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!

yeah, okay.

Fourth Pan of Cornbread

I ate the last of my New Year's turnip greens tonight for supper. I made my fourth pan of cornbread this year.

So, are you wondering why I've become such a prolific blogger all of a sudden? Well, I'm doing this flickr project where you take a photo every day and post it to flickr. There's also a group for ravelry members who are taking pictures everyday. Here are the photos I've taken so far. I'm also in a group where I take one mostly pink photo each week. (There's a 365 option, but 365 of pink is a lot of pressure.) Those pink shoes I put up on Tuesday went into that group. I can't promise that I'll post my photos here everyday. I may have some I don't want to bore you with.

But there will probably be more short blogging than I have traditionally done, as well as some insight into Holly's world you previously did not have. (Fasten your seatbelts!)

Thank Goodness for Google

My Internet service is acting all weird. I checked my email just fine then tried to go to ravelry, but it wouldn't load. Lots of sites won't load. Couldn't read the Anderson Paper, but got the Columbus Paper to load. Then ravelry finally loaded. I asked my tech-guy (Seth). He said to reboot the computer and the modem. No change. Google works, so I'm able to post since Blogger is a Google thing. I can't click through from Google to anywhere else, though. I think I'm going to go knit now. See ya.

Knitting Photo Friday

I made this dishcloth this week for a girl at work who is leaving for bigger and better things. Carly loves pink and green (she even had a pink & green wedding). She's so sweet and kind and fun. It's been a joy to work with her for the last four years. When she told us last week that she was leaving, I knew I wanted to make something for her. So I gathered up some pink and green yarn and a variegated that had both colors and found a great pattern on ravelry, and a couple of days later, voila. This is called Vortex 5. If you look at the center, you'll see a variegated square. Around it and rotated counter-clockwise is a pink square, followed by a variegated square, then a green square, then a variegated square. I single crocheted a pink border around it which I think really sets it of. (You have now seen the full extent of my crocheting skills. That's all I can do.) I love the geometry of this pattern. There's also a Vortex 6 and Vortex 7 pattern on ravelry. I'm thinking rainbow for the V6.

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!

Knitting Immortality, Part II

If you're on the Lion Brand newsletter list, you might know that they have a new podcast. It's cool; no fancy equipment required, you just go to the website and push play.

Anyway, it debuted a couple of weeks ago. In that one, they asked the listeners to let them know what inspires them. I posted a comment on their blog (same link as the podcast). Well, today I found they had episode two up. So I'm listening, I'm looking at stuff on ravelry, checking my email, when about 30 minutes in, I hear my name and then they quote me. I had to pause it and call Dawn, because I had to tell somebody.

I shelled out $40 at the doctor today. Fluid in the ear. Explains the dizziness. Haven't had that since I was 24 and got my tonsils out. I've got some strong antibiotics ($30) and I'm planning on going to work tomorrow. I also have a wedding to run sound for this weekend. I need something to eat now. My appetite's back. OK.

Go listen to the podcast. Wait for my quote.

Sneeze Sneeze, Cough Cough

Okay, last week when the PMF was particularly stressed over the training classes at his new job, I promised him we would go to Atlanta on Saturday for a fun day. Late in the week I felt the sinus trouble coming, but would not break my promise. I didn't tell him I was starting to feel bad. Instead, I fortified myself with OTC pharmaceuticals and headed to the ATL. We played miniature golf, ate at a new (for us) restaurant, shopped, went to the cool arcade (Jillian's) at Discover Mills, and then headed for home. By then the OTC pharms were wearing off and I was starting to feel pretty bad. I reloaded on the drugs at a BK drive-thru in Newnan. At that point my cover was blown and he knew I was feeling pretty bad. I dropped him off and headed home to find I had a 99.2 degree temperature -- and that's with two Aleve in me for 90 minutes. I took two Tylenol and went to bed around 10:30. I woke up at 2:30am in a sweat when the fever broke. I didn't make it to church Sunday. They have a rule about not being around the kids when you've had a fever within 24 hours. I sat in my pajamas on the couch and watched a "Heroes" marathon on G4. I didn't even feel like knitting. GASP! Dawn called and was surprised to find me home at 2pm and I told her I was sick. She called back later to check on me, still concerned. When she caught me on ravelry around 7pm, she knew I was going to be okay. I went to work today, but I was pretty mopey. I went to knitting tonight, but left early. I'm going to keep taking my meds and hope I can get better without shelling out $40 to Dr. Lois.

I've fallen and I can't get up.

I've fallen into a pit called ravelry, and there's no escape. It's crazy. I sit at my desk and look at handknits and read people's knitting stories and look at all the pretty yarn. Here's the really crazy part: I'm not getting the knitting done that I want to do. It's insane! Knitting is not a spectator sport! I'm putting myself on Ravelry restriction. I need a life!

Dawn and I have been on the phone doing some long distance ravelry-ing. You find a lot more stuff when you work as a team.

Ravelry & the Harlot

Okay, Ravelry is dangerously adictive. I like it so much. There's so much to see and look at and lust over. If you're not on the list, go, get on it.

Tomorrow, or in a little over 21 HOURS we'll be with the Yarn Harlot. I'm so excited. I'm off from work on Thursday, too, so I can recover. I'll be hanging with my PMF in the afternoon.

I plan to do a blog of the Harlot hang so I don't have to repeat it over and over. I'll just send folks here to read it.

Hasta La Vista.

Football, Knitting, and Theology

I had a lovely day today. I got up around 10am, made some bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee, then sat on the couch and knitted and watched football for several hours. Ahh. Perfection. I finished this:

For those of you who don't know the story, it was supposed to be a Christmas gift last year, but wasn't done. Then I started working the ends in and it was a nightmare. First, there's a zillion of them; second, the yarn's not the best for working in ends (Lion Suede - beautiful and soft, but the weaving in is horrible). So I made the decision to fringe the long ends instead of weaving in. I really think it works. I finished fringing today about the time Auburn lost to Mississippi State. My Auburn alumni friends probably would prefer me not to watch them. Whenever I watch, they seem to lose. Clemson beat Furman today. Duh. 38-10. My PMF went to Athens today to see UGA play. Big point of contention between us: He likes Georgia and my favorite teams are Clemson and whoever's playing Georgia.

I drug myself to the shower about 4:30 and was ready just in time to go to church for a Sunday School teacher dinner at 6pm. We had a good speaker , Dr. Charles Lowery, and I really enjoyed it. He talked about how we don't need to let things that don't matter bother us. How if something is out of our control, we shouldn't worry about it. We are not in charge of the Universe. That's God's job. Our job is to have fun and let Him do His job. Cool.

This is what my dad says he wants for Christmas:

While I was at his house last weekend, he was looking through my knitting magazines and I went to take out my contacts and wash my face. When I turned off the water, I heard, "Come here, Hon. I found something I want you to make me for Christmas." (FYI: It's "Canyon Ridge" in the current Knitters.) Thanks for not waiting until Thanksgiving, Daddy.

Two Great Knitting Numbers:

4 Days until I see the Yarn Harlot.

134 People ahead of me on the Ravelry waiting list.