Here I Go Again

I know I don't blog like I should. I apologize to those of you who follow me. I wanted to let you know that I'm doing another 365 project where I take a photo every day and post them to my flickr page. Please go and check my photos out. Leave a comment on the ones you like. If it won't let you sign in to flickr (say, if you don't have an account?), you can leave a comment here telling me which one's your favorite. I'll take to check in here more often. (I know...you've heard that song before.)

Stitches South 2010

Stitches South was this past week in Atlanta. On Saturday Lacey and I went up for The Market. Lacey drove.

You can't take pictures inside the market, so this is all you get:


Outside there was this big wall of yarn where you could get samples.

Here's mine:

Once we were inside the Market, we saw new Julie from our knitting group and met her friends from Pensacola who came up to go to Stitches with her. We found original Julie from our knitting group. She and Lacey had formulated some bulk purchase plan at one of the booths. I ran into Yvonne who used to come knit with us, but hasn't in a while. It was so good to see her. I also knit on "The World's Largest Sock". They're going for the Guiness Book of World Records.
At the Lion Brand Yarn booth inside the market, I met Zontee from the YarnCraft podcast. The cool thing was that when I said, "I'm Hotpink on ravelry," she recognized my name! I had to hug her. I'm southern, it's what we do. I met Jess and Casey
who founded ravlery. (I restrained myself and only shook their hands.) They are so awesome. I love ravelry. There was a lot of hero worship being bestowed on them by many, many conference attendees. I also met Mary Heather and Sarah who help them run ravelry.
I spoke to the famous Lily Chin, who was dressed in pink from her shoulders to her toes. I said, "I love your pink!" She smiled and thanked me. I saw Dianne who used to own a yarn store in Greer, South Carolina where I shopped on occasion with my friend Dawn. I also saw Margaret who used to own a yarn store in Anderson, South Carolina - my home town. She has a rabbit who stayed at the store with her. Daddy would play with the bunny while I yarn shopped. That bunny bought me a lot more browsing time. I took this photo of Lacey when we were leaving.
I should have snapped it a few minutes earlier when she had all her purchases spread out around her.
We left the convention center and drove down the street looking for something to eat. We saw this:
We kept driving, but ended up turning around, going back, and trying the "Crazy Chicken".

It was crazy good! This is what I had:
There's rice, beans, grilled chicken, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, sour cream, pico de gallo, ranch dressing, and salsa in there. Man, it was so good! Lacey got quesadillas

in steak and chicken. She liked them a lot, too. It was a cool place with cool art.

Here are my take aways from the market:
Lacey and I really liked this pattern and had to buy it.

I love buttons and got these:

I bought this beautiful bamboo yarn:

Lacey and Julie were off buying some yarn and came back with this for me.

Wasn't that really sweet of them? I also got this.

Who knows what it is?
I had a great time. I was so worn out when I got home, I took a three hour nap. It was SO worth it. What a great day!

July 4th

I realized yesterday that today is my blogiversary. Two years ago today when I was off for Independence Day, I started Yarn to Knit. Last year I thought about it enough in advance to do a contest. Not so much this year. It snuck up on me. Oh, well. We'll have a quiet celebration here with just us: me and you regular readers.

I do have a couple of pictures to show you. First up is my June Mosaic:

Those are all of my "Pictures of the Day" from my 365 project in the month of June. As with any of my pictures, you can click on the photo and it'll take you to its page in my flickr account where you can see it bigger and read my notes. There's also a link to camera techy info about stuff like exposure and shutter speed if you're into that sort of thing.

These next pictures are of my latest FO. (That's "Finished Object" for you non-knitters.) I made the Mitered Hanging Towel from Mason Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines. The yarn is Lily's Sugar & Cream in Sunshine, Hot Orange, Hot Pink, Hot Green, and Over the Rainbow.




Happy Independence Day, y'all. The magnitude of what our founding fathers did didn't become real to me until I visited Colonial Willaimsburg in 2003 and walked the roads they walked and sat in the buildings where they sat. The guides told the stories of the birth of our nation. Did you know Thomas Jefferson was only 26-years-old when he wrote the Declaration of Independence? He and the others weren't politicians or soldiers. They were regular guys. Family men, farmers, tailors. They saw the unfairness of the way the British treated the colonists and set out to right a wrong. The risk was so high. They were challenging the British Empire, one of the strongest governments on earth. Battle by battle, step by step, they carved out a nation. We enjoy the freedoms we have today because of these brave men, and those who have followed after them in defense of our nation. American soldiers of the past, present, and future, you have my gratitude.

Wordless Wednesday - Click the Picture for a Description

Wordless Wednesday - Click the Picture for a Description

Knitters Saying Goodbye

The US Army is sending two of our knitters away over the next couple of months. Michelle and her children will join her husband in Rhode Island next weekend after her oldest son finishes kindergarten. Laura is leaving for Maryland in July. This afternoon we had a get-together in their honor. Here are some photos (as always click on the photo for more details, or to see it larger):














Laura and Michelle are two of the best knitters I know and we will miss them terribly.