Newberry Jam

On Saturday we took a leisurely drive to Atlanta. We had our interview, then a great dinner with my mom and then we headed out to Little Five Points to go see Newberry Jam play. They have a guitar player (Ian), a bass player, a drummer, a keyboardist, a guy that plays bongos and 2 sax players. As usual, it was a great performance. The first part of the show was the regular funky jazz flavored band. Then, after the break they brought up a cellist, a violinist and 2 rappers. This was in addition to all the regular band members they already had up there. It was crazy! They all sounded amazingly well together so it was a funky, rappy, jazzy ensemble at that point. I have never seen another band pull off the things they do!

Brogan even showed up!

We stayed until about 1:00AM (way past our bedtime!) but it was definitely a good time. Here's a little movie.

NEWBERRY JAM

Interview with a Knit Witch

We have had quite the whirlwind weekend. We had SO MUCH FUN but we are definitely glad to be home. I will have to retell the adventures and put up some pictures when I am not so dog tired. We have gotten minimal sleep over the weekend and have laughed so dang hard that my face still hurts!!! But, I'll leave you with this. We were interviewed on Saturday by the Georgia Business Directory. The interview is about 10 minutes long so check it out when you have time! It was really a lot of fun and once we finally stopped laughing and having a good time we were actually able to get in a fairly decent taping of the interview.

INTERVIEW WITH A KNIT WITCH

Rain, rain, rain

That's what we have had here for the last few days. I am certainly not complaining because we need it and I am glad for our new trees to have lots of great rain water. We were going to try and get some of our seedlings in the ground but we haven't been able to as of yet. We have a pretty busy weekend coming up so we'll see if we get to get any of it done.

We are thinking about going to Atlanta on Saturday to go see Newberry Jam play with Spiritual Rez. We haven't gotten to see Ian (our son) play in quite sometime. Their music is great and so is Spiritual Rez so we thought we might try and make the trek to go. I'm still not completely sure if we will be able to or not but maybe! If you are around on Saturday night in Atlanta you should totally check out the show! They are playing at the 5 Spot in Little Five Points which is always a fun experience. It's cheap to get into the show too (like $5-10 or something) so it is totally worth it.

Wayne and I have been REALLY busy this weekend continuing to get ready for Stitches South. Here is what the cats have been doing.


Yeah, they have been a lot of help. Not.

New Project

I bet you thought I was going to talk about knitting, didn't you? HA! Silly blog readers. Nope - more home improvement projects are in the works.

Since we have moved here the area up at the top of our driveway has been driving me nuts. It's ugly, bland, boring and looks terrible. You walk by this when you come into our house. So, it's time to start working to improve this little area because we can make it look really nice! Plus, on the other side of that window there is our office/dye kitchen/pottery area where we spend most of our time. Looking out the window to a nice little pond area will be great!

We are about to have our house painted so I wanted to get started on this area so that the painters can get to the window and because......well......I want to get started on it because it is driving me crazy! Here is what it looks like before:

Wayne already took all the bushes out along the back except for the Crepe Myrtle which he cut way back because it is totally getting out of control. The two areas here on either side of the border are ridiculous. Around the pond is mulch and then on the other side of the border is pea gravel. Talk about an annoying combination!!!

The plan is to remove all the pea gravel and make that area a flagstone patio. Then I want to build up the border a bit, plant some bulbs and pond plants around the pond and put rocks around the pond to make it look a little more "natural". We need plants in the pond to help keep the water healthier also.

As I got started, I was cleaning stuff out from around the pond and I found this little guy. He was so patient while I went into the house to get a camera to take his picture!

We have a winner!

The contest over in the Knit Witch Ravelry Group officially ended on Friday and the winner was Sharon!!! She chose to receive yarn rather than roving. Her package went out today and here is what she is getting:

This is 4oz of 100% SW Merino sock yarn in colorway "Libra". Congratulations Sharon!!! We will definitely be running more contests in the group so stay on the lookout for them.

We are having a rainy day here today so it's a perfect day to work on more skeining for Stitches South yarn. We are really getting excited about our trip back to Atlanta for a few days. We are staying in a fancy hotel since we figured we would splurge since it is also our anniversary weekend - woo hoo!!! Last year for our anniversary we spent the entire day laying flooring so this year promises to be a little more fun!

I also wanted to show you these cute mugs that Wayne made for Rosi. Aren't they cute?? She had us make these for her daughter's birthdays.

Do you ever wonder why........

I never seem to have any knitting to show you? Well, this would be the reason.

I have been knitting swatch after swatch after swatch so that I can try to have all the colors done before the show next month. I still have the lace and the rest of the solid color DK weights to go!!!

Needless to say, I have been doing a lot of skeining lately. And, ya know, skeining is kind of boring. You just stand there and wind and wind and wind. I haven't been brave enough to try an electric skeiner yet. I just prefer to do it manually. So, I try to do things to make the skeining at least seem like it is going a little faster. Wayne seemed to think this was pretty funny.

Reading while skeining. I don't see the problem with this, do you? Mainly I think that he thinks this picture is funny because he is a man and this is what is known in the female world as "multi-tasking"!!! :)

A Happy Birthday is in order today!!!!

Today is my dad's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!! You should all know that I have absolutely the best dad in the whole freaking world! However, I seriously can't figure out how he can be 29 if I am 36. Go figure..........

HAVE A GREAT DAY!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Here's a picture of what Mr. Man had to do to the sink in my dyeing kitchen the other day.

I walked into the bathroom, which is just on the other side of the kitchen, and I saw water coming through the wall at the floor. Even as a "non-handyman" I know that can't be good. So I wrangled up Wayne and he went into action to diagnose the problem. Well, if you have been following the blog, you know that the guy who lived here before us didn't fix anything properly. Everything under the sink was GLUED together rather than properly repaired. Got a leak? Put some glue on it.

Yeah. Wayne had to bring out the big tools to actually saw the parts of the sink apart in order to replace the parts correctly. Sheesh.

On another note - check out the seedlings! We need to get some of this stuff in the ground soon - like the cabbage and lettuce, since they are more cold weather plants. These things are really popping up though!

Don't forget that TODAY is the last day to enter the contest going on HERE. I'll be randomly drawing a winner tomorrow and I will announce it in the group. Have a great weekend everyone!!

Don't Forget!

The last day to enter the contest in the Knit Witch Ravelry group is tomorrow March 20th!! Here's the LINK to enter!

Meet Sir Issac

Newt that is!! Check out this little guy! We thought it was so cool to have a newt in our pond. A newt surely indicates great water conditions. So, we fed him a worm and he LOVED it. Then we looked over and saw his two posse friends.

And, check out the size of this tadpole! He is obviously left over from last year. Tadpoles grow at a rate that is conducive to the weather. So, if it isn't warm enough for them to grow completely into a frog by the end of the season they just stay a tadpole and pick up growth again when the weather gets warm - pretty cool, eh??

Slim and Petey were down at the dock enjoying all the wildlife with us.

The fish are doing GREAT and we are off to buy more fish for the pond this morning. I would show you some knitting but I don't really have any. I am itching to do a more challenging project and I'm thinking of something like February Lady or re-starting my Hey Teach. I can't stand the yarn I am using for Hey Teach so that is why I haven't really bothered with it much. I figure if I don't like knitting it then I'm probably not going to like wearing it, right? So, I am going to probably dye up some of the DK weight we carry for one of those.

SQUICK!!!

I went upstairs for a glass of water last evening and as I was drinking it I looked up at our window and I saw THIS creeping around.

Dudes - that is one giant spider.

Of course Wayne was nowhere to be found so that I could pawn the task off on him. I couldn't risk going to get him because I really did not want to come back and not be able to find this guy and know he was loose in our house somewhere! So, I bucked up and collected him and moved him to much more suitable quarters. WHEW! Glad that's done.

We spent our day in Atlanta yesterday. What starts out as "we just need to run down and pick up clay" always ends up turning into like 15 different things. We took our little weiner dog to his new home and he is going to LOVE IT THERE. He is going to be so spoiled I feel sure he has already forgotten about us. Surprisingly, I don't think Petey has even noticed he is missing! We saw my mom and my dad, took our box of yarn to Needlenook and picked up the cute Needle Nook donataion and stopped by Knitch to pick up some great prizes for the Scalini's dinner!

Those of you attending the Scalini's dinner will NOT be disappointed! My dad has even threatened to come up there and visit us because he has been warned about how rowdy a group of knitters can be. I had to explain to him that we are NOT all little old ladies!! So, if he comes that will be doubly fun - I will put him in charge of the prizes! I'll be getting some pictures of the prizes but I don't think I will be getting most of them until the day of. Probably best that way so they don't become "over petted" before the dinner!

Yarn anyone?

We were fortunate enough to get another wholesale order. This time from Needle Nook in Atlanta. I am so excited about all of it because I think it turned out great. We are going there to deliver it to the shop today since we have to make a trip to buy more clay anyway. Here is what it looks like. There are several of each color but it wouldn't all fit in one picture! These are all 75% Merino/25% Nylon sock yarns.

Arlene (who owns Needle Nook) also wanted a fish bowl. Here is how it turned out. I love it! I hope she will like it.

So if you live in the Atlanta area and stop by Needle Nook - pet the Knit Witch yarns for me!

Train.....train.......take me on outta this town.

Well, not really but it's a good song. We were sitting outside the other day (one of our wonderful 75 degree days!) and a train came rolling by our house. Granted, we live right next to a railroad track but the trains hardly ever come down this way. They usually go north from Blue Ridge towards TN. But every once in a while they will head to Blue Ridge from the south or vice versa. Of course we felt this was picture worthy!

We had rain ALL weekend but that is good because our little leyland cypress loved it I'm sure. I sure will be glad when we get back to these 70 degree days. We looked in the small pond and there are LOTS of toad eggs courtesy of our former blog stars from the other day. We should have plenty of tadpoles pretty soon. I sure hope the fish don't eat them all!

Seems worth repeating

At the suggestion of my wonderful husband, I am repeating this post that I posted over a year ago. I know some of you have already read this but I thought maybe some of our newer blog readers might enjoy it. Plus, it seemed like a good way to end the week and there are some good reminders in here as we head into a new season.

One day Wayne and I were just talking about life and the energies that we, as humans, put out there into the world. We are so proud of what we have built together, are so eager to share our life with others, but yet are so protective of our own world and the influences that we allow into it. We have such a wonderful home full of love and peace. So, how in the world does knitting figure in?

A finished object is only as strong as the materials you put into it. Every strand, every fiber, every stitch, every mistake and every manipulation all somehow impact that finished product. The possibilities for what you do with that fiber are endless. Every pattern/idea/object is a possibility just lying in wait of your own creation. Sometimes we choose to put in strong, beautiful, top of the line fiber that will last forever and be strong, and sometimes we choose to purchase the "bargain brand" that may not last as long or be as pleasurable to work with but will certainly get the job done. Not that either choice is good or bad, it is just that - a choice. Just a part of the possibilities that we put together in the fabric we are making.

Life is the same way. We get the strength out of it that we put into it. We can choose to build our lives with good, strong, top of the line materials or we can just put into it what we need to in order to get by. As in knitting, we choose how we want to handle our mistakes. We can choose to go back, re-work that mistake and make it look and feel better, or we can leave the mistake as-is and just live with the mistake we have made. Again, not that one decision is better than the other - the action simply depends on the circumstances.

Expert or experienced knitters usually love sharing their craft with beginners. We enjoy sharing what we love and what we are good at. We want to teach someone about something that we feel passionately about in hopes that it will bring someone else joy in their own life. We show them the tools, teach them about fibers, discuss techniques and open up another chapter in their endless book of possibilities. The possibilities of where that person takes their newly learned skill are limitless. Ultimately though, it is the beginners choice about how he/she uses the tools, chooses the fibers and weaves their own craft. Sometimes we will agree, and sometimes we won't. Even if we don't agree we have the ability to stand back in appreciation of someone else's creation and understand that that beginner has just created their own possibility and also, perhaps, created some kind of possibility for someone else.

I want to choose what I allow into the fabric of my life. I want to take an active role in what I allow in and what I leave out. This goes for people, things, jobs, situations, friendships, whatever. I want to know that every "ingredient" I am putting into my life is doing a part to make the "soup" of life feel better, taste better, be better. I want to be responsible for my own "life soup" and encourage others to do the same for their own "soup". I never want to rely on someone else to do "life work" for me. That is how we learn and grow - by participating in the activities that carry us along our path. Even the most mundane activities are a part of that wonderful path.

So, I guess my advice is to look at every single thing you do in your life. Determine whether that action truly helps you add to your life soup, your being. If it does, great - build on it, share it, explore it. If it does not - look at why. Look at the ways you can change your course, change your actions, change your vision so that you are positively adding to YOU and making YOU better as well as adding to the lives of those around you. Be responsible for your own life. It's all about balance. Balance with each other, balance with nature, balance with our environment, balance with our spirit. All things are here for a reason, to teach us, to guide us, to help us and to create beauty in our lives. We just have to be able to receive the teachings.

I learn more and more everyday. Thank you so much to the people, the things, the situations, the life in nature that all do so much to teach me - both how I want to be and also how I don't want to be. I am learning. My life techniques get better with learning and practice - as does my knitting!

Prizes anyone?

First of all - a big welcome to all the new folks who are following the blog! I really appreciate everyone stopping by, leaving comments and checking out our site. We have received some really nice comments (and a few new orders!) lately. I try to respond to everyone who has an email address linked to their comment, so if you have not heard back from me it is probably because your email address does not come up for me when I try to respond but rest assured that I read and appreciate all of your comments!

Don't forget that we are running a contest on our Ravelry group HERE. It's a super easy contest but you must be a member of the group to win! You have until March 20th to join the group and enter.

Also, Knit Purl Gurl is running a great contest on her blog with some Knit Witch prizes! So, go check that one out too.

Our Scalini's dinner was filling up and we are moving our party to the larger banquet room! So, there is still room if anyone going to Stitches South is interested in attending this event OR donating for the door prizes! We have had some very generous offers already. We really appreciate everyone who is sharing a prize with our group!! We already have donations from Knitch, Miss Babs, The Unique Sheep, Frog Hair Fibers, Needle Nook, Little Miss Drama Pants, Hockeymom, Wool2Dye4, Handknitting.com, Sugarfoot Yarns, Turtle Cove Farm, Turtlegirl, and of course, Knit Witch. You can find out more information HERE in the Knit Witch Yarn Group on Ravelry.


Spring must be making everyone want to give away prizes!

Happy, happy, happy!!!

The weather here has been unbelievable!!!!! High 70's and even up to 80 this week!! It makes me feel so happy to be able to put on shorts and sandals. We have been back to doing our daily walk, which we love, and working out in the yard and garden. Oh, and don't forget lots of dyeing for Stitches South!!

Wayne planted our leyland cypress. Aren't they going to look great??

One of our greenhouses is up and running (this thing works GREAT - I highly recommend them. We got ours HERE for around $65 each or so. Totally worth it.

The toads have been back in action in the small pond amusing the kittens to no end. They only licked it once to figure out that they don't want anything to be licking on them anymore. But they think the toads are at least fun to watch.

We have put some of the cracked yarn bowls around the ponds and garden for toad houses! How's THAT for a fancy toad house? Willow has already decided that she wants whatever lives inside of these.

Oh - and Collen - if you are out there - please email me at theknitwitch@gmail.com about this sheep bowl:

Meet the Family

Barbara and Taryn were here Saturday and Sunday. We had so much fun!!! Here are some pictures from our wild adventures.

Here is the reunited pair. What a great picture, eh?

Plus one of the granddaughters:

We walked to downtown Blue Ridge (we almost killed Taryn). It does make you feel kinda good though when a walk that is nothing to you almost kills an 11 year old. Wayne had to get our picture in front of the backhoe. Notice that I am the shortest person in the picture (yes, shorter than the 11 year old). Also, if you look closely, you can see that Wayne cut off about 7 inches of my hair the other day!!

We went to Lake Blue Ridge and the Blue Ridge Dam.

We went to the Toccoa River.

We made a yummy pizza dinner and watched the movie "Changling". Holy cow that movie is intense - very well done but intense.

Barbara is a really great person and we really enjoyed having both her and Taryn for the day. We just had an all around great time! Thanks girls for coming to visit us!! We are so glad you are a part of our family!

Garden Beginnings

Yes folks, it's that time of year! Time to get the seeds started for the garden. We have started about 200 seeds so far. Since we planted these over a week ago, some of them are even starting to come up!



We planted all kinds of seeds in here - LOTS of tomatos (different varieties) and basil (sweet and thai), bell peppers, banana peppers, anaheim peppers, eggplant, thyme, sage, rosemary, tarragon, a couple varieties of squash, lettuce, brussel sprouts, artichokes, cucumbers, etc. A lot of other stuff we will start directly in the garden once it warms up. Things like melons, onions, corn, beets, birdhouse gourds and radishes will be started then. These seedlings will be going to live in their new home, a portable greenhouse, just as soon as we get it put together.

Right now, we have 3 beds finished in the garden and will probably do another small bed along the fence for some vining plants like the gourds. A couple of years ago in Tucker we planted ONE gourd seed and that one plant produced about 30 good sized gourds! We should be having plenty. They take about a year to dry out before you can make them into birdhouses though.

Oh - and we bought some additional dirt - lots of dirt. Now we have to get this:

up here to the garden beyond the fence.

Should be a fun work day! Who wants to come help?

CONTEST!!!!

Yes, another entry for Friday on my blog. This one is a quickie though - we are running a contest over in the Knit Witch group on Ravelry. This contest is exclusively for members of the group so if you aren't a member - mosey on over to THIS LINK, join the group and enter the contest. The contest is super easy and the winner will receive a skein of yarn or 4oz of roving (winners choice!!).

Fun in the shower

Trust me. This post isn't going to be as interesting as the title makes it sound. Haha! Check out our shower!!!

Mr. Man has been so hard at work getting this finished! We still have a lot of work to do in the bathroom (replacing the floor, lights, sink fixtures, etc) but the hardest thing is DONE! We just need to still clean up the grouting a bit but otherwise - finito!!! :)

Check out these tiles!!! Our neighbor painted them for us - aren't they so cool?? We love them! We love having her art as a permanent fixture in our home.

Barbara (Wayne's "new" daughter) and two of her girls are coming tomorrow for an overnight visit. It is just going to be amazing for Wayne to finally get to see his daughter after 30 years!!! We are looking forward to their visit and I'm sure will will have lots of fun pictures of the weekend. The temperature here is supposed to be over 70 degrees tomorrow!!!!! YAY!!! Snow last Saturday and a heat wave this Saturday! I'll take the latter please.