Any Tulane fans out there??

I did some custom orders for a few Tulane fans last week. I think the yarns turned out pretty good!! Some folks wanted white in their yarn and some folks didn't so I did them both ways.



Look at this Morning Glory that bloomed in our garden this week:


Here is some Mountain Laurel:

Here is one of the many Shasta Daisies currently blooming in our yard:


And here are some pictures of the pond that is at the end of our walk that we do most everyday. I don't think I have ever shown you pictures of this before. It's a very pretty pond. Eventually our pond Iris will be as huge as these!


AND - February Lady is making steady progress again - see??



I had to frog about 6 rows last night because of a goof but things are back on track!

Have a great weekend!!!

TOADS!

Remember all those little tadpoles we had swimming around in the pond? Well, they have sprouted legs! Look how cute they are!



These little guys are so cute peppered all over the pond plants. They are TINY.

We also had a mass hatching of these:


These are Mayflies. The larvae can last for up to a year but once they hatch they can live anywhere from 30 minutes to 48 hours. These are also what is known as an "indicator species" and only hatch out of very clean water. Frogs are also an indicator species so I think we must have some pretty clean water around here! We have LOTS of frogs around our big pond but I would never be able to get a picture of them - they are too fast! I guess toads are just lazy. :)

Guess who is going to the Sock Summit?????

KNIT WITCH!!!

Well, sort of. Our yarn is going at least. We were going to try and go so we applied for a booth space and got in but logistically, a drive all the way across the country just is not going to work for us right now. Even though the thought of driving across the country with my husband is very appealing! We really want to do it so maybe next year.

Our yarn is going in some kits that are being made up by a NEW online fiber shop that has just opened. We have done about 20 pounds of yarn and 5 pounds of top for the new site. Go check it out! It is called Uptown Stitches and is run by the delightful Sheila Mahone!! You can see some of the Knit Witch custom colors on there.

We are very excited to have our yarn going to the show. The kits will be in the Wild Geese Fibres booth. I know the kits will contain yarn and a pattern but I'm not sure what else will be in there. As soon as I have some pictures of the kits I will post them for you to see!

We have also been busy doing bowls. I know many of you out there are still waiting on your custom order from Stitches. We sent out a lot of our awaiting orders but we still have more to go. Unfortunately, the bowls don't always turn out on the first try but rest assured that we are plugging through the orders and hope to have them ALL out within the next two weeks. Some of you will be getting your orders this week though. Thanks so much to everyone for their patience as we have worked through the orders.

Quick shop update

There are new bowls up on the site as of today. There is ONE sheep bowl currently available. I know, I know - we will have more I promise! But first come first served on this one!! Update: Nevermind - the sheep bowl has been SOLD!


Oh - and there is a snazzy bamboo bowl too!!

Fun Weekend

This weekend was the Blue Ridge Arts Festival. We had a good time going even though we really didn't get a chance to do too much shopping. Brogan (Wayne's son) and his girlfriend came to visit us for the weekend so on Saturday we went down to the festival to enjoy the live music playing downtown.


On Sunday my dad and aunt came to visit and we went to the festival again. No pictures because I left my camera at home! But, I did buy some really nice handmade soap from Thistle Ridge and I LOVE IT! I am a sucker for handmade soaps.

Then on Monday we kind of just took it easy recovering from the weekend, although we both worked! I did go over to our neighbor's on Monday just in time to see this little guy before she left with him.



Someone found this coyote and then brought it to her so that she could transport it to the AWARE center for rehabilitation and release. So, hopefully all will go well and this little guy will make it back out to the wild where he belongs!

Snake wrangling round-up

OK - for my squeemish readers (you know who you are) you may want to skip this post.

The other day we had some "invaders" in our small pond who thought that was pretty good easy fishing for a few meals. So, they had to be removed. We saw this guy sticking his head out of the pond.


We caught him, put him in a pillow case and Wayne drove off to go recycle and relocate him. You can see our continued work on the flagstone patio in the background! While he was gone I saw this:


I kept waiting and waiting for him to get in the pond because I knew if he got in the pond I could catch him. Eventually, he went in.


Well, Wayne drove up and I was still trying to catch the little guy. It took us about another 20 minutes to catch him. And, in a pillow case he went! It turns out that Wayne hadn't released the other one yet so we headed out for a walk down the tracks to relocate both of them far away from here so they couldn't eat anymore of our fish!!! They were relocated here. You can see the little one swimming away in the lower right hand corner of the picture.



Oh, these are Northern Water Snakes I believe for anyone who cares.

The next day we went for a walk and saw a groudhog up close that our dog tried to bring home with us and a HUGE hawk. Of course, that was the day we didn't have the camera with us!!!

This weekend is the big Blue Ridge Arts Festival so we'll be hanging out there and then enjoying the re-opening of our local farmer's market on Saturday morning - YAY!!! I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday weekend!!!!

A big thanks to Wayne and all of our other military folks out there for their amazing service to our country...............

House Happenings

Mr. Man has been busy at work on the house. Here's a few things that have been going on.

Remember this? This picture was taken after all the failing handrails have been removed.

Well then it was this:

And now we have stairs!! I know, I know - we still need to get rid of that giant satellite. Trust me, it's on the list of things to do!

He is now working on the border so that we can keep all the sand in place for the flagstone patio that we will be putting in.

While he was working on that I painted some lattice.

We still have that tarp hanging up slathered in red paint because I am going to paint our rocking chairs also. I bet like the UPS driver drives up and wonders why that is there and hopes it isn't blood as he carefully drives away..........

Here is where the lattice is going - it isn't nailed up yet so forgive the wonkiness of it right now.

Knit Witch on the Yarn Harlot Blog!

Well, sort of. Our picture did make it onto yesterday's Yarn Harlot post - pretty exciting! I thought that she took this picture after she signed Wayne's shirt but alas, my memory apparently isn't as good as I thought it was!! Here's the link if you missed it. We are the first picture of the 3 pictures together if you scroll down a bit.

Here's a few more nature shots for you. I love it when there are lots of critters running around and so many flowers are in bloom.

Wayne found this toad. This is a FAT toad I tell ya.

We put her up in the garden and she promptly took residence in one of the toad houses (read: cracked yarn bowls that make great toad houses).

Here's a shot of some Cherokee Roses. We have lots of these all over our property and they smell SO GOOD.

Here's one of our wildflowers coming up.

And here is Petey nicely posed for you in front of some Rhododendron on our daily walk. Look at how pretty they all are!

Got Lace?

We do. This is what I have spent the majority of my weekend doing! So, for those of you who were interested in more of our merino/silk blend lace - it is now up on the yarn page.

Let's see - what else is new on the site............... We are now selling t-shirts on the website. Just look on the front page and scroll down. None of them have been signed by the Yarn Harlot though. We also have a few new spindle bowls on the site. Not too many so get there quick if you have been waiting on one! They tend to sell out pretty fast.

We are still working on getting more sheep bowls on the site. It is still going to be a little while though because Wayne is still working on the back orders from Stitches South. So, if you are looking for a sheep bowl in particular just email me at theknitwitch@gmail.com and let me know what you want and we will get your request on the production schedule. I am also going to be doing lots of custom yarn orders this week so if you want something in particular this is a good time to let me know.

And, totally unrelated - here's a cute shot of Willow stalking Slim in the long grass.

Yarn Harlot!

Yesterday we took a ride down to Woodstock and The Whole Nine Yarns for the Yarn Harlot event. We had a great time, as usual. The crowd was a little smaller this time (presumably because there was a ticket price) but I liked that the crowd was smaller. We actually managed to remain sober during the entire event - mainly because Regan and Sandy and Cristi were not there to be a bad influence on us. It's always their fault.

Anyway, as always, we enjoyed the talk and of course the stories were hilarious. Here are a few pictures from the yarn shop and the event.

The shop was really nice (that was our first time there) and the owner and staff were wonderful! So nice and very hospitable. And, look at their cute car!

After the talk we got in line for the book signing. It didn't take long for us to get up to the front for the book signing. We chatted with Stephanie for a few minutes and Wayne took our picture together.

Then she was gracious enough to sign Wayne's t-shirt. Check it out!

And then we got Bruce to take a picture of me and Mr. Man!

We had a great time!