I finished the first mug rug today and I’ll probably be doing several more tonight…except binding. That can wait. I hand stitched the back of the binding while curled up watching Sherlock with Kearsey.

It’s been washed and dried, as I’m sure you can tell from the crinkly goodness. It’s now been claimed by hubby. Strange, huh?

That’s all for tonight. I’ll catch up with all of you tomorrow, provided school with the kids goes to plan.

Mug rug in progress

Fridays are movie and/or game night at our house. Half the kids wanted to battle each other on the computer. The other two wanted movie time with Mom and Dad. So I ended up putting away the sewing for the evening and working on the circle scarf I’ve got on my knitting needles right now. I was really too tired to do sit at the kitchen table all night anyway, so it worked out.  Well, there, you have it. My first FNSI was sort of uneventful and didn’t quite go to plan, but what in my life ever does?

We were up till 4:30 this morning though. I was T.I.R.E.D. But I was back up at nine anxiously waiting for the delivery of Bessie 2.

She is all that and a bag of chips, I tell ya. I’m loving her, but holy crap…free motion quilting when done properly is TOUGH. Like really tough. My shoulders are tired and strained and my test piece for setting the tension on the new machine looks like a thread store had sex with a knot company and their baby barfed all over the material. It’s that bad. But I did get my tension set properly for quilting, I cut apart a darning foot and rigged it to quit bouncing and I practiced. And practiced. And practiced. And it still looks like shit, but I’m going to call it a night for FMQ.

FMQ take 2 on Bessie 2

Anyway, I’m getting surly, so I’m going to go shut up, set up Bessie 1 and get back to stitch in the ditch quilting. It’s comfortable and right now, my shoulders need a little comfort (plus I feel like I’m cheating on Bessie 1 with Bessie 2).

Last, but definitely not least, today is my loverly hubby’s birthday. He turned 35. I truly enjoy razzing him for being almost 4 years older than me. I told him today that if his life expectancy is 70, he’s half way to dead. I also told him I’m thankful he’s still alive because that means I get another year to torture him. He wasn’t really impressed with either of my birthday remarks. I am not sure why. 

On the left, Bessie 1, on the right, Bessie's pretty daughter, Bessie 2

Did I mention that I can’t wait till Bessie 2 shows up here tomorrow?

If that wasn’t enough awesome for one day, I got a few Kiki Comen (of Kiki Creates) prints in the mail today. I can’t wait to get them framed and gifted! The light here today was deplorable, so I’ll try to get some decent pics to share tomorrow. Kiki & Company is her new store, and to make me happy (OK she has no idea who I am, but I love her prints anyway) she’s got an overstock sale going on as she transitions to the new store. Head on over. The overstock prints are 50% off, so you can’t beat THAT. Especially for a print that is going to make someone have a brighter day!

And, last, but not least for the day, this evening, I’m participating in the Friday Night Sew-In hosted, this week, by Crafty Vegas Mom. I’ve got a few mug rugs in the works that need some more attention because, although I planned on sewing earlier today, that did not happen. I’m snuggled in my comfy sweats with a glass (or three) of wine, and hoping like hell I can still stitch straight by the time the wine gets me all warm and fuzzy.

That’s all for today, folks. I’ll be back around tomorrow to squee about Bessie 2, and, possibly, show off my prints. That last bit all depends on if it’s another dreary day tomorrow.

Happy weekending!

First I was busy. Then I was sick. Then I was knocked on my ass by being busy while being sick. Then I was lazy. Then I was busy. Then I was sick some more. And now I’m back to busy, although, between you and me, I’d much rather be lazy right now.

So, I’ve been doing the knitterly stuff not much at all. Instead I’ve been working on getting things together for my swap and finding out all sorts of cool things about my swap partner and, generally, making a new friend. It’s fun!

Oh my lord, I have such a TERRIBLE time keeping the goodies a secret though. Every time I find something cool to pack in the swap box, I want to pop over to my partner’s house and thrust it at her right away simply because I am too easily excited about giving gifts.  And then I remember that it’s a secret, so I get all bummed out until I find something new to put in the package and the whole evil process repeats.

So, today, instead of thinking about the swap and how bummed I am that I don’t have everything in yet so I can send it, I worked on my free motion quilting. I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that it’s quite likely I’m the worst free motion quilter. EVAH. I may have mentioned today that I hate it. I would not have been lying, at that point. My shoulders are strained and tense, my machine won almost every battle we had today, and the straight pin I dropped in my lap poked through my sweats and into my leg while I was rounding a corner. That corner is now more cornerly than roundy.

Here’s the horror, warts and all:

Jan FMQ challenge. (AKA the project from hell) It makes me want to hang myself.

Since the challenge is to learn how to do this well enough to work the design into a quilt, I’ve obviously got a long way to go before I can call this month’s challenge a success. But hey, I’m doing something new. Check another 2012 resolution off the damn list already!! That makes at least 2 things off my list. I’m a freaking success this year compared to most years.

So, here’s a brief rundown of the week so far:

• Hubby back to work, but still on a holiday stand-down schedule which is totally borking MY schedule
• Kids (and by default, me) back to school. Much less time for slowing down and enjoying life.
• I found Ravelry. Good lord, that website can suck. you. in. So many patterns, so many yarns, so many people.
• I found a local knitting group through Ravelry, got to go out to it on Wednesday evening, and had a great time. This was my first time without kids and hubby in well over a year and a half–and I’m going to have to repeat the awesomeness every week, I think. I don’t hate my life, but I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders for a couple of hours just because I didn’t have to be catering to the family every second of those two hours.
• I joined a craft swap, and I’m looking forward to getting to know my partners. This is a big deal for me since I’m not very sociable.
• I helped a couple of people with their websites, and sadly didn’t get a minute to spend on any of my own.
• I tried (and failed) to catch up on laundry. I got most of it done…there’s just the bulky stuff left.
• I started the new year purge because I can’t stand the clutter that accumulates and I want to minimalize all our crap.
• I worked on my checkerboard scarf and borked it, so I spent a few hours ripping it out and catching my stitches and threading my needles back through. Spending a few hours on that sucked, but it’s better than losing the whole thing.

Today, I’m hoping to get my laundry put away and my desk cleaned up. If I can get those two things done, I can move on to the fun stuff like making goodies for the boxes I hope to get mailed out next weekend. Goodies like these pecans:

Honey Sugar Pecans

So, I’m off to do the housework and hopefully knock a couple extra things off my gigantic weekend to-do list. Think of me. If I don’t come back it’s probably because I died under an avalanche of laundry.

A very Punky New Year

See the galoshes in the background? Yeah, she was wearing those with her twirly outfit. She and her sibs are anxiously waiting to get their faux drunk on here in a few minutes when they get their yearly sparkling cider and juice. The little non-speaker is adamant that “I gonna get my BEER!!!”  Daddy is bringing in the new year with margaritas and shrimp and Momma is going bring in the year with screwdrivers and…screwdrivers. And maybe some wine. It’s been a hell of a year.

Happy new year to all of you. I hope it’s wonderful and that you’re able to accomplish all the things that will mean the most to you.

So, I had no idea how to knit in the round. Heck, it’s  a miracle I actually managed to figure out how to do any knitting at all. It completely mystified me for thirty years.

Anyway, my first project on the circular needles, I was sooooooooooo sure I counted properly. I counted three times. Granted those three times were all in the car while my husband was driving and I get motion sickness, so I was ready to throw up by the time I finished the second count, but still, you have to be REALLY certain you have the right count when you’re knitting in the round or else you could end up with a borked project like this one:

When you end up with an extra stitch, just start over. Seriously.

If I can offer one bit of advice for knitting in the round when you have a particular pattern to achieve it’s this: if you find yourself with an extra stitch or a missing stitch, just start over. You are sure to discover it before you’re very far into your project, so just save yourself and start over right now. You don’t want to deal with the embarrassment of having someone who actually knows what they’re doing look at your project and laugh themselves stupid. Note: If someone does that, smack them. That is so not nice.  They will thank you later for putting them on the straight and narrow. Maybe. Well, probably not (because who thanks someone for smacking them??) but they should. 

And now we’re moving on and we’re going to forget all about the fact that I screwed up the project I was so excited about.

So, here is the finished cowl…and don’t feel alarmed at the crappy picture taking. It’s late, I’m tired, and I’ve had only a couple hours of sleep in the past two days, so I don’t give a crap what the picture looks like. (I may have also had a few too many drinks this evening, but if you were staring at the Christmas to-do list I have to stare at, you’d drink too.)

Easy Knit Cowl

Now, if you already know how to knit with circular needles, you are well ahead of where I was when I started planning this cowl. Yay you!

If you don’t know how to knit in the round, let me know in the comments and I can post links to some fairly decent knitting tutorials. That said, I’m going to assume you aren’t as dumb as me and don’t have to look up how to join your chain.

For this cowl I used Naturally Caron’s Country yarn, a #4 medium weight, merino blend in “Ocean Spray” color. I used the needles recommended for gauge which was #9 US or 5.5 mm. I used 29 inch circular needles, but if you use a chunkier yarn, you’ll likely need longer needles unless you adjust the number of stitches.

The nice thing about this cowl is that it’s so simple, but it’s also extremely easy to customize. You can change the length, the width, the yarn, whatever. As long as you count properly, you can still end up with a fantastic cowl that is uniquely yours.

Here’s my pattern, but feel free to adjust according to your preferences:

Cast on 140 stitches (if you change this, it NEEDS to be an even number or you’ll end up with a column of ugly like I had in the first project. Yes, I have since completed circular knitting projects properly without the uglies. Thank God.)

Join round tightly with a knit stitch, marking your starting stitch with a stitch marker or a bit of yarn (works best if it’s a different color from the yarn you’re working with).

Purl next stitch.

Continue the pattern of knit, purl, knit, purl all the way around, making certain that your initial stitch is a) in the same column that you marked earlier and b)is a knit stitch since that’s what you started with.

I kept going until my cowl was 12 inches wide because I wanted to be able to fold or slouch it without feeling like I was suffocating myself with a super wide cowl. Make yours as wide or thin as you like, but I think about 12 inches is a great width unless you use lace weight yarn and want a bit more draping.

Cast off and weave in the ends.

It’s basically that simple. Yes, it takes time, but it’s super easy, so this is a great project even for beginners like me.

Variegated Greens Dischcloth in Progress

If you want to get in on the giveaway action, feel free to follow the link to my previous post and enter the giveaway, or if you want to see the full listing of giveaway items, check out Sew, Mama, Sew. There are hundreds of giveaways listed, and I’m pretty sure there is still time to get involved if you want to give something away on your own blog.

In other news, I’m really thankful this week because we’ve been finding out some great things at my husband’s new command. He will have to go on short jaunts out to ships and back and forth to D.C., but it’s looking like he won’t have many deployments at all at this post. The babies are so very thrilled about this. I don’t think their relief even comes close to the relief I feel, though. Mostly because they don’t have to do any of the keeping things from unraveling that I do during deployments.

Also, Eddie worked so hard to get certifications at his last post, that he got some far in advance of all but one person at his new command. Because of this, he is getting the opportunity to get some additional training that only five people in the command can get. It’s going to be a lot of work for him, but it’s a huge boon because this particular certification is in high demand in government contractor jobs or even in civilian IT jobs. This translates to: “Whew! You’re really employable once you’re out of the military.”

The kids are getting really excited for the Christmas party we’re throwing here for them and some of the neighborhood kids. We haven’t had any parties since moving here, so they’re, understandably, driving me bonkers about it.

I still have to come up with some decorations for the party, though. I found some cute, printable cupcake wrappers and toppers, but still haven’t pinned down which ones I’ll use, for certain.

Do any of you have great holiday party ideas for kids? I want to do a fairly simple craft (let’s face it, I need something to keep a dozen or more kids busy during the three plus hours they’ll be here), but not all kids enjoy crafts. Is it a bad idea or a good one to attempt crafts with a gaggle of kids? If you’ve had a kid party with crafts (boys and girls both) how did it turn out? Did you lose your sanity after the first ten minutes?

Last, but certainly not least, I have so enjoyed reading each and every comment that you all have left on yesterday’s giveaway post. I’m admittedly a little bit bonkers for Christmas, so getting to share some of your favorite holiday memories tickles me pink.  Thank you all so very much for your comments. It means a lot that you took the time to visit and leave your mark here. I may not get to answer them all individually (my schedule is insane right about now with holiday prep), but I’m reading each one.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a pattern (very basic and easy enough for beginner knitters) for a knit cowl that I made a couple of weeks ago. I messed my first one up because I miscounted my stitches, so you get to see exactly what not to do when you’re knitting in the round. This was my first time knitting with circular needles, so it was quite an adventure.

My husband died in Oct at a young age. My daugher contacted all my siblings & several friends for small stocking gifts for me. when Christmas came I had a huge basket of lovely goodies – what a great memeory

Congratulations, Diana! I will contact you via email and you will have 48 hours to claim your prize before I move on to the next number chosen.

Due to not hearing from the initial winner, I’ve had to move to the second number on the sequence from Random.org. That would be #21, Tara B.  who wrote:

Oh, these wash cloths bring back so many memories! one of my favorite Christmas traditions was when we would get a “christmas carepackage” from my grandma…they always incuded handmade dish cloths…just like the ones you make!!

Congratulations, Tara! I’ve sent you an email requesting your mailing information. Please be sure to check your spam folder if you have not received an email from me (jwingard@chezcrazy.com). If I don’t hear from you in 48 hours, I’ll move on to the next in the sequence. 

I’ve decided to go ahead and enter something in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day. This is my first giveaway on this blog, and I didn’t find out about it until today, so I’m going to have to post an old, very bad picture of my giveaway item.

Up four grabs are four of these knitted dishcloths in the texture shown, but each will be a different color yarn. Two plain and two variegated.

Hand Knit Wash Cloths

These washcloths measure approximately 10″ by 10″ and they hold up to a LOT of kitchen work. I’ve knit loads of them for my kitchen because they’re the only washcloths that my kids don’t wear holes into the first week they use them.

I will ship out the washcloths to the winner on December 23rd. I am happy to ship internationally, as well as within the U.S.

To earn entries (maximum of two entries per person):

1. Comment on this post telling me a little about your favorite holiday moment. (Mine was creeping up early one Christmas and sitting around the tree with my many siblings, enjoying  whispering to each other and being mesmerized by the lights on the tree in the wave setting. It was magical.)

2. Subscribe to the blog feed or follow. If you’re a new follower (and you likely are because my blog is so new) just let me know in the comments section to get your second entry. I know there isn’t much on here yet, but I have lots of posts scheduled, including some knitting patterns I’ve been plugging away at. You are not required to follow or subscribe in order to get one entry. The second is just a bonus for following or subscribing.

Giveaway will close on December 16 at 5 p.m. PST, (3 p.m. EST) and winners will be announced no later than Sunday, December 18. If you are a no-reply blogger, please don’t get yourself discounted from the giveaway by failing to leave an email address at which you can be contacted. Not sure if you’re a no-reply blogger? Include an email address in your comment, just to be on the safe side. I will do my best to notify the winner via email, and will post an update to this post as well as a post on my main page to announce the winner. If the prize is not claimed within 48 hours of winner posting, I will, sadly, have to draw another name.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog! Best of luck to you in all of the giveaways. Don’t forget to click through to Giveaway Day 2011 to find more giveaways to enter. 

The kids blew through all the cereal and didn’t tell me until this evening, so I get to stay up and make granola tonight. And maybe, if I can squeeze in some time to sterilize a couple of utensils, I’ll get around to making another vat of yogurt for the little boogers as well. I’ve also been asked to make more granola bars and Eddie’s lunch and edit one of my sister’s papers for college. So, I’ve got a very busy night ahead of me.  Maybe, if I can wade through all that stuff, I can find the top of my desk and then, if I’m lucky, sit down  for a while with my yarn and knitting needles or a Christmas present project.

About the time I sit down, I’m sure it’ll be time to wake Eddie up for work, then get the kids up for school and start the million and ten things that are daytime projects. Then finally, in the evening, maybe I can get started on some of the Christmas goodies.

Like this:

Peanut Brittle

Or these:

Buttery Peppermints

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