Knit-A-Way 2025 Day 3

The Knit-A-Way retreat was held at the Big Lynn Lodge from September 18 to 21.

Don had severe heartburn and had to leave breakfast early. I finished breakfast to check on him, and he decided to rest for a little while, so I went to knit on the patio. In about an hour, we headed to Marion and Rutherfordton to go antique shopping. In Marion, we found a flea market and baby pigs for $100, but I didn’t buy any. LOL Next, we found a farmer’s market with live music. Then we went to Rutherfordton and went to the Vintage Lace Antique Market, where Don found a treasure (a 1939 World’s Fair ashtray). Then, Don wanted to come back early so he could watch ballgames, and we weren’t hungry, so we skipped lunch. After a shower, we made our hotel reservations for DC, and then I sat on the patio and knit until dinner. Don watched ballgames until dinner. At dinner, we had pot roast, rice and gravy, carrots, and green beans, but Don had heartburn again and didn’t eat much. He went back to the room, and I knit until it was time for our 8pm meeting. At the meeting, I won a door prize of 3 skeins of beautiful yarn! We decided to skip breakfast and leave early, so I checked out at the front desk.

Original photos by Pat Hensley

Knit-A-Way 2025 Day 2

The Knit-A-Way retreat was held at the Big Lynn Lodge from September 18 -21. 

The lodge served breakfast at 7:30, and it was wonderful as usual. After breakfast, we headed down the Blue Ridge Parkway. One lady told us yesterday that the parkway was closed to Mt. Mitchell, but at dinner, another lady informed us that it was open. So, we decided to go find out for ourselves. 

We made it about a mile only to find out that the parkway was closed. So, we headed north for about 8 miles, and then the parkway was closed again. We decided to head north to Moses Cone National Historic Site. We walked around there and then went to Flat Top Manor (the Cone’s summer home), and they had an open house of the 2nd floor so we were able to see the upstairs rooms. For lunch, we ate at a Mexican restaurant in Newland and then went back to the lodge. I spent the rest of the day knitting. 

After dinner, we had Show and Share. I shared my Bonfire Tee and my Go Go Dynamo shawl. They were both a hit! 

Original photos by Pat Hensley

Knit - A-Way 2025 Day 1

The Knit-A-Way retreat was held at the Big Lynn Lodge from September 18 -21.

We left home at 7:15 and arrived at Big Lynn Lodge at 9:30. I dropped off my lawn chair and said hi to everyone before heading to Burnsville. We went to Hammond Antiques, where Don found some postal stamp pins. Then we walked to the Yummiyarns yarn store (opened at 11 am). I bought a skein of West Yorkshire Spinners, and the owner (Wendy) gave me a skein of Ella Rae yarn. Then we stopped at Spruce Pine to see how it fared from the hurricane. Most everything was gone except a few restaurants. We found one shop that had store gifts and vintage items. I found a knitting book there.

Then we went back to the lodge and checked in. We are in Room 134, located on the ground level, which is a nice room. I knitted on the patio until dinner, and then after dinner, Don had an issue with the TV. The lady at the front desk reset the TV for us. At 8pm, we had our group meeting where door prizes were handed out.

Original photos by Pat Hensley

Happy 18th Blogiversary!

I started this blog on September 16, 2007. I wrote about Why Am I Doing This?

For many years, I blogged every Monday through Friday, and recently I changed the frequency of my posts. I realized that I didn’t just want to write a post to fill in space. I wanted to post when I felt like I had something to share. I’m still learning every day, so when we travel, I will still post my write-ups about our adventures. I’m trying to post at least once a week to share with friends and family what we are up to in our lives. If you have been following me for a while, I appreciate you hanging around!

Feel free to comment, share ideas, ask questions, or open a conversation.
Photo by Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash

Knitting, Eating, and Weeding

We had a quiet week this week.

I had a lot of knitting time. On Monday, I attended the SC Knitting Guild meeting on Zoom. Then on Tuesday, I went to Starbucks to knit with my local knitting friends. Wednesday night was my ZK Zoom, and I love seeing all my friends from around the country. On Friday, I finished a pair of socks with my new sock design. I hope to publish the design this week. 

On Monday, my neighbor was moving cars around, and we went out to chat. Then we agreed to go out for lunch together. I love these spontaneous meet-ups. I hate that his wife couldn’t join us, but she had some workmen at the house cutting trees.

On Tuesday, we had the Old Hiker’s lunch at Mythos Greek and Italian Restaurant. I really like their lunch specials. I got the baked ziti, with salad and a drink for $9.99.

Don had his last physical therapy session on Thursday. Hopefully,  he will continue to heal. The therapist said that his degenerative joints won’t ever get better, but he can keep the muscles and connective tissues better by moving every day (meaning walking). The doctor said that these tissues were like fibers that had matted together. What he does is try to fluff up the fiber again, so movement is easier.

 I had a couple of mornings where it was nice and cool, and I was able to get a lot of weeding done. I was so excited to get my new Lutheran Study Bible in the mail.

Saturday morning, we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then went to the Farmer’s Market. I was thrilled to get four huge green peppers for only $0.50 each. We will be having stuffed peppers and rice for dinner this coming week. The rest of the day was spent watching college football and knitting.