Holy Cow

One of my college friends, Darien, posted this video on facebook. It blew my mind and makes me a little scared for my job! It's four minutes. Go watch. Then come back to leave your comments.

Wordless Friday - Wait, What?

Work is a four letter word

It was a full day at work today. I made a lot of tv today. I did get to take my lunch break with (New Year's dinner leftovers) and eat and have some knitting time in the break room. It makes the day way more bearable. I'm looking forward to the weekend.

As for the Gator Bowl, I don't want to talk about it.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year. It was quiet here. I called Daddy to make sure he was awake for it. I walked over in front of the tv to watch Carson Daly count down. Then I called Seth and told him Happy New Year. And that was it.

Look! Actual knitting content:

That's Toto the Extremely Useful and Cute Potholder from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines. It was a fun little portable project. That's Sugar & Cream yarn by Lily. It's knitted double stranded fair isle style to make it thick and heat resistant. It uses an i-cord bind-off to create the lovely green ridge around the bottom. It also features a three needle bind-off to attach the two pockets to each other. This baby packs a skill building punch into one tiny (but extremely useful and cute) package.

I had a big plate of Turnip Greens, Cornbread, Ham, and Black Eye Pea Salad for lunch today. Yum. Yum. I have to go watch the ballgame now. It's getting too close for comfort.

Not Profound

I wanted to post something profound about the end of the year or something, but I just don't have it in me tonight. Instead here's some more pictures from my Christmas time in South Carolina:

This is the "new" Anderson County Courthouse that was built nearly twenty years ago. Here's a link to a daytime photo in case anyone's curious. The city does a big holiday display at a park on the lake - Hartwell, that is - or what's left of it - every year. I've never been up there and got Daddy interested in the idea this year. So we went. The gate donations go to several worthwhile local charities.
Yeah, that's the speedometer from my new car in the bottom of the shot! This is one of the displays. Cute!
We got out at the refreshment area and got some hot chocolate. There was a costumed Polar Bear, so I took Daddy's picture. There was a line for Santa visits, so we opted out of that.
After Christmas Day dinner, Daddy and I went to Belton, my Mom's hometown, and visited with the family. That's Daddy with my cousins Portia, Debbie, Aunt Sara, and cousin Sandra. Sandra had made some rocking coconut cake!

Debbie's daughter is a fantastic photographer. She's not a "professional", though she has made money at it - she has another job. Go look at her stuff on flickr. If you comment, tell her you found her on the Yarn to Knit blog!

I went back to work Monday after a week off. I didn't want to go. It's been relatively quiet. The only commercial client that's come in has been someone I enjoy working with, so it was no biggy. Today I directed three half-hour shows with a way-out-of-practice audio & graphics person. Whew!

Tomorrow Clemson plays in the Gator Bowl.

GOOOOOOOO, TIGERS!

Happy New Year, y'all. Make it a good one. Be safe. Don't make a resolution you can't keep. Keep the resolutions you make. God bless.

How I Spent My Thanksgiving Weekend

As I said in my last post, I got my new car and took off to Augusta (a four hour drive) the next day to have Thanksgiving Dinner with my family at my cousin David's house. Clockwise around the table beginning top left: My dad (Robert), cousin Randall, David's next-door neighbor (I've forgotten his name), cousin David, cousin Perry. Randall, David, and Perry are brothers. Their dad, Ralph, was my dad's oldest brother. He died a few years ago. I went around the table so we could see a little better. Randall and David are joined by our cousin Steve. Steve's dad was the middle brother, James. He died a few months after Uncle Ralph. Steve has a sister, Rhonda (the oldest among us - I'm the baby), who is the only other cousin. She spent the holiday with her daughter and two grandchildren.
Clockwise from bottom left: Cathy (Perry's wife), Katie (David's younger daughter), Garrett (Perry's younger son), Vickie (Randall's wife), and Aunt Eunice (Perry, David, and Randall's mom).
As you can tell from the pictures, David and Shari have a beautiful home. Here is a picture from the back porch looking out towards the pond.

I walked down to the pond and took this picture looking back towards the house. Just beautiful.

We all ended up in the driveway. Here are all of Aunt Eunice's grandchildren: Lindsey (David's older daughter), Katie, Bradley (Perry's older son), and Garrett in the background.

Aunt Eunice tried on some cool Coach sunglasses Cathy had. David's wife Shari (who was in the kitchen cooking and cleaning while I took the other pictures - she's a great hostess) is standing behind her with Cathy.

Steve had driven Daddy the two hours from Anderson. After we ate, I drove Daddy home to Anderson in my new car. We followed Steve. Things Daddy said on the way home:

"I don't know why Steve is going so fast."

"Why's he going this way."

"It would have been quicker to go through Abbeville."

"Are you okay, Hon?"

"What town is this?"
"Can you see Steve up there?"
"Don't talk on that phone while you're driving."
"Are we in Calhoun Falls yet?"

"Are you okay, Hon?"

We made it safe and sound, despite his worries. We went out on Friday and went to the mall. Katie had reminded me about the big bonus sale they were having at Bath & Body Works. We went straight there when we got to the mall. Daddy was going to wait outside, but the lines were out to almost the front of the store, so I went and got him and made him stand in the line for me while I shopped. He was pretty close to the register when I finished and I went and handed him a coupon. "What's this?" "That's your coupon." "For what?" "For these," as I hand him two can of room fragrance. "I don't want these." "I do and I can only use one coupon. I'm using this one. I need you to use that one." "Oh, Hon." Anyway, I ended up with $196 worth of products for $65. Woo-Hoo!

On Saturday we watched my Clemson Tigers beat the Carolina Gamecocks! Go, Tigers!!

Eventually, I'd driven 378 miles and was down to a quarter of a tank - gotta love a Honda - and needed some gas. I realized this was my first fill-up in this car and documented the event:

That's Daddy in the car. Eat your heart out SUV drivers: (Remember, this is 378 miles worth of gas.)

The Sunday after Thanksgiving in Anderson always means the Toys for Tots Motorcycle Parade. One year Daddy and I happened upon it by accident. Now we make plans to be there every year. The weather this year was horrible. The crowd was down, but there were still die-hard bikers who made sure those kids will get presents. I did a video with my digital camera:

Anderson had some autumnal decorations lining the streets near city hall.

Daddy has two neighborhood cats he feeds when they come for a visit. They occasionally announce themselves by perching in the kitchen window. This one came by Monday morning while I was packing to leave.

I came back to more stress at work and a Christmas musical at church. I'll have to take some pictures to share at tomorrow's performance.

More Knitting!

My friend Gail had her first baby, Luke, in early August. A first baby calls for booties. These are
Free Baby's Best Booties Knitting Pattern, a simple and quick to knit pattern. I used Lullaby by Berroco, a pretty nice yarn, but they've discontinued it.

I thought Luke also needed a Bunny Blanket Buddy. The head's supposed to be stuffed, but mine turned out flat. I think it's a good idea since it belongs to a baby. It will allow Gail to wash it easily after Luke's chewed and sucked on the ears or paws when he's teething.

Gail also is the guardian of her 12-year-old cousin, Bailey. I couldn't send Luke a gift without sending Bailey a gift, too. I made her this hat using the Knifty Knitter long yellow loom and a pattern in the Knitting with the Knifty Knitter III. This is Red Heart Light & Lofty in Antique Rose. Gail says Bailey loved the hat and that it was her favorite color. I'm so glad!

I'm working on Daddy's vest and I'll be through with my slippers in a few days. I can't wait to show you how cute they are. I walked around Panera last week, wearing one slipper and a sandal on my other foot so all the knitters could see. Everyone liked it. I'm working on another project that's my own design. It was a matter of knowing what I wanted and not liking any of the options I found on the Internet or in books, so I crafted my own. I really like it. I'll show you when it's done.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Yesterday I went to the Cotton Pickin' Fair in Gay, Georgia with my friend, Terrie - Catherine's mom. We got something called Chocolate Jelly that was amazing. The website is http://chocolatejelly.net/. We also bought earrings. Mine are Clemson Earrings like these except dangly. (They don't have a picture of the dangly ones, so the link goes to the stud ones.) Terrie's are UNC earrings. They are made of real Georgia marble and really cute.

On the work front, we produced our first High Definition Commercial this week. It was a simple spot for a client we work with all the time. It's going to be really exciting to see our new edit suite get finished and learn what we can do using High Definition. Welcome to the 21st Century!

Disappointed

To answer bookwyrm's question in the comments for Friday's post:

This is what I accomplished last night while Clemson was blowing it against Alabama. It's a nice hat, isn't it? At least something good came from Saturday night.

Football Kickoff Eve

Clemson is playing in the Chic Fil-A Kickoff Classic tomorrow against the University of Alabama in the Georgia Dome. Here's info from ESPN that won't fit in my sidebar.

Go Tigers!!!

Tag! I'm it!

Wow! Thanks to LauieC for my award! I am so honored. I think it looks a little like the American Music Award. Or what I remember them looking like.

The rules state that I, having received this lovely award, must in turn nominate 7 other fabulous recipients. Those lucky bloggers must follow the rules, which are:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you’ve nominated.

The nominees are:

1. Holly H. When I first started my blog, I decided to do a Google search and see if it would come up. I typed in "Holly Knitting Blog" or something like that. Up popped a blog with a picture of a cat who looked like Gidget, the cat I had a long time who meant the world to me. I commented on her blog and we've been blog buddies ever since.
2. Lacey She came to the knitting group about a year ago. Lacey is funny, smart, and a really great knitter, crocheter, and seamstress. She's been AWOL much of the summer, but I hope she finds herself at Panera a lot more Monday nights as the weather cools.
3. Jamie I met Jamie on ravelry. We joined some of the same groups because we're from the same hometown, went to the same high school (where we were both in the band), and both went to Clemson University. She's A LOT younger than me, that's why our paths never crossed in real life.
4. Bookwyrm She doesn't reveal her name on her blog (as far as I can tell), so I'm not sure if I should. She is new to our knitting group and fitting right in. Hope she likes tag!
5. Lacy I met Lacy on New Year's Eve. I was sitting in the floor at A.C. Moore going through the clearance yarn (I'm hardcore), and she was yarn shopping with her friend Amanda. Next thing you know, Lacy's at Panera on a Monday and the rest is history. She has a great blog full of recipes, animal stories, and tips on simple living. Go visit!
6. Angela Because, like Becca always says, she needs to blog more.
7. Brandi She's been in a blogging slump all summer, but I hope when Eli starts first grade (whenever that happens in Texas), she gets her blogging mojo back.

Consider yourselves tagged!

A Blog-iversary Contest and Some Bowling

Contest

Okay, guys, as you all know from this post, I went to A.C. Moore (well, for my first trip of the clearance sale) and purchased quite a bit of yarn and knitting stuff. So, I'm having a contest. Go read the post about what all I bought and guess how much it all cost. The person who comes closest without going over will win a prize of some yarny goodness from my extensive stash. This will all coincide with my blog-iversary coming up this Friday, July 4th. I'll be at my dad's house by then, so hopefully his neighbor with the unsecured wireless still has unsecured wireless and I can go online at 5pm (very near the actual hour of my first blog) or so and see who has come the closest. Leave me a comment either here or on the A.C. Moore post with your guess. I'll make you a deal if you are a non-knitter: I'll either teach you to knit or give you a bit of hand-knit goodness. You really can't beat an offer like that. I know in reality that very few non-knitters read my blog, so the odds aren't too great that I'll have to follow through, but I didn't want the non-knitters to feel left out. Everyone can play!

Bowling Anyone?

On Friday we had a bowling party at work. We all went bowling and it was so much fun. They let us take a two-hour lunch and bowl and the bowling alley fed us really good food. We had lots of laughs! I won in a game with three other girls. I told them it was really sad because I'm a terrible bowler. I only scored an 86, and yet I beat three other people. What's up with that?

See the two guys below? They both went to the University of South Carolina. They are the bosses at the station. It's a very unfortunate situation considering I'm a Clemson Alumnus.

Final

Clemson 81
UNC 86

Bummer

Halftime

Clemson 39
UNC 38

Never in My Lifetime

Clemson Stuns No. 7 Duke, 78-74 Clemson is not known for its basketball team. Never has been. Clemson is the only original member of the Atlantic Coast Conference to have never won the ACC Tournament. They are closer now than they have ever been in my lifetime. Not since 1962 have they even been in the finals. They lost to Wake Forest that year. Tomorrow they get another chance. This time against the University of North Carolina. Today they beat the #7 ranked Duke. Tomorrow they play the #1 Tarheels. It's a mighty challenge. I hope the guys are up to it. I'm so proud of what they accomplished today. I almost came to tears at the final buzzer. I couldn't get PMF on the phone, so I called my friend Arnold who went to UNC. His son Adam answered the phone. I asked Adam if his dad was watching basketball. He said, "Duke and Clemson? Yeah." "You know Clemson just won that game." "Really?" "Do you know what that means, Adam?" "What?" "Clemson plays UNC tomorrow for the tournament championship." He says loudly "They're going down!!!" Then I got to talk to Arnold, and of course, Catherine. The game's at 12:30. I guess there's no going out for lunch after church tomorrow. Go Tigers!

Go Tigers!

Look what I got today! I'm so excited! I tried to get it last month when I had to renew my tag before my birthday. The folks at the tag office couldn't get the computer to let them issue the tag to me. They took my phone number and said they'd call me when they figured it out. A month later, I got a message saying they had it ready. I went downtown at lunchtime today and got it. Had to turn in my old tag. I had to take a wrench and remove my old tag on the street across from the office. When I went in, the security guy had to hold my wrench. I don't know what he thought I might do with it in the tag office, but he held it while I went and claimed my tag. So, they gave me my new Clemson tag and I went out, showed it to the security guys and got my wrench back. Then put it on the car right there on Second Avenue. I called my dad to tell him about it. He wasn't home. I left a message. I called Dawn because I knew she'd appreciate it - or at least appreciate my enthusiasm for it. I made everyone at work go look at it today. Especially the two guys who went to Carolina. Can't wait to show it off at church tomorrow! It's the only one in Columbus! When I got home I had my Clemson World Alumni magazine in the mailbox waiting on me. It was a very orange day! I even wore an orange shirt today.

Be very afraid: I'm sitting here with Magic Stripes yarn, size 3 needles, and a Cat Bordhi sock book.

No Snow Here

Daddy has snow. I miss snow. We would have one good snow a year when I was growing up in South Carolina. Columbus has one good snow per decade - maybe. I looked at the webcams at Clemson and the campus is covered in snow.

I know it's hard to tell in the dark, but there's snow. So pretty. I'm jealous. My freshman year at Clemson, they cancelled classes on my birthday because of snow. It was so much fun.

Another Week Gone

Okay. I'm feeling better. Still a little stuffy, coughy, and sore throaty, but way better than last week.

I've been lost in ravelry tonight. I found a new group for fans of the show "Good Eats". I just love Alton Brown. He's smart, funny, and so much fun to watch. He makes some good tv.

We had a busy week at work, not crazy busy like it has been, but busy none the less. Yesterday they started installing a new phone system. I'm going to have a direct line!! Woo-Hoo!! Actually we all are. Our new news starts Monday. We're launching our new website next week. (Here's our old site. It's pretty bad. Go look now and by next weekend, it'll be totally different. So if you're reading this after November 15, that link will take you to our new site.) Lots of things going on at the tv station.

I'm going to sleep late tomorrow and then work on Daddy's vest while I watch Game Day. Clemson plays on ESPN2 at noon. I'm supposed to do something fun with the PMF tomorrow. We'll see if he feels like coming to town.

The weather is cooling off and I like it!

What Fun!

I had great fun today. A girl who's come to my knitting group once, I think, teaches knitting at A.C. Moore, a local craft store. She posted a note on the group message board last week about needing some knitters to come to their knitting festival today to help them publicise knitting and yarn and best of all, they'll pay you $50! Well, I jumped on that opportunity. Get paid to knit? Sign me up! Another girl from the group, Lacey, signed up,too. It was the most fun. We got there and got settled and started knitting by about 10am. I was working on, you guessed it, "Yo, Drop It!" We chatted and knit and walked around and looked at yarn. It was all very fun. Misty, who had done the recruiting, told me, "Go grab you some pizza in the break room." While I was back there I looked at the clock and it was 1pm. I'd thought maybe it was noon. Then, poof, it was 2. And, poof, it was 3 and we were done! Time really does fly when you're having fun. And it was so much fun.

Afterward I went up to Pine Mountain and had some yummy Mexican food with my PMF. We also walked around their Arts and Crafts festival where I saw Beth, from the knitting group checked out her booth and amazed everyone with my ability to recognize yarn. When we got back to his house, we watched the end of the Clemson game. Sadly, they suffered their first loss of the year. Oh, well. All the fun I had today had to be balanced out somehow.

Introduction

Hello, I'm Holly. I'm from Upstate South Carolina, attened Clemson University, work in television production, teach two-year-old Sunday School, and I'm obsessed with knitting. All of it: the yarn stash, the magazines, the books, the patterns. I knew I was in trouble when I had to put sub-folders in my Knitting folder under my favorites. Yes, I'd bookmarked that many sites. So, here I am joining the blogging world. See what happens when you give a girl a vacation day. I just hope my ancient computer can keep up. Let me know you've found me. I'd love to hear your comments.