Fiber Artists Take over the White House!!

Oh yes, it's true!! The story is right HERE. Now, if those folks in the White House were smart they would have been listening to us wonderful group of fiber obsessives for a LONG time already. Pass this story on - it's great! Don't ask me how Mr. Man finds all this crazy stuff.......I have no idea.

And as of this morning we are BOOKED for SAFF!! Yay!!!! I see us serving up some food and cocktails for fellow SAFFers in this place. We are so excited!! Now we just have to figure out if we are getting a booth or not. Maybe we will just bring yarn bowls and sell them out of the cabin. Let's see - with each yarn bowl purchase you get a free martini!

Here's what I finished up last night.

I think it is still a little too tight but I have no idea really. It's hard to tell because this fiber is kind of coarse anyway. The consistency is getting better but still a long way from "good" I think. Eventually I'm going to work up the nerve to try some of that yummy pencil roving I bought at Knitch. Hey, when the bobbin gets too full does the fiber stop feeding onto the bobbin well? That's the point I stopped at b/c the yarn wouldn't feed very well. Just wondering if that is my clue that the bobbin is full. Lemme know on that one.

BEHOLD.............!!!!!!!!!

{Angel music playing in the backgroud........}

Drumroll please.............................

The FOURTH spinning attempt:

Oh yeah - that's what I'm talkin' about! This, my devoted Knit Witch followers, is what I like to refer to as a "TOTAL SPINNING SCORE"! Yeah, I know, I know - it ain't perfect but I think it's pretty darn good and I am actually learning about making adjustments and drafting length and twist. More importantly, I am actually having fun with it rather than wanting to throw the demon spinning wheel out the window. Fun and minimal anger are always a bonus in my (and Mr. Man's) book. Only once last night did he have to say "OK - I'll stop talking".

While I did that - he made these:

These are the beginning stages of buttons. Here's a closer view.

These are still very much experimental - they have not been fired or glazed yet and we are going to do some "plain" ones too that just get glazed but I think they are looking pretty good so far!

On My Way to the Master's Tuesday

For the third time in a row I am actually able to remember that it is Tuesday and I owe a Master's update (for anyone who cares). I have knit 10 swatches thus far (1-9 and 14). Some are blocked (poorly) and some are not. If you want to see them you can look HERE. They aren't really much to look at since most of them have not been blocked. I think I have answered about 1/2 the questions and haven't even touched the report - especially since it is on blocking and I am currently ticked off at blocking.

Mr. Man is in the process of making me a decent blocking board so when that is up and running there will be more blocking fun. Right now I am just using towels and I'm just not happy with the results. Of course, poor Mr. Man is outside right now building a lazy kate for my spinning bobbins (I am actually going to practice plying my yarn barf later to free up some spindlage) so it will probably be a few days on the blocking board.

**Hot off the press** Here is the finished lazy kate!! I'm going to try it out tonight! Yay Mr. Man!! Have I told you how much I LOVE YOU lately?!?! :)

PLUS - he has done these:

Some of the new yarn bowls have faces, some have handles, some have designs and some are plain. This is about a kiln load so we will probably be able to start a bisque tomorrow (you have to let them dry out before putting them in the kiln or else they will explode - ask us how we know this.

Knitch Folks are Awesome!

Mr. Man and I took Claudia her yarn bowls today at Knitch. We also took Phyllis her winning bowl! I brought some extras in case anyone else wanted to look at them. We sold SIX more bowls! THANK YOU so much to everyone who bought a bowl and we hope you really enjoy them.

For anyone else that was not able to purchase one today or who wanted a color that we didn't have with us - check out the website and you can purchase a bowl there. If you are local and go to Knitch, just email me with the one you want and we will bring it to you - saving you the shipping charges!

Thank you to:

Katey

Jane

Olivia

Regan

Laurie

Melissa (blogless as far as I can tell)

And also thanks to the other Melissa who also purchased a bowl!

Let me know if I left anyone out - I tried to make sure I included everyone.

We will be having another batch to put on the website in the next week or so and there will be really cool ones that Wayne has done faces on and other kinds of artistic stuff so check back!

Oh, and on another note....I am TOTALLY not ready for this yet but look what I bought......

Oh yes, that's pencil roving - specifically recommended by Jane. I'm going to work with my alpaca a little more before using this stuff because I am going to want to be spinning WELL by the time I play with these babies!

And this was on sale - who can resist Artyarn that is 20% off???? So, go buy some while they still have it!

Celebrating with a Beer!!

Check THIS out..................




I know, it still looks like crap BUT I was actually able to **finally** get the fiber to feed onto the bobbin consistently (thanks Katey for the tips)! This is my second "yarn" but the first time I felt that it actually went even sort of as planned. I'm SO excited - I didn't even cry once! Maybe a few unsightly words here and there but that is simply to be expected, don't you think? I know it does not seem like a big deal but it feels like it is. So, therefore, I'm treating myself to a beer! Who wants to join me????

And here is the next attempt....................

It's gettin better, eh? OK - enough spinning for tonight - off to drink my beer(s)!

Who Wants to Read the Stories??

Here is a link to the stories. This is not a "live link" on the site so to speak so you can only get to it by clicking on THIS link. Enjoy the stories and thanks again to everyone who participated! This contest was a lot of fun!!!

I swear, I'll actually post about some knitting content soon. But, just so everyone has a heads up, we are going to start making cool ceramic buttons and shawl pins soon! YAY! So those will be more fun knitting embellishments for everyone. Also, we have a new round of yarn bowls going in the kiln soon! I'll keep ya posted.

WE HAVE SOME WINNERS!!!!

We had a VERY hard time picking winners for the story contest. We had 54 entries and most of them were downright hilarious! We finally narrowed it down to 8 stories this morning, then 2 then a winner! The winning entry goes to PHYLLIS!! Phyllis can choose whether she would like to have her choice of a yarn bowl or the prize yarn. Her story was funny, could definitely make you turn red AND it incorporated knitting. What could be better? Here is her winning entry.

My funniest story is about a knitted toy class I took at a LYS several years ago. We all made felted mouse puppets and mine was all knitted up. All I had to do was attach the tail and felt it. I was working away, in class, and proudly held up my mouse when I finished attaching the tail. It was aligned perfectly except for one thing: I attached the tail to the FRONT of the puppet instead of the back! You can imagine what it looked like! Everyone started to laugh and that's when I realized the mistake. My face turned SO red and we all had a good laughing session because of this!

Then we drew a name randomly out of a hat for another winner. Everyone who placed a link to the contest on their blog was entered in the drawing. The winner drawn for that was SANDY! Sandy will get whichever prize that Phyllis did not choose.

We will post ALL the stories on the website (anonymously). We will star the ones that made it to the finalist stage. I just need to adjust the formatting and such. I'll let everyone know when they are up. Wayne and I had so much fun going through them - definitely a great contest. Thank you to everyone who entered and posted the link!

Congratulations to the winners!!!

Sunday Knitch

If anyone is interested in purchasing a YARN BOWL I will be at Knitch on Sunday to deliver a couple of them. If you would like one, let me know and I will bring it there and you can pick it up saving yourself any delivery charges!!

Mr. Man and I are going through the contest enteries right now and will announce the winners later today. We had 54 enteries!!!! Check back soon for the annoucements!

Guess what?!?!

It's TRUE!! The eggplant parmigiana tale really works. Of course, I already knew that. We took pregnant neighbor, pregnant neighbor husband and pregnant neighbor 3 year old to Scalini's on Sunday for the eggplant parmigiana (if you haven't heard about the infamous legend at my dad's restaurant and the Eggplant babies look HERE to get with the program). So, Sunday she ate half and then Monday she ate the other half. So, as the legend goes, she should have gone into labor within 48 hours of finishing it on Monday.



We got a call about 1:00 this AM that her water had broken so we went over there to sleep and get said 3 year old all ready and off to school later that morning. So, it worked!! Baby Annabelle is here!! Just one day shy of my birthday darnit! I called my son and he is going to pick up a little pink Scalini's t-shirt for baby Annabelle and bring it with him tomorrow when he comes for my birthday. You KNOW you will be seeing pictures of that soon!



Don't forget - all enteries for the contest must be in by midnight tonight! Good luck!

On my way to the masters Tuesday.......

I now have 6 swatches completed - however, I'm having blocking issues. I tried wet blocking and pinning them and just could NOT get the darn stockinette curl out of them. So, we tried steaming them.......so, that may not have been the best choice because that made the stitches too flat! And that is a big no-no - can't send in swatches with flat stitches. So I dunked them in the water to fluff them up again and wet block them again but..............they ain't coming back from flatland! So, I'm probably going to have to re-knit them. This would be swatches #2, #4 and #5 so it's not too bad.

I was going to post pictures but seeing as how I'm going to be reknitting - I didn't really see the point. If you are desperate to see them though you can look HERE as I put them on Flickr. I'll post a better photo show on this next week. I have completed a lot of the questions and gotten my notebook all set up and ready to go though. I should be able to finish the redo's in a day or two. So, that's where I am with that.

As far as the contest goes - I have had a BUNCH of enteries!!! I think 47 stories all together so far. Some of these things are just downright hilarious! It is going to be difficult to decide a winner! We will be posting all of them on the website (no names) for everyone's entertainment after the contest.

You STILL have time to enter! You have until midnight tomorrow night (Knit Witch EST) so get moving! After that I'll be 35 and too old to care.

Don't Forget..........

You still have until WEDNESDAY at midnight to enter my birthday give-away contest! I have had lots of fun enteries so if you haven't sent one in, be sure to do so. Also, don't forget to let me know if you have placed a link to the contest on your blog or website if you haven't done so already.

More Snow in the ATL

I have lived here for 35 years and I don't think I can remember it ever snowing twice in the same week here! Maybe snow for 2 days but not snow, no snow for a couple days, then snow again! So, again, I bring you.............ATLANTA SNOW!!!!

Our Dogs in snow.

Our house in snow.

Our car in snow (pregnant neighbor house in the background).

Front yard.

Back deck and hot tub.

Our neighbor is VERY pregnant due any day now. We are really hoping that tonight is not the night we have to drive her to the hospital. Her husband is an MD and working call in the hospital tonight so we are "on duty" should she have to go to the hosptial. Wish us all luck!

Paw Prints

Knit and Purr is running a contest on her blog. You have to send in pictures of pet paws to be entered. So, here are my enteries.......



This is "lounging paw" owned by the infamous Slim-who-is-no-longer-slim (probably because he indulges in too much lounging). This is my entry for laziest paw.




And here he is doing some serious lounging attached to his paw (yeah, I had to poke him after about 2 hours to make sure he was still alive).



Here is "peanut paw" owned by little Leo (often referred to as peanut).



Here is Leo lounging with his bunny toy. Man, our pets have it rough, don't they??



Here is "concrete paw" also owned by Leo. It just so happened that there was some wet cement in our neighborhood today so we walked Leo by it and stuck his foot in it! It didn't come out great but here it is anyway. This is my entry for most original paw.



Here is "ouchy paw" owned by Ponce. It isn't really his paw that is ouchy, it's his shoulder, but he is holding the paw up so it makes for a good ouchy paw picture. This is my entry for saddest paw.



Here is the rest of poor Mr. Ponce who is on strict activity restriction (which he is totally loving) until he stops limping.

"Uhh....mom, howz about some red eye reduction next time so I don't look like a devil dog."

OK - point taken.

HOLY CANNOLI!!!

It is SNOWING here in the ATL! Now, if you don't live in the ATL you are probably thinking "big fat hairy deal". But for those of us here it IS a big deal and the whole city will probably be shut down for the rest of tonight and tomorrow. I haven't seen this much snow activity here in a long time. This is such big news it has required a second post for today. I'm sure the Yarn Harlot is sitting in Canada in her 6 feet of snow laughing at us right now. Here's a little video.

Peer Pressure

So I have caved to peer pressure and decided let you all know the reason that I haven't been getting and REAL knitting done. I started the TKGA Master Handknitting Program and I got my materials about 2 or 3 weeks ago. So far I have done 3 swatches. Aimee and Erin are also doing the program and Aimee happens to be at exactly the same place that I am. So, I'll be blogging my progress as I go along. Hopefully with the three of us doing it together we can stay on track and keep motivated! Here are my swatches thus far (unblocked as of yet obviously).

I must have restarted the first swatch about 15 times because my ribbing looked like total crap. I couldn't figure it out. I went back and looked at other projects I had done and the ribbing looked great. I was wondering if it was just the pressure from knitting for the program or something - which I thought was weird - but ok. So I tried all kinds of crazy stuff to fix a problem I had never even had before! Finally, I switched yarn. Actually I didn't even switch yarn I switched yarn colors! And, it came out great! There was enough difference in the two colors in their weight I guess to make a difference or something - so whatever but it seemed to work out ok.

Here is the progress on the sock - LOOK! It has a heel!!

Here's a poll for you toe-up experts out there, since I have no pattern for this sock and I'm just winging it, if you start your pattern all the way around the sock after the heel, at what point do you start it? Do you start it right after the heel is worked (that's a short row heel if you can't see it well) or do you keep going plain for a few more rounds on the back until it gets closer to your ankle? It seems if I start the pattern all the way around now it will just look silly. Suggestions?

Really, I don't know what I have against sock patterns but I have yet to use one........

Weekends are Great!

Weekends sure beat the work week! Mr. Man and I had SO much fun yesterday! First off, we slept in - a rare occurance for us. Then (being the president of my neighborhood civic club) a group of us had a neighborhood walkthrough with Burrell Ellis (our county commissioner) that went very well! He was very nice and very much listened to our concerns.

Then, off to Virginia Highlands since it was such a BEAUTIFUL day! We walked around, went to Knitch and then went to the Dark Horse for a couple of beers and lunch. Of course, none of the knitting gals were there yesterday since it was Saturday. I just can't ever seem to get my timing right!! I bought a t-shirt at Knitch but nothing else - though I did do alot of "petting"!! I found some especially yummy bamboo yarn that I may have to go back for! Also saw some delicious merino roving........... :) I need to practice more spinning!!

Then home for a short rest to read more embarrasing stories. Then we went out to the local coffee shop (Mighty Joe Espresso) to listen to music (which never showed up). But we had fun anyway because we love Eva, the owner, who also happens to be a knitter! She hosts a weekly "sit and knit" on Tuesday mornings which I can never seem to go to because of that darn "work" thing.

After that, we headed to Shorty's (the local pizza place) which we had not been to before. We knew the band that was playing last night (Vortex Park) so we wanted to see them. Plus, we have been wanting to go to Shorty's because I found out that my brother's best friend growing up (who went everywhere and did everything with us when I was a kid) owned it and I hadn't seen him in YEARS. He recognized me right away, amazingly enough, and I had a good time catching up with him and introducing him to Mr. Man. Here we are..........

I had my knitting with me all day so at Dark Horse and Shorty's I worked on my new socks (for ME believe it or not) with yummy, yummy shibui yarn. I got a good bit done on them.

The band was great. We listened to the band and watched the gosh darn football game. I was really pulling for Jacksonville, but alas, New England pulled out yet ANOTHER win!

We finally got home after midnight, went to bed, couldn't sleep, got up and watched BAD tv until about 5, went to bed, finally got some sleep and didn't get out of bed until 10:30!!!

Then, got up to read more of people's funniest/most embarrasing moments. I have had a BUNCH of submissions and we are having such a great time sifting through all of them. We are going to have so much trouble deciding! I was thinking of posting them on the website (without names of course) and letting people vote on them. What do you all think?????????

Don't forget to enter and/or post the link!!!

Birthday Contest!!!!

As many of you know, January is my birthday month. So, in honor of that - I'm running a contest where there will be TWO lucky winners!!!! The first place winner will get to choose whether they would like their choice of a yarn bowl OR the two skeins of Artyarns Supermarino. The second place winner will get whichever is left.

Here's the rules.............You have to submit to me your funniest, stupidist or most embarrasing moment. We are going for HUMOR here. You can email it to me at theknitwitch@gmail.com but you have to know that I will post the winner's story on the blog - so don't send in a story you don't want the rest of the world to know about. You will have until midnight on JANUARY 23rd to send in your story. The winners will be announced on my birthday on January 24th.

Now, there isn't any special panel of judges here, just me and Mr. Man. The one we think is the best/funniest/most embarrasing will win. Everyone who places this button

on their blog or promtes the contest with a link will have their name written on a piece of paper and will be randomly chosen out of a hat to win the second place prize. Please just send me a note either via email or on the blog letting me know you have placed a link to promote the contest.

Here's a pic of the two yarn skeins. I LOVE working with this yarn!

Yummy.

OK - you have your instructions - SUBMIT!!!! You can see the yarn bowls on my website at http://www.knitwitch.com/ and the winner will get to choose whichever one they would like. GOOD LUCK! Send me some good stuff!

Something Positive

I know I promised a post about the contest, I will get to that later. This is important stuff though. I don't know about most of you but I get pretty sick of listening to the news and hearing about all the terrible things that are going wrong in the world. I get sick of listening to how terrible people are, how we are destroying the earth, how we are running out of water and just the general grips that plague our world.

Mr. Man and I (as many of you know) have this wonderful friendship and connection. We have been looking for ways to BUILD on that both spiritually and relationship wise. It seems that the majority of stuff out there for married couples is about how to not get divorced, or how to save a failing marriage, or how to live with your spouse even though you don't like them! There just does not seem to be that much out there for those of us that have a wonderful marriage and friendship and are looking to make it even deeper and stronger.

We finally ran across THIS site. This site offers really good articles that help you stay in the moment of your life, learn about you and work with each other to have the best relationship you can possibly have. So check out this site, subscribe to it if you like it and enjoy the positive messages and personal and relationship growth potentials that it offers.

Mr. Man and I began corresponding a bit with the couple who runs the site. As I was reading through the Change Your Tree site I was reminded of THIS post that I had published WAY back when I started this blog. I thought it was pretty insightful and true so I sent it on to Change Your Tree. Well, apparently they liked it also because they published it on the website today HERE!

So, if you like the site, please subscribe and pass it on to anyone who you think might be interested. Enjoy reading at least one positive message today!!!

A big THANK YOU to Kevin of Change Your Tree for reading and sharing my writing.

Contest later today - I promise!!

It's about time!

Ever have one of those projects that just DRAGSSSSSSSSS on and on because you simply aren't "into" it? I know you have.........we ALL have those lovely projects. It's not really bad enough to frog all of your hard work but it's just blah and boring and puts you to sleep.

Well, I HAD one of those projects and I finally finished the darn thing today! This pair of socks is B-O-R-I-N-G! I had some extra denim type stuff that I thought would make for good "around the house socks" for someone. So I started them - about 5 friggin months ago! They have been "done" for like a week but it took me even that long to just do the stupid kitchener and weave in the ends.

By the way, I am LOVING the toe up sock method. That's part of the reason I wasn't into finishing these socks. I had started them cuff down and then when I discovered toe ups I didn't even want to finish the cuff downs I had already started! Plus, I hated the yarn. The yarn was ok in general but just not really good to make socks out of. I forgot to knit the cuffs with a smaller size needle on the first one, so I had to do the same on the second one. They are kind of small, they aren't stretchy enough and they just aren't soft, yummy sock yarn.

Enough about what I HATED about this project, let's talk about what I LIKE. What I LIKE about this project is that it's DONE!!!!!




See? Boring. OK - move along..........nothing to see here.

On another note it's my birthday month!! I have been reminding Mr. Man of that almost daily since January 1. So, I want to run a contest and give away 2 skeins of Artyarn Ultramerino for my birthday!! Though, I think my first contest needs to be what should the contest be! Haha!! No, I think I have a good idea of what it is going to be. It's just going to be a fun thing. I'll post it tomorrow so come back to look for it!


I love keeping you all in suspense..............

Finally!

Finally it has happened to me

Right in front of my face
My feelin's can't describe it

Finally it has happened to me

Right in front of my face

And I just cannot hide it

Meeting Mr. Right, the man of my dreams

The one and only true love or at least it seems

With brown coco skin and curly black hair

It's just the way he looks at me, that gentle lovin' stare

Finally you come along

The way I feel about you it just can't be wrong

If you only knew the way I feel about you

I just can't describe him oh no no

OK - nevermind......I was off on my gay boy bar music theme..........I love that song by the way....reminds me of the good 'ol Backstreet days.

So finally the rest of my yarn came for my dad's socks. It came yesterday so I finished them up last night. Just need to wash them. These are plain vanilla toe-ups. These were my first toe-ups and I am definitely sold. They have a short row heel, which I have also become very fond of.

Today, my fellow knitters, is a VERY IMPORTANT day. Yes, that's right. The REDSKINS actually won a wild card spot and will be playing Seattle at 4:30 in the playoffs. So, you know where I will be. GO 'SKINS!!!!

Happy New Year!!!

And.....for those of you who know me and are wondering......YES Mr. Man and I actually managed to stay up until midnight! Trust me, we wouldn't have been able to if we hadn't left the house. We just went aross the street to the neighbors, played pool, had a couple of drinks and rang in the new year. It was fun!!

** Side bar **

Who saw Dick Clark last night? I swear the guy looks like he has been stuffed, pulled tight put on a stick to be operated by hand. I mean really, you can only say "Wow! That guy looks GREAT for his age for so long." then, it's time to hang it up. I sure would be interested in seeing his facelift bill. Don't get me wrong, I think the guy is amazing for all he has been through and done and overcome, but it's time to see someone else take over......even if it's Seabreast.

** End side bar **

Anyhoo, Wayne and I have had a great holiday!! Today has just been a hanging out, relaxing, drinks in the hot tub, collard greens and black eyed pea kinda day. We braved the cold and went out for a walk in the neighborhood and it felt great! Next two days......low of sixteen and on Thursday.....wind chill factor of ZERO. That's ZERO. Did you hear what I said? That's ZERO with a capital Z-E-R and O!! Ugh.....it seems like if it is going to be THAT cold then it should just go ahead and snow so we can stay inside forcibly. If you don't live in Atlanta then you need to know that even just a strong prospect of snow or ice pretty much shuts the city down so that no one (except nurses and media folk of course) have to go to work - hence my extreeme glee at being a nurse with an administrative job - yee haw. Which reminds me........I better get our "winter emergency supplies" up to snuff so we have everything ready for a possible ice storm and power outage. It ain't fun trying to gather up all of your emergency supplies out of the garage in the freezing cold dark! Sounds like a project for the next couple of days.

Hopefully the rest of the yarn I have ordered will be here over the next couple of days - yipppeee!!! I hope everyone has had a GREAT holiday!!!