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...........

The Wild East

I have managed to capture a few shots of random animals around here over the past couple of weeks. We have a Little Blue Heron that keeps hanging around our pond. I hear him almost everyday but he has eleuded capture via the camera as of yet. I will keep stalking him.

First up - baby Blue Jay. We had a pair of Blue Jays build a nest right outside of our bedroom window. It was so fun to sit in bed in the morning with our coffee and watch mom and dad sit on the eggs, then start feeding little tiny babies and then have the honking babies flowing out of the nest. The whole process took about 4 weeks. I never did get any pictures when they were tiny but here are two pictures of the last baby on his first day out of the nest. These were taken through our bedroom window so, hence the glare.

Next - bullfrog. We hardly ever get to see these guys just hanging out in open space. This one is in the pond at the bottom of the hill where we walk every day. Can you see him? He is almost right in the middle of the picture just to the left of center.

Finally, look at this cute little juvenile wild rabbit! We see these rabbits along our road just about every time we leave the house and come home. We have lots of them around here. Luckily, they have not discovered our garden yet. I think the cats help to keep them away - at least during the day. We took this one as we were driving down the road and he just stopped like he was posing for a picture. Isn't he cute?!?!

Train!

Over the weekend our good friends Pam and Kelly came to visit us. The last time they were here we had JUST moved in and they helped us lay the first floor that we put in for the upstairs bedroom. Seriously, that's how you weed out your friends - ask them to come help you put in flooring.

They couldn't believe how much we (read: Wayne) have done to the house in a year. They rode the train while they were here. Here is a picture of the train coming in and some action shots of them on the train. From L-R is Kelly, Pam and their friend Alicia. Pam and Kelly are the proud new owners of our former dashund, Leo. They gave him to us and they still have his mom and brother so he is totally in daschund heaven. A few hours worth of a visit from them while Pam and Kelly were here gave us an excellent reminder as to why he is no longer here. We like those LOW maintenance pets like Petey!

Check out Mr. Studly sitting beside them, right? YIKES!!

The day before they came we went to a nice little dinner on the balcony of the coffee shop (L&L Beanery) right in the middle of downtown. Here are a couple of shots of the dinner and of the view of downtown.

I love it when people offer to take pictures of Wayne and I. I feel like we are always taking pictures of all kinds of stuff but we so rarely get pictures of the two of us together!! Thanks for taking the picture Diane! Oh, and if you want to see some crazy cool miniature wood working - check out her site. WOW! She is also a knitter and spinner which makes her extra cool!

In the Cohutta

First of all - we have decided to run the sale for one more day! Some of our announcements did not post as planned so we wanted to give everyone a little extra time. Lots of people have already taken advantage of the 10% savings so don't miss out!

Last weekend we took a little drive over to the Cohutta Wildlife Management Area just to get out of the house for a bit and do a little exploring. We had a huge thunderstorm earlier in the day so there were a lot of trees down and debris all over the place. Still, we managed to get a few cool pictures. Here is the view from on top of the mountain.

Then we stopped at this little campground on a stream at the top of the mountain. It was a very cute little place! Petey had a good time running around and exploring.

And, check this out! Ever seen a campground complete with horse stalls?

It was a fun little trip and a beautiful drive. Our local Chamber of Commerce has these "driving tours" that you pick up complete with maps and instructions. They are just self guided tours and they take you through different areas around North Georgia. The tours change with the seasons so that you go to see whatever there is to see during that particular season. I think one of those tours will be our next driving around adventure. It should be interesting!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day to the bestest dad in the whole world!!!!! I definitely would not be where I am today without this great guy in my life. And, I am so glad that he and my husband get along so well - that is really nice. I guess it helps to marry a man that is almost as old as your father so they can sit around and talk about the "good 'ol days" and about all the tv shows they used to watch when they were kids - haha!!!

Many of you got to meet him at the Scalini's dinner in April. He had such a great time with all of you. Since you met him - you know what I am talking about. The man has never met a stranger. He's kind of Italian looking don't ya think? :)


Oh - and don't forget about the Summer Solstice sale going on at Knit Witch today! 10% off of everything in the store! I will have to refund your 10% since Paypal does not accept coupons. But, I'm good for it - I swear!