this weekend. I'm sure not complaining though - I can think of A LOT worse ways I could spend my time! I have really enjoyed getting all this stuff ready for the Sock Summit. I have seriously considered packing myself in one of these boxes. If I ship Priority I can be there in 2 days, right?

OK - the contest. Again, this one isn't mine but the prize IS Knit Witch goodies! It's another one of those easy contests so check it out HERE for full details. The prize is 2 skeins of Knit Witch sock yarn and a copy of the new Zodia pattern.

We did notice sort of a small problem with our new pond set up yesterday. Since the little pond has all of those rocks around it now - it isn't nearly as easy to catch the snakes that get in the pond! We found one in the pond last night when we got home from a walk and he scooted right out of the pond and into the rocks and we couldn't get to him. So, I told Wayne we really need to get one of those snake grabby thingies. That will make it easier. I guess we will try again today to catch the little bugger and get him relocated.

As promised, here are a few more flower pictures for you. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend!!!!!

City of Roses

Here is the latest (and last) entry for the Dye for Glory contest - City of Roses.

I must say - I am in love with this color. I think it will be a good choice for an entry into the solids category.

I decided to also add this color in the "out of the box" category. So that makes 6 total entries for Knit Witch.



The dye technique here is a bit unconventional however that song "It's all Been Done" by the Barenaked Ladies keeps running through my head! I'm sure it's nothing new but the technique didn't fit into any of the other categories. I went with Grace's suggestion of Oregon Merlot for this one in honor of the Oregon Wine Country. So, Grace, email me at theknitwitch@gmail.com with your address so I can send out your prize yarn when it is ready. Thanks!! This color is also now for sale on the website HERE.

Many people who have entered have "tagged" their yarn as socksummit so you can go to the yarn page on Rav, type socksummit into the search field and then click on search by tags to see them. Some of the entries are beautiful! I love seeing everyone's interpretation of what they saw fit to send in.

Speaking of flowers, check out some of the flowers that are currently blooming around our pond.

Aren't these pretty?? I'll show you a few more pictures tomorrow.

It has been decided.......

Happy July!!

Thank you all SO MUCH for your help in determining the entries for the Sock Summit contest! Here are the lucky entries. I'll let you know when voting opens.

Portland Rain - Name submitted by Beverly

Brewtopia - Name submitted by Bronwyn

Waters of the Willamette - Name submitted by Sarah

Illumination - Name submitted by Knit Witch!

There is also another one coming. I decided to ditch both of the solids that I had and go with Theresa's suggestion of creating a red. So, that one is drying and I should have a picture for you tomorrow. I must say - thanks so much for that suggestion! I always forget about how much I love red. Mr. Man helped me with the color combination and I dyed it on a 50/50 Suri Alpaca/Merino blend. I love it!

The yarns have been entered into the contest and are for sale HERE on the website. I need to order more stock because I am dyeing everything that I have to send to the Summit so please know that when you order it will be a few weeks for you to get your commemerative Sock Summit Yarn. If you would like some though please do go ahead and order it so that I will know how much yarn to buy and dye for these colors.

I am actually sending a lot more yarn than I thought I would be to the Sock Summit so we are pretty darn excited about that! Speaking of which, I better go get busy getting things inventoried and packed to ship off.

Help me help you..........

Well, it's more like help me help myself! I need some help! I have done 9 colorways to submit to the Sock Summit contest and I need to narrow it down to about 4 or 5. That's where you come in. Let me know which colors you like (or don't like). Also, if you have not seen this already, I am running a contest HERE for naming the yarns. The yarn names need to be something related to the Sock Summit or the Portland area. If I use the name you suggest I will send you a skein of that yarn! It may take a couple of weeks for me to send it though because I am running out of yarn! I'll need to order a bit more. You can submit your name suggestion(s) here in the comments or in the Knit Witch group on Rav.

Another vendor, Yarny Goodness, will be having our yarn in her booth. That is where the Sock Summit colors will be. So, if you are going to Sock Summit, be sure to look for our yarn and top in the Yarny Goodness booth (#417) and the Wild Geese Fibres booth (#729)!

There is a poll on the sidebar where you can vote for your favorite colors. You CAN select multiple choices on the poll.

Color 1



Color 2



Color 3



Color 4



Color 5



Color 6



Color 7



Color 8



Color 9

Patio Update

The patio is almost done! We got a nice delivery of rocks and sand on Tuesday. I don't think the delivery guy was too excited about being on a "knitting blog" (if that is still what you want to call this blog) but I took the pictures anyway. It's more of a home improvement blog written by someone who also happens to be a knitter.





So we worked on the patio for a few days. Holy cow we moved a lot of sand. Petey loved laying in the sand so much that we had a hard time even getting him in at night. He was rather perturbed as we placed rocks into the last section that he was guarding. Check out these pictures:

Here's what it looked like before we moved in:


Then we started working on it.............

BEFORE:






AFTER:



What a difference, eh? We can't even believe how much better it looks. I'm sure our family members who read this reguarly won't believe it either! We aren't quite finished yet. We still have the flat areas to go on the hillside. We are having another ton of sand delivered today since we ran out last week.

Wayne made a little aquaponics garden behind the pond - that is what is in that box under the windows. The water will filter from the pond, through the containers that are filled with gravel, then flow back into the pond having been filtered. We will grow some lettuce and herbs in there in the gravel I think. No dirt required!

TGIF!!

It has been a busy week around here at Knit Witch. We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend of installing a new flagstone patio! I can't wait to show you all pictures - I'll have them for you next week. Right now, our patio looks like a large beach. I now know what it is like to live on the coast. I have never swept up so much sand in my life!!!

A couple of quick shop announcements for you. We have a few new things up on the site.

We uploaded some new yarn bowls yesterday and you can find them HERE.

We also have a few new yarns. These two are on the sock yarn page HERE. The first one is "Castor" in the 100% superwash merino fingering weight. The second one is "Hail to the Redskins" also in the 100% superwash merino fingering weight in honor of the beginning of football season and my team heading a stealthy march to the SUPERBOWL! That's right you Pittsburgh fans out there - read 'em and weep. You can't win the Superbowl twice in a row - not unless you are New England!! I'll be collecting a cool frosty one from each of you when we get there!



There are also a couple of new yarns up on the discount page HERE. This 100% superfine merino laceweight turned out very nicely even though it isn't what I was intending so - off to the discount page it goes!

This one is one of those "end of the dyepot" colors. I figured instead of pouring out my unused dye I should use it to make some surprises, right?? My new line of "non-reproducable" colors is Calamity. This is "Calamity 2". The laceweight above is "Calamity 1".

We also have a couple of DK weights on the discount page like this one:

Have a great weekend everyone! I'll be looking forward to showing you pictures of our (hopefully) nearly completed patio on Monday!!

A Finished Object!

Haha! Silly readers. Not MY finished object of course! I was lucky enough to have someone ask me to model this sweater for their pattern and website. I love the sweater! Very soft and a nice, light sweater. Here are the pictures that I think are going to be the ones used on the website. I'll let you know when the pattern is up on the website so that you can purchase it if you are interested. If you are supposed to be working but are looking for excuses not too you can see all the pictures we took of the sweater HERE. We took them all here at our house. The gnats were so bad around our pond that day (humidity must have been 110%!) it took a lot of shots to get them so that I wasn't ducking or swating or squinting to keep them out of my eyes!

Check out the first beets and carrots I picked the other day! These are tiny - I was really just thinning things out a bit but those little carrots were delicious! Everyone in my family (and our friends) have all received the gift of lettuce. Between our garden and our neighbors we have so much lettuce it is crazy. Speaking of which, I need to go next door and take some pictures of our neighbors garden for you - you won't believe how huge everything is and she planted hers about 3 weeks after we did! Sounds like a blog post for tomorrow...........