Almost ready!!!

Well, we are just about ready for some chicks!!! We are really getting excited. We have reached the ultimate pinnacle of readiness by attending our very first webinar last night. Of course, the webinar was on raising baby chicks! It was a really great educational program put on by Manna Pro and Grit magazine.

Wanna see the chicken coop? It's just about ready? Wayne just needs to finish the laying boxes and we need to put the fence up. It should be ready by the end of the week!

Here's what the laying boxes look like.

Sale Yarn Anyone?

I have packed up a BUNCH of yarn for Stitches lately! As I was packing things up I put together all of our sale yarn. All of this yarn is on our Discount Page right now. A few weeks before we leave for Stitches we will pull down the discounted page. So, if you are interested in any of this stuff - be sure to pick it up soon! Here is some of it...........

Also, there are some new yarn bowls on the site. That will be our last update until after we get back from Stitches.

Talk about cute..............

Look at this adorable pattern that Brian at Only Ewe and Cotton Too has designed with Knit Witch DK weight yarn "Ancient World"!!



We have dyed a BUNCH of yarn for kits for this pattern for Stitches South. We have a large variety of colors available (including some that are not available on the site!). They will be available in the Only Ewe and Cotton Too booth which is booth number 437. Be sure to stop by! Bill will be running the show there. Bill and Elyse (and Brian!) are such great people I hope you will enjoy meeting them!

OK - we are doing more packing and planning for Stitches this weekend. Busy, busy, busy!! I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Guess Who is Back??

Yay! I'm hoping they will stay here instead of going elsewhere to build their nest. I don't know - we'll see. We need a "Goose Island" in our pond for the perfect nesting spot!

Goose (the cat) is very excited about this as well and is convinced that he is going to catch a goose. I don't think so. The geese aren't too worried about him and his antics.

Speaking of Goose - look where I found him the other morning:

Here is a better perspective of where he was:

See him WAY up there on the left hand corner of the shed?

New project!

I am SO EXCITED about one of the new projects we have going on! There are a couple of reasons for this. Remember this thing?





We finally started taking it out and getting busy with a new project that will go in it's place. Even though I'm so sad to see this lovely lawn ornament go........what is going in it's place is going to be MUCH better. Chickens!!!!!!!

Wayne is using the wood from the small shed that we took down when we put in the big shed so we are using a lot of recycled materials here which is great!!

I am so excited about getting chickens I can hardly stand it! Wayne has been working on it off and on for about a week since it is 70 degrees one day and then snowing the next!!! Here's the progress so far.

We will probably get about 4 babies and a few adults to start with and see how that goes. We'll get the adults from my dad's place. We tend to go through a lot of eggs so I'm not sure exactly how many we will need. The cats are going to be really excited about this!

Nice Hooters!!

We have a new agreement with Pipp's Purses who will be in booth #441 at Stitches. Have you seen her cute pattern for "Nice Hooters"? Well, I am spending a couple of days dyeing some sport weight yarn for her kits (the 8 ply cable plied super squishy 100% SW merino!). So those will be available in her booth. Aren't they so cute??? You can find the pattern HERE.


I hope you will go by her booth and check them out! We will be in booth #528 so please stop by if you are coming to Stitches South!

Know what's ridiculous?

Weather.

That's right - I said it. Weather is ridiculous. On Saturday Wayne and I drove out to a horse farm in Ellijay to pick up a truckload of horse manure for our garden. It was a beautiful day, 70 degrees and we were sweating shoveling all of that manure out of the truck into our compost pile!!

Today - there is no sweating going on. Know why? Well, my faithful blog readers, that's because today it is snowing. SNOWING! On march 22nd in the South 2 days after Spring has supposedly begun. Seriously?

I have already planted my cold weather plants outside!!!!!! I am hoping they will be ok. I'm not sure if they have started to sprout yet. Ugh!!!!

I have been doing basically no knitting. I did work on the right handed Stulpen last night and just started the thumb (on the correct side thankyouverymuch). Mainly, we have been trying to get ready for Stitches!!!!

We have a new venture going with some kits that I am dyeing yarn for today and tomorrow. I'll tell you about it tomorrow!!!

Meet Lilly!

I saw that Lilly was a surprise but I guess she really wasn't. We were actually well aware that her mom, Daisy, was pregnant. So, it wasn't like the alpacas where all the sudden you just walk out there one morning and find a baby unexpectedly!

She is so cute!!!!!! She is about a week old in these pictures. Can you imagine giving birth to something that big???




Have a great weekend everyone! I'm going to try and actually get a newsletter out this weekend so be on the lookout for that.

Saturday

So, after our exhausting day on Friday we headed out to Only Ewe and Cotton Too on Saturday morning. It took us about 1.5 hours from Rome - not too bad of a trip.

I would love to tell you that we took lots of pictures of the yarn that we delievered but, I didn't. I failed. I also wanted to take some pictures of a beautiful new shawl and an adorable baby top that are made with Knit Witch yarn and being put in kits for Stitches South, but I forgot to do that too! I am going to have the shop send us some pictures though so that I can show you all those things before Stitches - stay tuned.

BTW - we got our booth number yesterday! Knit Witch will be in booth #528. I hope you will all come visit us there! I am starting to wonder how in the world we are going to fit all of this stuff into our booth!

I did get a few pictures of my dad's place for you though. It is getting really close to being done. This time I took some pictures from the other side of the house.

This is the new garage. That's me, my dad and Bella (she is actually supposed to be white!).



They have done such a great job on the house. You really can't even tell where the old house ends and the new house starts! In this picture, the old house is all the way to the right and stops at the brick chimney. This is the side of the house that faces the street.

Here's the view from afar. On this side the old house stops at the first gable on the left. The new garage is on the far right side on the side of the house. This is actually the back of the house.

I'll show you the surprise tomorrow. Someone guessed it correctly last week!

Friday

No - it isn't Friday yet - quit all of that wishful thinking!! :)

Last Friday was both ridiculous and hilarious. We had a plan to leave around 9AM, go drop off a bunch of yarn at Only Ewe and Cotton Too and then go have a leisurely afternoon at my dad's place. Well, you know what they say - there are your plans and then there is life, right?

First thing Friday AM I checked my email and there was an email from my aunt who lives in Rome (Georgia that is). It was sent at about 10:30 the night before and it said "Hey! Your cousin Marc is coming through town tomorrow - hope you can stop by." OK - there are several things wrong with this email. First of all, my cousin Marc lives in Massachusetts so I'm not sure how he is "just stopping by". Second of all this email is amazingly devoid of details and information. The other thing is that none of us have seen him in about 15-20 years so this is a BIG DEAL! So now, Wayne and I are wondering what to do. Elyse is expecting us at the shop so I called her to see if I might be able to come by on Saturday instead - no problem - great!

It is still to early to call my dad at this point who I assume knows what is going on. It is also too early to call my aunt to find out some details (like what time, how long is he staying, how is he getting there, what do we have planned, you know silly details like that). So we don't know if we should we get in the car and go to Rome? Should we go ahead and go to Alpharetta now and go to Rome after that? If Marc will be here tomorrow can we just go ahead and go to Alpharetta now and go to Rome tomorrow? It's raining today - how long are we going to be leaving the dog outside? Should we take him with us? Should we set the automatic feeders for the cats? Sheesh! The list goes on and on.

Once it finally got late enough to make some phone calls I was amazed at how little information everyone seemed to have! No one knows when he is coming, how long he is staying, if he will be there today, what time, nada. So we wait around for a while to try and get some answers but we just keep thinking that we don't want to NOT go to the yarn shop today and then find out he is coming tomorrow and then today we haven't done either thing, right?

By about 10:00 I have talked to my dad and my aunt about 6 times each, my other cousin who also lives in Rome and the yarn shop. We have changed plans about 15 times and it is getting seriously ridiculous! Finally, Wayne and I just decide to go ahead and get in the car (much later than we would have preferred) and go ahead down to Alpharetta. If worse comes to worse we just drive to Rome after that, right? All of these places are about 1.5 hours apart so that makes for a long day of driving but that's ok - I haven't seen Marc in about 15 years and I am anxious to see him!

I call my dad, give him the plan, load up all the yarn, turn on the cat feeders (just in case), we get in the car (with the dog) and head out. About 2 minutes after we leave our driveway (it's about 11:00 now) my aunt calls and says that Marc will be at her place at 1:30. I ask if he is spending the night. She does not know!!! She's like "gosh, I don't know - I guess I should have asked." Good grief!!! She says that he is stopping by Rome on his way from Nashville, TN to Massachusetts. Uh.................ok. That does not really seem "on the way" to me but ok.

So, Wayne and I decide to abandon plan B (or is it Plan Q by this point?) and just drive to Rome instead of Alpharetta. I call my dad (AGAIN) to let him know that our plans have changed (AGAIN) and all he can say at this point is "OK - see you in Rome"! When he goes up to his house to tell his wife he is going to Rome she says "But Brittany just called and said she is on her way here." My dad was like - oh that was about 3 phone calls ago!

Anyway, we ended up going to Rome, having a GREAT time and just decided to spend the night. By that time we had stayed up way too late, told too many hilarious stories and drank to much wine. Good thing we had the dog and the yarn! Then we got up the next morning and drove to Alpharetta and then to my dad's. You can see why I was tired and cranky by the time I go there!!

Here's some pictures of all of us. Can you tell that Stephanie, Marc and me are cousins or what??? I am so glad he came and it was so great to see him!!!


My aunt Jackie, my cousin Stephanie, my dad, me and Marc.

Marc, my dad and Wayne (and Marc's new car!)

Before we talk about the weekend.........

I have to show you what was in our pond before we left on Friday morning. I was on the phone with my dad and I kept hearing this really loud "quack, quack, quack, quack" in the background and Wayne was running outside to see what was going on. Turns out - we had a pair of Mallard ducks in our pond!!!!!



Aren't they so stinkin' cute????? These ducks are MUCH bigger than the other ones we have had and would definitely not fit in the duck house. Wayne says these guys usually nest on the ground anyway. We haven't seen them back again but we sure enjoyed them while they were here! I think we are a stop on duck migration routes so I don't know where all these ducks are really headed. It seems that we only get to enjoy them for a few short weeks during the year.

I was going to show you a video of why the ducks were quacking so much but I can't get the darn thing to upload! But, per usual - it was Goose thinking he could walk on water and get to the ducks. It seems that Goose is always looking to cause some trouble! He came in the house yesterday soaking wet. He had obviously been up to no good and had fallen in the pond! Serves him right but honestly, I don't think he even cares that he gets wet!

I know......

I'm slack on the blog posting today. We do have some fun pictures for you so I'll get those uploaded today and get some posts up. We were completely exhausted yesterday and literally spent the entire day on the couch (well, I also wrote a paper for school) but we basically vegged out all day. Today it's back to the grind but I didn't upload any of the pictures yesterday so I'll do that this evening.

We had a fun (but exhausting) weekend. I actually called my dad yesterday to apologize for being crabby when we were at his place on Saturday because I was so tired! He said I wasn't crabby but I don't think I really believe him.

More from Knit Witch world later!! :)

Finished!!

I finally finished my pair of Stulpen the other day!!! But, I think I might need to make one minor adjustment. Do you notice anything that could perhaps be wrong with this picture??



Yeah. And do you know what the really sad thing is? I didn't notice this AT ALL until I was completely finished knitting the darn thing! I mean, after I cast off, after I wove in all the ends, after I stepped back and admired my finished project - nope totally didn't notice. Well, until I went to try them on anyway.

So, guess what I'll be making next? Two RIGHT HANDED Stulpen gloves!!!!! Sheesh. Just when you think you have this knitting things down, right? As I was cruising along for the thumb I thought - "Oh, I know I need to do the thumb on this side, I don't need to check". Famous last words. Oh well, I bet I don't ever make that mistake again!

I really do like this pattern though. The lovely cables don't show up very well in the pictures (they show up better in person though) just because I used a variegated yarn. The yarn is really nice though - super soft and yummy! These are made from Knit Witch Cauldron in colorway "Poison Hemlock".

Today we are off to Atlanta! We have a mountain of yarn to drop off at Only Ewe and Cotton Too. I didn't take pictures of the mountain of yarn so you'll just have to imagine that part. We are going to visit my dad after that. There is a surprise waiting for us (and you) at the farm so I can't wait to take pictures of it and show them to you next week!!! I'm not going to tell you what it is though - you'll have to guess!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Flooring!

We have had one more floor to get done in our house - the 3rd story bathroom. Wayne got that finished last week. After a 1/2 day battle with a leaky toilet valve he got it all finished - woo hoo!!! I don't really have a good picture of the bathroom before but this is how part of it used to look way back before we put the shower in.



Wayne laid the new floor so now all that's left is to change out the faucet and the ceiling light. Wayne might build some shelves and stuff too but that will at least be the major stuff. Here's how the floor looks - he has also put the trim in but I took these pictures before he was totally finished.


Yay for Mr. Handyman husband! Woo hooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where are the ducks?!?

Last week or so we had a pair of ducks in our pond. A few days after that we had TWO pairs of ducks in our pond! We had a pair of wood ducks and a pair of hooded mergansers. After the first pair showed up Wayne figured he better get on the stick and make a duck house!! When the two pairs showed up a few days later we got really excited hoping that they would see the duck house and want to move right in! Well, no such luck. They left and we haven't seen any ducks since. I'm hoping some ducks at some point will want to move in!

Check out the duck house Wayne made though! I had no idea what a duck house even looked like until he built it. Pretty fancy digs if you ask me!



We are pretty sure we witnessed Canada Goose copulation the other morning though! That was interesting. We were hoping the geese would stay and build their nest near our pond since they have been hanging out here quite a bit. However, we see now that they are building their nest at the pond across the street - traitors!

Last year the people across the street were butts and were scaring the geese off their property with guns even though I'm pretty sure they were nesting at the time. I was pretty ticked off and I was hoping they would not go back there to nest this year. Apparently though they pretty much return to the same spot every year for nesting (I guess - I don't really know that much about Canada Geese). So, everybody send a little goose mojo this way that the geese will at least be able to stay there long enough to get their eggs hatched (about 25-30 days from now I think). Then, at least when they are hatched they can waddle all the babies over here to our pond where they will be safe and not scared away by a bunch of jerks. Ugh.............some people!!!!!

Unexpected Snow

On Sunday we decided to start our day off with a little hike. We haven't done any hiking lately because it has been so darn cold! So, we set out to find a waterfall that one of our friends told us about a few weeks ago. On the way there we just kept going up and up a mountain until there was snow all over the ground! Luckily, we had dressed warm even though we weren't expecting it to be quite so cold up there!

Once we got there we realized we actually had been to this spot before several years earlier. It was still fun though and Petey had a blast!

Things have been busy........

So, want a small hint as to why things have been so busy around here? This might give you a hint as to what I have been doing.











































That's the yarn we got in 2 weeks ago. Pretty much all of it and then some is already dyed and packed up for a customer or packed up for Stitches at this point. It's really crazy (but GOOD) how much wholesale yarn we have been doing lately. I can't seem to get my list for Stitches South finished but I think we will have plenty of yarn to go around!!!

And, in other news, here's some cute shots of Upside down Petey!

























Hmmmm...............that looks like a hand knit sock in that picture!!

B.P. again...

Happy TGIF to you all! The Barefoot Potter is back because the boss lady is busy, busy, busy again! I am so proud of her taking this new journey she is on.

The Knit Witch has already had the dying cauldrons in full cooking mode this morning. While she was dying yarn, I was tasked to do the skeining. Fun! She is a great teacher and if I do say so myself, this dog CAN learn new tricks! Quite a change from laying down new bathroom floor tiles which by the way is done! I also got new trim installed and most everything put back together in working order. Well it is in working order for a guy anyway....I am sure I will have to do some "fine tuning" to keep the boss lady happy. And guys, if you have not been taught who the boss is in a GOOD and HAPPY marriage...IT'S THE WIFE!

On a messier note here is some of what I was doing this week. Pottery!

My WIP's!


















Peeps and Sheeps


















My work place:


















There should be some newly glazed yarn bowls exiting the kiln this weekend or Monday. The weather folks are telling us that glazing weather will be here this weekend. YAY! I got the kiln that was on the fritz repaired yesterday and I fired a bisque load last night. Lots of bowls are waiting to be glazed!

Again, thanks for putting up with me and thank you for being here! Life is fun! It seems like the older I get the more fun I have. Better watch out....haha!

WIP Wednesday

OK - so I'm a day late. It was still a WIP yesterday I just never got around to blogging about it. Wholesale orders for Stitches South are keeping me crazy busy and I am still learning the ropes for the online class I am teaching. The students get feedback every week from me in a report that I put together for them so I spent a lot of time yesterday and the day before learning about how to do that and getting it all put together. It's kind of difficult keeping all the students straight when you don't have a face to put with them!!

So, I have finished one Stulpen. I had to rip the thumb out and redo it yesterday because I was totally not paying attention. I got done, bound off and wondered "hmmmmm - why does this not look right?!?!". Then I realized I had knit the thumb in stockinette instead of ribbing - d'oh!!!



Anyway, it's all fixed now. I'll be casting on for the second one tonight. I must say, I love the way these fit! The yarn (our MCN yarn "Cauldron") is wonderful to work with and it feels divine when you are wearing it! I think I may just have to knit a pair of these for myself when I am done with these!!


I have sort of enjoyed having a guest blogger occasionally!!!! What do you think? He's doing a good job, right?? :)