Happy New Year!

Wishing you and your loved ones peace, good health, happiness and prosperity in the coming New Year.

Whirl into Winter Quilt Blog Giveaway

I just heard about the Whirl Into Winter Quilt Blog Giveaway that begins tomorrow. There are 60+ bloggers participating in this giveaway and all of them are offering wonderful quilt related giveaways. I can't think of a better way to spend New Year's Day (other than driving to NC to snuggle with my new grandbaby, but that's out of the question for tomorrow) than checking out all of the great giveaways and finding some really cool new blogs to visit!

He's Here!

Our little cowboy has finally arrived! He is perfect and definitely all boy weighing in at 9 pounds 5 ounces. We are very blessed! Now the really hard part starts...waiting until we can make the trip to meet our little guy in person.

Mittens...My Way

I finished my mittens, but they are not the pattern that I initially started out with. I'm not sure if there was something wrong with the pattern that I first selected or if I just don't have enough knitting knowledge to figure it out, but either way it didn't take me long to realize that it wasn't going to work for me. Instead, I found several patterns, took the easiest parts from each and put them together to make my own super simple mitten pattern. The result was a pair of warm roomy mittens that I was able to knit in just a few hours.

Mittens...My Way

Size: Adult Woman

Materials: I skein Lion Brand Jiffy yarn or approximately 115 yards of other bulky weight yarn.
Size 10 ½ US (6.5mm) Double Pointed Needles

Gauge: 4 stitches per inch

Cast on 28 stitches, join in circle and work 5 rounds of knit 1, purl 1 ribbing.

Knit each round until the piece measures 3".

Increase 2 stitches evenly spaced on next round. (30 stitches)

Knit 10 rounds.

Thumb Opening:

Knit 2, using waste yarn knit 6. Slip those 6 stitches back onto the left needle and knit around.
Continue knitting until piece measures 9" from the beginning.

Decrease for Top of Mitten:

Knit 2, knit 2 together, end with knit 2.

Knit 4 Rounds

Knit 2, knit 2 together, end with knit 3

Knit 1 round.

Knit 2 together over all stitches.

Draw thread through these remaining stitches and pull tight. Cut yarn and pull through stitches to secure.

Thumb:

Remove the waste yarn used to hold the thumb stitches. Place the 6 top stitch loops on one needle, and the 6 bottom stitch loops on another.

Starting with the bottom loops (nearer the ribbing), knit the stitches on the first needle. Still using that same needle, pick up 2 stitches in the “corner”. Knit the stitches on the second needle. Pick up 2 more in the opposite “corner”. (16 stitches) Rearrange the stitches so that there are 5, 5, 6 on each needle.

Knit 10 rounds.

Decrease on next round: *knit 2 together, knit 2, repeat from * across round.

Final round: *knit 2 together, repeat from * across round. Cut yarn and pull through stitches to secure.

A Quilty Christmas!

There may be hope for my husband's shopping skills after all...look at the beautiful quilt kit that he picked out for me for Christmas! The quilt pattern is Yorktown Strippy Sampler and it is available free online (along with a lot of other free quilt patterns) at the Andover Fabrics website. I'm anxious to get started on this quilt, but I have a few projects that I need to finish first. Hmm...maybe wanting to start this new project will give me the extra incentive needed to finish those UFO's fast!

Merry Christmas

Wishing You a Holiday Season Filled with Warmth

Wishing you and your family a Blessed Christmas. May your home be filled with warmth and love this holiday season!

Thoughts Of Warm Weather

A couple of years ago our guild held a summer day camp where I made this "Snow Sweetie" quilted wall hanging. It was a wonderful sunny hot day in August and as we were sewing we were all dreaming of snow and cold weather. Now we are having the cold and snowy weather that we were all dreaming about and all I can think about is the good old summertime! I guess we are never happy are we?

First Day Of Winter

I am not a fan of winter, so you won't see a lot of "look at the beautiful snow" photos on my blog. What you might see is a lot of grumbling about cold and snow, but I will try hard not to complain too much over the next three months. I can't guarantee that I won't ever complain about the weather, but for today I will try to turn snowflakes into sunshine and say "Woohoo! There are 88 quilting days until Spring!"