My first hat

I knitted my first hat the other day! I'm pretty impressed with myself. I finished a surprise project last week and needed a break for a little bit before starting another surprise project (the same as the first surprise project, but with different yarn). So, I decided to make a hat to match a scarf I made. The scarf is just garter stitch, made with Lion's Brand brown yarn. The hat is a very simple knit 2 purl 2 pattern, using the same yarn as the scarf, but working with 2 strands at a time. As I was getting toward the end I realized that I didn't have enough yarn to do the crown. So, I just stopped where I was and decided to pull the yarn through the last row and pull it tight to make the top instead of shaping the crown. I think it turned out pretty good, it just doesn't turn up so much on the bottom as it was supposed to. But that's ok, a small sacrifice to avoid having partially used skeins in my house. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with it, but the hat project was to use up the leftovers from the scarf. Plus the only place I have to store craft stuff is filled with quilting fabric. I'll have ot start using up some of my stash before I buy much more.
I'm placing a limit on the number of projects I can be working on at one time. Three! Right now I'm working on surprise project #2 and I'm about to begin a felted bag. It's a kit I got from kaleidoscope yarns (www.kyarns.com). That store is going to become very dangerous for me. But the kit is for their my little companion bag. This will be my first felted project and I can't wait to get started on it. Of course it requires the same needles I'm using for surprise project #2. But I can get started on the handles, which are done on double pointed needles. My third project is going to be an attempt at a lace scarf using the leftover yarn from surprise project #1.
Of course there's always quilting projects going on too. I've got a craft barter going on with a friend. I'm making her a quilt and she's knitting me a sweater. That project is my first priority in my quilting projects. Then there's a quilt I'm making for me and my husband. It's the first one I'll have that actually fits on the bed. The other two I've made just about cover the top of a queen size bed, but are not big enough for 2 people to sleep under. So, I made a nice quilt top out of all blues. It's been layered with the backing and batting and is halfway basted. I hate basting though and I don't think that I even do it right, I don't use a hoop or anything. I still haven't decided on how to quilt it. That's all I've got started in the quilting world. But I've got fabric for another 5 or 6 quilts (I know all you quilters are thinking that's not much, but I'm only 26 and have only been quilting for a few years, so it's a lot for me!)
I've got to figure out how to put pictures on this thing and take pictures of my projects for everyone to see. And I have to write more often so each entry isn't a novel!
Happy Crafting!

Here goes nothing

Ok, so I see how this things works now. A little about me: I'm a graduate student studying marine science. My husband is a naval officer and I'm very proud of him! Although I do miss him like crazy when he's gone. I have been spending all my time lately trying to get into shape. I recently lost 70+ pounds and will be at my goal weight soon enough. A major player in the weight loss was running. I love running. I did a 5K this weekend and placed third in my age group (there were only 3 of us though!) I'm one of the slowest ones out there and usually finish with the 70 year old women, but I have fun and one day I'll care enough about my times to train to get faster. Right now I'm trying to run further and increase my longest run each week from 3 miles to 6 miles. I'm in the first week of the training program from runner's world magazine, which went pretty well. Next week I have my first 4 mile run, we'll see how that goes.
I'm also in the process of planning a wedding. Lots more stress than fun, but I'm sure the actually day will be great. I'm already technically married, but we never got to have a real wedding cause the Navy swept my husband halfway across the country and now halfway across the world. He'll be home soon enough and we'll have a real wedding and be able to finally start our life together. It's been tough cause he's been gone for 15 months now and I've been trying to focus on work, but there's no way to not think about him all day long. He's the best person in the world and I love him to pieces! We've been through a lot already. We lived in Rhode Island for a while when he was in officer training school. It was great and I would love to move back there one day. I hated my job there though, mailboxes etc. Yuck, but there were no other opportunites and no one will even consider Navy girlfriends for real jobs up there cause they know we're only temporary. After RI, we moved to Virginia. He did a 6 month deployment and then was home for about a year with a few weeks here and there when they were at sea. Then they transferred him to Texas for a year. Unfortunately I couldn't go along because of graduate school. Now he's overseas, but he's due back in about 2 and a half months. I'm counting down the days. . . 67!!
Other than thinking about my husband, work, running, and dieting I also like to do crafts. Right now I'm making a quilt for a friend who has a craft barter going on with me. I'll make her a quilt and she'll knit me a sweater. It's a pretty sweet deal. I'm also working on a knitting project, but that's a surprise for some friends so just in case, I won't say anything about that for a while. Ok, well, I guess that's all there is to say for now. I'll just be posting random stuff, I guess that's what these things are for!

First post

This is my first attempt at a blog and I'm just seeing how it works. I'm sure I'll add much more later.