Progress

Things are moving along though they aren't really looking much better. This place still looks like a tornado came through. I unpacked a bunch of stuff in the kitchen today. Mr. Man glazed the new yarn bowls and there is a batch getting their final firing as we speak! We should be able to fire the next batch late tomorrow and then have them up on the site by Sunday - woo hoo!!!

Amia is coming along also. We will be doing a little more work on that tomorrow too. Tomorrow we are unloading more of the POD that came today, working on the upstairs floor and finishing bowls and doing the bowl and yarn pictures for the websites. Sounds like fun, eh?? :) We were going to try and make it to the drive in movie theater tonight but the movie does not start until 9 and we are already about ready for bed since we are so tired from working around the house all day (it's only 8 right now).

The kittens are doing great! They seem much happier now and are running around and playing all the time. They are still a little skittish when I go to pick them up but they have improved immensely since we got them. We have decided on the name Willow for the little girl kitty and Goose for the little boy kitty.




It sure is hard to get them to sit still or both look in the same direction at the same time! Check out the geese - they are getting bigger!


Oh..........and I have absolutely no knitting to report. I was working more on the socks, then I crossed a cable the wrong way, frogged it, redid the cable, continued on and realized that I crossed the same cable in the wrong friggin' direction AGAIN! So, said sock is unfrogged waiting for me to come back and tackle it again. I must have been tired!

New Arrivals!

We have new babies!!!!


We are only keeping two of these cutie pies but they are kind of hard to get pictures of because they don't stay still long enough. They look almost exactly alike. One of the boys went to his new home this morning so now we just have the two - a boy and a girl. We are thinking about names and want to do some "naturish" names, like trees, animals, plants, etc. Any ideas??? We have a couple we are thinking about but I won't bias you by telling you what they are.

Also..................TA DA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Look what happened on Saturday!!!



Our youngest graduated from high school with honors! YAY! We were kind of scared when we got there that we were going to be there all freaking day because they were graduating over FOUR HUNDRED students!! But, they had us in and out of there in an hour and ten minutes - can you believe that?!?! So, we were very happy and hung around for a few pictures.

We are still unpacking and unpacking and moving and moving. All of our stuff should be in one place by the end of next week. We HAVE started the new bowls and should be able to glaze and do the final firing so that they are ready to go on the website by Sunday. I will send out an email when they are ready to everyone who has requested to be on the notification list.

AND we were able to finally get our bank account for Amia Yarn Company today so we should have that up and running soon also. We have some really beautiful yarns to put on the site already!

We met our new neighbor over the weekend and she is AWESOME so that is really great. She is even a loom weaver! :)

I have so much to update you on!

Now that I have my camera, computer, upload cable AND internet connection all in the same place - it's time for some show and tell.

Check out what came to visit us in our pond today:

Mommy and daddy goose and 6 little wee ones! SO CUTE! They swam very close to me when I went out there to feed them. They hung around for hours and were still there when we (unfortunatley) had to leave to come back to Atlanta for a few days.

Then, we had another visitor a few days ago:

Mr. King snake. Check out how big he/she is!! He/she hung around all day then came back to lay on top of our azalea bush the next day. The dogs were freaking out but they eventually got over it.

Then look what we found in our yard today:

Yep, he/she left us a present. Check out the size of this snake! We figure that between Mr./Ms. King snake, our cat and our fearless hunting daschund dog - we should never see a rodent.

We planted our garden and put up a fence around it:

Checked on our growing baby birds:

Checked on the tadpole progress:

Finished the floor in the bathroom (complete with all quarter round cut and stained by ME!! Woo hoo -I'm learning!)

Finished the floor in the kitchen and put in the celing fan:

Finshed the floor in the downstairs bedroom:

Started the floor upstairs:

Put in our dog fence:

Oooops - forgot to take a picture of that

Worked on a sock for hubby (after all - this IS a knitting blog, right?):

Organized and inventoried the yarn and roving I have for Amia Yarn Company so far:

AND.............MADE YARN BOWLS!!!!

We will be able to start firing and glazing them soon.

And picked up a BUNCH of trash out of the yard and pond. And we built a dam in the creek and got our pond up to full capacity - yay!

Now it's time to load up the rest of our stuff and head back to Blue Ridge one last time. We sure are going to miss this house in Tucker - it has been VERY good to us, but we are loving our new surroundings. Everyday is like an adventure and you feel like you can't even step outside the front door without a camera!

You won't believe it

I actually started a pair of socks!! I managed to find yarn, needles and scissors all in the same place and sat down for some knitting gratification - FINALLY! I knit about 1" of the cuff last night. I haven't knit socks in so long that I totally forgot that I like doing toe up socks better rather than cuff down. So anyway, these will be cuff down!

I would love to show you a picture, really I would, but per usual, I don't have all the necessary equipment. I really tried to remember to bring the camera cable with us to Blue Ridge this time but it is still sitting at the house in Atlanta. So, you will have to wait to see said progress on sock.

Our move will be completed May 29th and all of our stuff will finally be in one place..........well, that's not really true because we still have about another 2 trailers worth of stuff at my dad's - but - we are getting there.

I think I have almost finished cleaning the main floor and the basement (except for a good floor cleaning) and am about ready to start on the upstairs. The upstairs should be much less hassle to clean so - almost there! Woo hoo!!

Husband is working on setting up the pottery studio RIGHT NOW and he should be able to start thorowing some new yarn bowls later today. I have a hefty notification list going for people waiting on the next batch too so we are really making new bowls a priority right now.

OK, OK

I'm getting "complaints" (Melissa) that I'm not blogging enough or showing any pictures so here ya go. The moving is slowly getting better as we get more stuff in one place. It is really a pain trying to live and work out of two places so I'll be really glad we complete the move and have everything in one place, even as messy as it is until we get it all organized!

First, some super cuteness. This is Harmony. He is about 6 or 7 months old now. Check out the do! After he was sheared, check out the polka dots we found on him!!!

Next, check out these awesome wines I found at a book and wine store in Blue Ridge. We haven't tried them out yet but the labels alone were enough to make me purchase them.

Then there is the birds nest that has been built in our roof awning. There actually are teeny weenie baby birds now but I could never get a picture with their little heads sticking up!

And finally, the water snake we saw in our pond!!! Pretty cool, eh?

So far our wildlife count includes water snake, turtles, scorpions, honey bees, geese, songbirds, herons, bass, brim, minnows (all in our large pond) frogs, toads and about a billion tadpoles in our small pond.

We are loving it so far! I bet you guys are all wondering by now if I really even know HOW to knit since I haven't posted any knitting in so long. I simply have not had the time lately and I can't seem to get my needles, yarn, roving, wheel, patterns and body all in the same location to get anything started. My goal is to get ALL my fiber supplies up at the new place this week because I am really itching to get a project started!!

AND..........does anyone out there have a simple, free knitting pattern that they have written (for maybe a shawl or a baby blanket) that they would be willing to donate to me? I would like a pattern that has been tested by another knitter and that you have pictures of that I could include in an auction goody bag. It would be a little promotion for you and I would certainly keep your credit information intact. If you do, please email me at theknitwitch@gmail.com. I would need the pattern, a picture and (of course) your permission. It needs to be something that can be knit with alpaca yarn or an alpaca blend (wool, silk, bamboo, etc.). Thanks!!!

Check it out!!!

Woo hooo!!! Lookie, lookie!! We have internet at the new place now!!! OK.........back to cleaning. I might even have some pictures for you all soon!!

Contest Winners!!!

As promised, though I know LATE here are the winners!!!

First place winner had the most accurate guess the soonest and wins a $20 credit to the Knit Witch store! Congratulations to Debbie!!!! I know, we are low on product right now but not to worry - I will honor the credit for whenever the winners would like to use it. Obviously, this person is also placed on the notification list for the next batch. Here is her entry:

Hum . . .

Contest guessing. You are moving to the Mtns of GA and starting an Alpaca farm. On this farm you will create handspun alpaca yarns and yarn bowls to sell through an online yarn store. Maybe GA Mtn Yarn?

The second place winner has the most outrageous guess. Second place wins a $10 credit to the Knit Witch store. Congratulations to Katey!!! Now let me tell you, this one was far more difficult to choose. Some folks sent in some downright crazy outrageous stuff! They were all hilarious to read! She actually also had a very accurate guess but then she creeped it out with me having all those kids (which for anyone who knows me knows that is NOT EVER going to happen) so I had to give her the most outrageous award. Here is her entry and I'm quite sure she didn't REALLY mean to use foul language against me:

You and Wayne are opening a brick and mortar shop somewhere in the mountains near a body of water? Probably in a touristy town.

Where you will proceed with the getting pregnant and having quintuplets. After which you will promptly be skinny and cute again. (bitch.)

You will then raise those five darling children to make and glaze your yarn bowls thereby stepping up your production 500%.

We drove out to the new place to take a load of stuff. Did I remember to grab the connection to download some pics to the computer? Well, of course not. That would be silly! We are so looking forward to getting on with this venture - we are ready for country living! We can't wait to get our garden put in - nothing more yummy than 3-4 homegrown tomoato sandwiches a day!!!!

Congrats to the winners!!!!!

Seriously, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.....

Hey there everyone!! Remember me?!?! Yes, the contest is over but no I haven't had a chance to look through all the enteries and pick the winners. I will do that tomorrow and alert the winners tomorrow afternoon or evening.

BUT, now that the contest is over - I can reveal the secret(s)!!!!!! I had the contest running for so long because I was hoping we would actually be ready to "launch" part of the secret at the conclusion of the contest. However, we aren't ready to actually launch yet so that will come later. So, for now I will just tell you about the launch and about the exciting stuff we have going on.

We have been absent because we are MOVING!!! We are getting the heck out of this crazy city (Atlanta) in exchange for a quieter, slower life pace in beautiful Blue Ridge, GA. We have already purchased the house and are already moving in. That's why my blog posting/reading have been so spotty lately. We don't have internet set up at the new place yet and we are traveling back and forth spending about 1/2 the week at each place right now so things are kinda crazy. Plus, we have been working our butts off at the new place doing all kinds of stuff so I haven't had time to be online anyway. But we are SO EXCITED and we absolutely love the house and Blue Ridge!

We are close enough to walk into downtown Blue Ridge so we have just been having all kinds of fun in addition to the long hours we are putting into the house to get it ready for the official move. Also, that's why we have shut down yarn bowl production for a while. We have to get moved and set up in the new place so we should be back up and running in another couple of weeks. I already have a running list of folks who are waiting on the next batch.

We have laid all new floors, cleaned, cleaned, done some cleaning and cleaned and just generally been doing stuff to make the place look like a home. The previous owner was a batchelor so it was basically just a place he "stayed in" if you know what I mean. We have three acres, a huge beautiful deck that overlooks our pond and creek with a waterfall. It is an amazing place!!!

I, of course, brought the camera back but I forgot the connection to download the pictures to the computer - it's still up in Blue Ridge. So, the before and after pictures will have to come later. HERE is a link to the pictures we took before we actually bought the place though so that will give you some idea. Since these pictures are "pre us moving in" all the stuff in the house is his, not ours. The tree that fell over in the pond has now been removed, ALL the pink carpet is GONE (thank goodness) and like I said, the place is now much cleaner. We really feel lucky to have found this place and we got it at a great deal since it needs a little work (but nothing the man and I can't do ourselves). Next up on the agenda is a fence for the dogs, tearing out and replacing the back deck (since it is pretty much disintigrating) and putting a shower in the upstairs bath (he was going to remodel but we told him that we would just finish it so that we could do it the way we wanted it). Here's a couple of shots from the photo album (two of the front of the house and the last one is the view of our pond from standing on the porch):

OK - so that was the first part of the secret. The SECOND part of the secret is that........drumroll please................we are starting a YARN COMPANY!!! We are going to be working with the Georgia Mountain Fiber customers to provide a place for them to sell their beautiful alpaca yarns and roving!!!! We are SO EXCITED!! The name of the company is Amia Yarn Company and we will be selling alpaca yarns/roving that are all processed from American alpacas. We really wanted to do something to help support the American fiber farmers since they have such tough competetition against the South American producers. It's a really involved story so if you want to learn more you can go to the site at http://www.amiayarncompany.com/. The shopping cart is something we are still working on and we aren't actually selling anything yet but there is a lot of good information on the site about why we are doing what we are doing.

We are so excited about helping to promote this luxurious fiber AND the folks around the US who are raising alpacas and need help getting their yarn and roving out to YOU - the people who want it!! We already have some gorgeous alpaca and alpaca blend products and I can't wait to let you all know about the launch for the site so stay tuned!!!!!

More pictures and information coming up soon!

WHEW - that's a load off - I have been wanting to tell all of you guys about that stuff for SO LONG NOW!!!! YAY!!