A Life of Insanity

Life is a dizzying collage of moments, some moments are bad but others are good, I love the good moments like I'm sure you do too. In the past month my life has been blessed with plenty of good moments. We found out I was medically approved for the move, we got our tickets scheduled, our packers are set to come at the end of this month, my husband has graduated from the school the army sent him to, we visited family, went to Myrtle Beach, got to hear the joyous news about my friend giving birth to her first child, met our 6 month old niece for the first time, the list can go on and on. 

This is why I've been so absent from here. I have a feeling that until my move is complete that this blog is going to be a once a month thing, so that I can unload what is going through my mind.  Its been surreal thinking that in a little over a 2 weeks this house will be empty and in a little over a month I won't be in the country anymore. I have been seeing friends and family and planning on them to be goodbyes yet hoping to see them one more time before we go. Its emotionally draining.

But the silver lining here is that when I'm emotionally drained or stressed, I knit. I have been knocking out some socks, a few shawls, and a hat or two since I last posted. I also started a podcast! You can find it listed under my name, Jessica Wainer! There has only been one episode so far but I'm about to record my second one and once I am a little more tech savvy I will probably embed them here so that they can be viewed.

The nice part about being in the military is that you don't really say goodbye to fellow soldiers/airmen/sailors/marines, you say, "See you later!" even when they are from another country. We had to say see you later to the Korean couple we were sponsoring throughout the army course this week. After spending six months getting to know them and learn even more about their country (Hubs and I have been there before) we were sad to see them off. We are already making plans to visit them soon and have them visit us when we get settled into our new home.

Our Farewell Dinner

World's Worst...

I am the world's worst blogger, over a month has gone by and there has been no word from me, even though this is mostly just a place to get my thoughts out I like to think that at least a few people in the world are reading my ramblings!

In April I had a minor surgery, an endoscopy, to check on everything in my stomach, they are suspecting that I have developed Gastroparesis which might throw a kink into the Army's plans for us to move this summer. We will do whatever is necessary though since that is what we signed up to do as a family. Currently we are waiting to see if I will be command sponsored or not. This means that I am given the all clear, they have all of the medical specialists I would possibly need and what not, if I am not sponsored then our duty assignment will be changed which would be devastating since I am looking forward to our future home but as I said, we roll with the punches.

However when there is medical issues in your life there is also a lot of time spent sitting, waiting, and worrying so all of this time has helped my knitting projects get finished! Finished projects since I last posted include the Harvest cardigan, some washcloths, 2 hats, a cowl, a scarf, 2 shawls and my very first pair of toe up socks aka my second pair of socks ever. Something I have decided to do recently is an Instagram trend called #MakerMonday where I highlight a maker that I love, be it I have their products and have used them or if they are just on my bucket list, but the fiber community is amazing and I want to show my love and support to them, the first maker I selected was my dear friend Sarah of Bijoux Garden Gifts. She has just started to dye yarn on top of making her amazing project bags and stitch markers. The final thing I wanted to highlight is how amazing the fiber community is yet again, I was struggling with getting crochet peeps done for my mother's preschool class with everything else I needed to get done for Christmas gifts, hats, mothers day, Easter, and making things for when we move. They stepped up to the plate and offered to help me get them done. So thank you to Sarah and Logan for helping with the peeps and I also wanted to thank my darling friend Jack who constantly reminded me that I can make what I want to make as long as it makes me happy and he also offered love, encouragement, and support when needed.

One of 5 bags I have from Sarah, I obviously love her and I love Doctor Who

April's finished projects plus a few peeps!

 Do what makes your heart sing!
~Jessi

Back to business!

I'm back from a month that has been filled with family, food, fun, and most importantly YARN! In preparation for leaving the country for 3 years Erick and I are trying to take every chance we can to see our families, luckily both of ours are located in the same little town in Kansas (for now). My parents took a spring break trip to Orlando so since that's a little less than 7 hours from where we are living so I made the drive down for 4 days! We ended up going to the Happiest Place on Earth aka Disney World.

Obligatory Family Picture 

Iconic Cinderella's Castle

We had so much fun together but we realized just how limited Disney is when it comes to food options, my dad is diabetic and I have recently been diagnosed with Celiac's which means that I can't have gluten. We knew that there was a lot of fried food but for a park that is known for being extremely accommodating to its guests, it was difficult to find a place for us to eat together. Regardless, we rode all the rides we could and watched a few of the shows too. Spending my summers in San Diego with my grandparents growing up meant that my mother and I were very familiar with all of the things that Magic Kingdom had to offer so we got to show them to my dad who was typically on a ship or unable to vacation with us since he was active duty Navy for most of my childhood.

Part of seeing my family before leaving was flying to LA for my cousin's wedding, I was her Matron of Honor! This week they finally got their pictures back and they are beautiful! I just wanted to show off more of my family so ya'll can get to know the people are important to me.

Serena Taj and I

I got to finally meet a knitting friend as well! Sarah and I have been Instagram friends with the rest of our "Fiber Squad" Logan, Tory and Jack since September of this past year and we all live in different parts of the country. I had already met Logan since she was only an hour and a half from me, and now I get to add Sarah (or I call her Wobbles) to the list, we had dinner at Planet Hollywood with her husband and I got to take home her hand dyed yarn along with some other goodies (she is on etsy, you NEED to check out her shop) I also got to bring her some things along with a hand knit hat for her husband in his Hogwarts house (my house too) colors.

Wobbles and I

Slytherin Pride

I have a few projects that I have either finished since I last blogged or have in progress so I wanted to share them with you! First off; FINISHED PROJECTS

Barley Hat

Corner to Corner for my cousin for Christmas

Sockhead Slouch

My current work in progress is the Harvest Cardigan by Tincanknits and it is my very first garment!

Two sticks and string are going to be busy finishing these sleeves off this week, until then,
Love!
Jessica

Our Crazy Weekend

This weekend has been a crazy one in our household! It all started on Thursday with a BBQ at Weston Lake with my husband's old company, there was great times and great food all around, this was the company's time to relax and unwind since they were at the end of their cycle break. For those who don't know, Ft Jackson is where 90% of enlisted soldiers go for basic training; this means 10 weeks of intense training, long hours, little sleep, and not much time spent with family followed by a week or two of cycle break where our cadre (the people that are stationed here at Ft Jackson that train our newest soldiers aka drill sergeants, 1SG, XO, and CO) get to catch up on rest, go to their children's school activities, take a small vacation and just get ready to do it all over again. Each battalion starts their training at a different time so the joke around here is that "It's cycle break somewhere" We got to see some friends and see where they are being stationed at since its getting to be PCS season (Permanent Change of Station) which is typically from April - August. We got to announce where we are headed to and ask some questions to some of the soldiers that had been there already. I promise I will tell ya'll where once we actually arrive, you never know if the Army is going to change where you are going at the last minute.

Weston Lake

After our time at the lake ended there was a Craft Night for some of the spouses in our village (we live on post so everyone is military and everyone in our village is close to the same rank more or less) I had a blast with the ladies who were there and we made little origami flowers!

Our paper flowers!

Then the BIG DAY for us had arrived, we were hosting an International Game Day meaning all of the international officers from my husbands Captain's course and their sponsors were invited to our home to learn some American games, get some food, get out of their hotel room, and just have fun. We had people from Korea, Jordan, Egypt, and Russia! Some games were harder than others to explain or the game was easy but there were was American slang or pop culture that wasn't always understood. Nonetheless, we had a blast and everyone went home full and their minds were broadened, we learned things we didn't know about some of these lovely countries and we got to share some of the things we love about the States.

Answering questions about Korea

Sports is an international thing

Plenty of food

All of our countries other than Russia in 1 picture!

To end our weekend on a good note, we had one of Erick's old classmates from his Basic Officer Leadership Course over for dinner since he is in town taking a captain's course of his own although his is much shorter than Erick's. But that is okay because Erick is much shorter than him:

He is the man that helped Erick pick out my engagement ring which I can't imagine being more perfect than it already is. It was such a pleasure to have him over even if only for a few short hours. Now we are on to recovery mode from our "relaxing weekend" but hey, we are Army Strong!

Hooah!
Jessica

    

Welcome!

Hi,

I'm Jessica, your host, and the hands behind the needles. I'm an Army wife, of almost 3 years, (and a Navy brat) preparing to move overseas for the first time and I'm also a new-ish knitter. The end of this month is actually my one year knitaversary!

I felt compelled to start this blog mostly as a space to keep my head straight, track my progression with projects, and let people get a glimpse inside military life from something that isn't a TV show. My husband is currently a captain and we are stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Ft Jackson is our first duty station together since we were married while he was in Korea and I stayed stateside. 

When he was overseas I decided to pick up a hobby so that I could keep busy while he was gone for the year. I learned to crochet, my first project was NOT successful and ended up in the trash. But I caught the fiber bug and kept trying and learning. Eventually I made it to the point where I could crochet confidently, then came New Years Eve of 2015, I decided that I needed to get out of my crafting comfort zone. I set up the goal that for the year of 2016, I'd would learn a new technique or create a different kind of project every month, January, I made a mermaid tail, February 2016 I made a corner to corner blanket, and in March of 2016 I learned to knit and fell in love.

My first mermaid tail

I love that two sticks and a piece of string can make something beautiful and I want to add more beauty into the world. For the past year I have been knitting hats and scarves and donating them to homeless veterans in my hometown of Kansas City through my social worker (and fellow army wife) sister along with prayer shawls I would donate to my hometown church. Now that we are headed overseas (I'll leave where we are going a secret until we are actually there) it isn't going to be practical to knit and ship items back home as they are made instead, I will make them and send them home when I have visitors come from the states. I am also going to be learning new knitting techniques while I am there, I'll be making things for my family and myself and hopefully those in need in my future town.

Zoe by Alexandra Davidoff

Herald Shawl by Janina Kallio

Feedback is my friend, as is constructive criticism. Feel free to chat with me or let me know what you want to hear about. I'm going to include some examples of my projects here as well and this will continue with each ongoing post. I'll have progress pictures so it can be like we are knitting together!

What are things that you love to create? It doesn't have to be something fiber related, it can be paper crafts, sewing, woodwork, painting whatever makes your heart sing but for me it has to have two sticks and string!

Keep crafting!
Jessica

Me!