Stitches South Report #2

First of all - thank you all so much for the anniversary wishes yesterday!!!! We had a very low-key day so it was nice. We did go out for a yummy sushi dinner last night!!! I gotta tell you though - I don't know if I can ever get used to the Japanese restaurants up here in the hills. There is just something funny about the sushi waitress walking up to you and saying "HEYYYYYYY ya'll! Do ya'll know what ya wawnt to drank?" Too funny.

OK - on to more Stitches fun!!!

There was a motley crew that stopped by our booth to pillage. We welcome that pillaging too!

Then there was a nice dinner on Saturday night with a few of our closest friends (that's my dad standing up back there just having himself a grand 'ol time!):

There were a few famous rubberneckers in attendance:



Then there were a few glasses of wine consumed (dang Katey!)

And some artistic displays:

Someone needs to send me the picture of the Sanguine Gryphon dancing on the table too!!!

All in all we had a GREAT weekend and really enjoyed time with both old and new friends. The Stitches event went VERY well I think and they will definitely be back next year. We'll see you there!!!!

Good Decisions

So, four years ago today I made a pretty good decision. Probably one of the best of my life. I married my best friend at a little ceremony in Ellijay, GA which we didn't tell anyone about. We just went and did it. Let me tell you, that decision has seriously paid off! Not only did I get to marry the love of my life, but you got Knit Witch out of the deal! There is no way I would be here doing this business if it were not for him.

The beginning of the whole relationship might have been a bit drama-laden at first, but all of that drama totally paid off. I wouldn't want to be in any other place or any other time than right here with this man.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SWEETHEART!

I love you more than you know and you have brought such joy and happiness to my life!!!! Thank you for sharing you with me and sharing in this wonderful life we have together. I feel your love and caring for me every single day. It is so nice to wake up with someone who is happy to see me every morning and got to be with someone every night talking about what a great day we shared together. Here's to many more of these anniversaries!!

SMOOOOOOOOOCH!!!!!!

Stitches South Report #1

Wow. What a weekend!!! We had SUCH a great time! We met some amazingly wonderful people and sold lots of stuff. We also made a lot of great contacts. Thanks to everyone who came out and supported Knit Witch! We really appreciate you. OK - here are some pictures:

Here is the hotel we stayed at - very posh!


Here is us at the booth:

Here is myself, Sandy and Jen at our wonderful dinner at the hotel. We could NOT get service in the bar so we just went to the restaurant instead.

Here's a bunch of us knitting in the lobby. This is me, Katey, Phyllis, Jen and Jen's mom. What a great crowd. Later on that evening Linda and Carla showed up to join us. Wow - that upped the craziness and hilarity!!! I am surprised we didn't get kicked out.

Here is Wayne and Jen's mom. This woman was a hoot I tell ya!! Not surprisingly, she got along very well with my husband!

And Cristi was so kind to work in our booth for an hour or so. She is welcome to do that ANYTIME!! She sold a ton of stuff in the short time she was there! I couldn't believe it!


OK - more pictures tomorrow!

Recovery.......

We are busy recovering from a crazy fun weekend! I swear, fiber folk are just the best people ever! Our booth did GREAT, we met all kinds of wonderful people and the dinner at Scalini's was a BLAST surely to be repeated. I have lots of pictures for you but I have to find the camera and download all of the pictures! So, in the meantime - here are some more cute toad pictures to hold you over. At one point we counted NINE toads in our pond!

And, we found this little guy on our walk last week. He was on the road and then safely relocated to the area around our creek/waterfall.

House Painting - CHECK!

Since we are away at Stitches you all get to view some fabulous before and after pictures of our finally completely painted house!!

Before:



After:



Before:



After:



And.........check out the francy new fans on the porch!

I'm sure we are all having a great time at Stitches and I can't wait to tell you all about it next week. Have a great weekend!!

Sneak Preview!!!

I wanted to share a sneak peak of our Stitches booth with you. This is how we spent our day yesterday.

This was our booth before:

Here is our booth after:

TA DA!!!!!!!

We are really looking forward to seeing everyone there. We can hardly wait to get back to Atlanta today for more fun!

Toadally cool plants

We went and bought the beginning of our pond plants for the season. We bought water hyacinths and water lettuce. These things multiply like crazy! They work great for keeping the water clear and giving the aquatic inhabitants some cover and hiding room. We would put them in the big pond too but the darn geese just eat them all.

The morning after we put the plants in it seems like they are already being enjoyed!

Tomorrow is the big day! We head down to Atlanta to get our booth all set up for Stitches South. We'll take some pictures of our booth and share them with you all. We have so much fun stuff planned for the weekend that it isn't going to seem like work at all.

Opossum Pouches!

Look how cute these little project bags are!

Our neighbor made these for us to take to Stitches South to sell. These can be used for whatever you like. They are perfect for a ball of yarn, a few notions and some needles. These are all made from fabric remnants and are all unique. These are made to support our neighbors 'habit'. She is a licensed wildlife rehabber and rehabs all kinds of animals from squirrels to raptors to bobcats. Each pouch has a little story on it about her wildlife rehab efforts.

We will be selling these for $25 at the show and all profits will go towards improving the life of some little needy creature. This time of year she stays busy since it is "baby season". We are really excited to be able to sell a product that will help with her selfless efforts in making a better world for wildlife in need.

Here's her latest projects - aren't they cute??

CONTEST - Name that sock pattern!

Alright all you creative thinking people!! You all know that Yarn Intercept (Beverly) has been designing and making this fabulous sock out of Knit Witch Celestial Cloud yarn in colorway Sagittarius. The pattern kinks have been worked out and the pattern is just looking great. But, the pattern needs a name!! Here is a sneak peak of the pattern. You have from now until April 28th to submit a pattern name. You can submit as many as you want. Beverly and I will choose our favorite from the submissions and the winner will receive a free copy of the pattern and 4oz of Knit Witch sock yarn!!! Easy, right??


So just head on over to her blog to submit your suggestions. Please submit them HERE and not on my blog. This is her contest - I am just pimping it out!! Good luck!

We also have a winner for the Knit Witch Ravelry group contest - Jon!!! Jon will let me know if he wants yarn or roving as his prize. Thanks to everyone who participated and we'll be having another contest giveaway in May so stay tuned for more. Congratulations Jon!!!

And now for some knitting

This isn't actually my knitting (silly bloggers) but this is yarnintercepts sock (original design too!). This is made with Knit Witch Yarn in colorway Sagittarius. Once she works out all of the kinks for the pattern it will be on the website for sale! I just thought it looked pretty darn good so I wanted to share.

We pulled up to our house yesterday and I thought "OMG - did I really pick a color that is THAT YELLOW for the trim on our house???" Holy cow - our trim is YELLOW. I'm not talking yellow - I mean like really YELLOW. I was a little shocked at first but it has grown on me so I think it is going to look great with the green. It is definitely happier and brighter! Seriously though, this picture does not show the depth of the yellow. See the lighter strip against the house that hasn't been painted yet? That is the old color of the trim. Big difference.

Have a great weekend everyone! We have started getting our trailer packed up for Stitches. We are so excited about the trip!!

**Don't forget!!** You still have two more days to enter the contest in the Knit Witch Ravelry group!!

Making Progress

So the weather has been thwarting our house painting efforts lately. The guys were finally able to get the prep work done yesterday so hopefully they can start painting today. Woo hoo!!! Our house needed A LOT of prep work and these guys have done a GREAT job!! Check out these pictures.

This is one side of the house before all the prep work. Notice all those boards sticking out? Well apparently the folks before us didn't see the real need to actually get the staples (yes staples and not screws) for the siding to actually hit the studs in the house. So, naturally they were all pulling out and our siding was all wonky.

Now the boards have all been re-screwed (properly!) and everything has been caulked to make for a smooth paint job. I don't know if you can really see the difference in these two pictures but trust me - the difference is huge!! Just this side of the house has 598 screws in it to pull all the boards in properly!!!!!!! 598!!!!

We are off to Atlanta today for a short trip. On the way back we will be stopping in to see our good friend Sean where he works. Should be a fun visit!! We will be going to Atlanta A LOT over the next 6 weeks.

Sheep sheep!

Here's one of Wayne's cute sheep bowls! We will have several of these in our booth at Stitches South along with lots of other kinds of yarn bowls.



Thanks to everyone for your votes on Wayne's bag!! He has almost 100 votes now so keep voting!! You can vote everyday up until May 15th. Hmmmm.....maybe I should do a contest around voting for said bag, yes??? OK - after Stitches we will do a contest. In the meantime - keep those votes coming!!! VOTE HERE

The cat is in the bag

Literally. Do your cats LOVE to play in paper bags? Ours do. Goose wasted NO time in making this his super secret hiding spot.



Then Willow had to get in on the fun.



Then Petey had to see what all the ruckus was about.


We are so easily entertained.

PLEASE VOTE!!

My husband has entered a contest for Kroger. They are holding a contest for "green bag designs". Wayne submitted this one so please follow the link and vote! You can vote every day up until May 15th if you are so inclined. Voting is really easy!

VOTE HERE

We had SUCH a fun weekend! We went down the street to a little coffee shop called the "Lilly Pad" to see our friend Bill play. The first night we were the only ones to show up because of those tornado things hanging around so we got a private show from Tommy Thompson (the guy he was playing with) and Wayne, Bill and I just hung out with the owners and enjoyed our private show! Then, we went back the second night to ACTUALLY see Bill play. There were a lot more people there that time. We got some pictures of Tommy but we forgot to take pictures the second night when Bill was playing!



Yesterday we spent our day planting some of our colder weather plants (cabbage, lettuce, brussel sprouts, etc) and just generally working around the house. It was a beautiful 70 degrees outside! I transplanted lots of lillys to be around the pond so those are going to look great when they all start filling in. Then we went for a great walk and then relaxed in the hot tub. It was a perfect day!

Today is definitely back to work though! I still have some pricing and packing to do and we need to start loading the trailer. Plus, we have several orders to go out tomorrow morning so I will get those packed up and off to the post office.

Here's a sneak peak at our kittens being themselves. They had a great time climbing all over the car for a while. I took this picture through the window hence the weird light reflection thing at the top.

Roving anyone??

I know, I'm kinda late on posting today. Better late than never though! Here is what I spent my time doing yesterday.


This is about 1/4 of the roving we will be taking with us to Stitches. A good bit of the roving in this picture is going to be ON SALE too!!

I have mostly finished dyeing for Stitches though I need to do a few more things that we have sold in the past few weeks but no big deal. Today I am finishing up a wholesale order for another super secret squirrel mission that I can't wait to tell you about!!

Tonight, we are off to hear our friend's band play at a local coffee shop (hopefully we can stay up late enough!) and the rest of the weekend will hopefully be low-key. The painters are still prepping our house and should get started with the actual painting on Tuesday or Wednesday. In the meantime our living room is still cluttered with all kinds of stuff. They are doing a really great job though and all of our windows are now REALLY CLEAN! I love it!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!! Don't forget about the contest over in Klub Knit Witch on Ravelry!!

April Contest!

We have decided to run yet another contest in the Knit Witch Group on Ravelry! This one is just as easy as the last one. Just tell us about your favorite vacation! Mosey on over to the group HERE and post your story to get entered. Here are the "official" rules:

1) Post something to this thread about a great vacation you have taken (or are looking forward to taking)
2) You will receive an entry for posting your story
3) You can receive another entry for referring a friend to our group - they must mention your name when they join
4) You can receive an additional entry by posting about this contest on your blog - just send me a note and let me know or post about it here on the group
5) You must be a member of Klub Knit Witch to win
6) The contest will end at midnight on Sunday April 19th and we will draw a random winner from all the entries
7) The winner will have their choice of 4oz of yarn or roving (color to be chosen by us)

Since I haven't posted any fiber for a while - here are some of our recent yarns to keep your fiber obsession satisfied:

Take a look

at what our living room and kitchen looks like right now.

As if we don't have enough going on right now trying to get ready for Stitches we have decided to get our house painted two weeks before we go. What is wrong with us? We actually completely forgot that the painters were coming yesterday morning so we had to rush around and get everything off of the porches and such so that they could pressure wash. I guess our living room will look like this for about 2 weeks or so until they get done. I am just hoping we can have all of this put back together before we leave for Atlanta for a few days.

I am really excited about getting the place painted though - it is going to look great! I'll show you some before and after pictures when they are done. This house really needs to be painted. The yoha that painted the place before we moved in did a TERRIBLE job. Like, if there was a bush in front of where they needed to paint, they just painted around the bush. Yeah. So Wayne had to replace a few boards that were rotten simply because the painter was too lazy to paint properly.

We had a few folks come out and give us estimates. Not only does the house need to be painted but it needs to repair work/caulking around the windows/fixing some siding/etc. so we wanted to be sure we went with someone who was experienced and really knows what they are doing even if it costs a little more. Wayne would take them around the house and quiz them saying "how would you fix this right here?" and see if their answer indicated that they actually knew what they were doing. The guys we chose are great and very knowledgeable.

When Wayne asked one guy how he would fix some of the siding that was coming up he said "wellllll, I guess I could stuff sum newspaper back in there and put a bunch of caulk over it". Ummmmmmmm, yeah. That guy didn't get hired.

Random shots of Spring

Here are some pictures I captured around our house over the weekend.

This is our red bud tree.

Here are some cute toads in the small pond.

Here are the little hunters ever watching for something to move.

Here are some pansies and lavendar.

All these pictures come from our 75 degree day on Sunday. Here is a picture of what it looks like outside this morning - 48 hours later.

If you can't tell - that is SNOW on our cars. Amazing. Gotta love Georgia.

The Race

We went to the finish line for the Blue Ridge Mountain Adventure Race on Saturday. We were expecting there to be a ton of people downtown but there really weren't. It was such a beautiful day (74 degrees and sunny) that we decided to walk into town. We had a nice breakfast at the coffee shop and then went over to the park to hang out, wait for the finishers and listed to the reggae band.

The music was supposed to start at 12. We finally left around 2:30 or so to walk back home and the band STILL hadn't started! They didn't even show up until after 1:00 (our friend who is the manager at the chamber of commerce here was freaking out). Then it took them forever to set up and then they couldn't find their microphones! So, we never actually got to hear them play. Oh well, it was a beautiful day and a great walk anyway.

We did get to see the winners cross the finish line so that was fun. Here they are getting ready to cross the finish line. There were 3 people in each team.

Weekend Warriors

That's what I think we will be this weekend. We have been so busy lately and we also have folks wanting to come and visit with us - which is GREAT - but it also leaves us with a lot of stuff to do to get ready. We have been trying to get our house in some semblance of order to get ready for that.

This weekend is the Blue Ridge Mountain Adventure Race. This is apparently a huge deal and the entire city goes downtown to watch the finish line and listen to live music and generally enjoy the day. The race is a combination of biking, running and canoeing all through the Chattahootchie National Forest rugged terrain. The race lasts about 6-8 hours. The weather is supposed to be beautiful tomorrow with highs in the mid 70's - wooooo hooooo!!!! I'm sure we will have lots of fun pictures for you.

Brogan (Wayne's son) and his girlfriend will be visiting us for the weekend, which is great because Brogan can help Wayne do some of the necessary tasks that need to be done so that we can get our house painted in about a week or so.

Nathan (my son) and his girlfriend are coming out to pick up this:

He saved for months to buy this brand new guitar. I bet he was pretty darn upset when he realized he accidentally had it sent to our house instead of his!!

We also have a few friends coming by and our neighbor will be up for the weekend also. Sounds like a party at the Knit Witch abode to me!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Getting Ready

These last two weeks have been absolutely crazy with us trying to get ready to go to Stitches South. It's like we both have full time jobs or something!! Last night we worked until 7 and I still didn't finish all the "tasks" on my to-do list. I'm not complaining though - I love my job!!! I think that doing 2 shows a year will be plenty enough for us to handle. The downstairs is starting to get filled up with all the show stuff. I have been working on getting enough of each colorway then getting it all re-skeined, labeled, priced and packed. Of course, in the meantime, we have been selling stuff like crazy so I can't ever seem to keep my par levels up. Again - I'm certainly not going to complain about that!!

Here is a look around our downstairs:

These are yarn bowls:

This is yarn:

Here is what I will be re-skeining today:

Here is some of what I re-skeined yesterday:

So, another busy day here on the farm. We love it!!!

We lost again......

......at cards. AGAIN losing to the kids in the crowd. This time to my son and his girlfriend. Sheesh.

Sunday AM we got up at my mom's house and had breakfast. Then we headed over to Publix to buy a birthday cake (Publix has the BEST cakes!) and then started our journey to Rome, GA for the day to visit the other side of the family. It only took us about an hour to get there. We met up with my dad and aunt (we were celebrating both of their birthdays), my cousin, her husband and their two kids and my son and his girlfriend. We had a great time playing cards and just goofing off.


Even though we lost (again) we still had a lot of fun. It's always nice to be able to get a bunch of us together. Here's the loot that Nathan and Tiana went home with - oh yeah - we play for the big bucks around here!