Master of Library Silence

Posted by jennanana in Am making, Craftyness, Projects, Uncategorized

I’M DOOONE. With what, you ask? Well I thought it was a little obvious from the title, but okay. I have completed my Mazter’s Degree in Library and Information Science (that was a typo but I liked the sound of mazter). So I’m a librarian now! Hooray!

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My parents are so proud…

And what does that mean? More time for books and crochet! But forget the books, this is a crochet blog. After having a lot of people ask whether or not I have an Etsy shop and deciding that I want to make a little extra money, I’m thinking about opening an Etsy shop. Let’s see how long this idea sticks.

So I have a question for my fellow crafty folks: Do you have advice for me? I have never sold my stuff online except to friends and I’m a little nervous about keeping up with inventory and not being able to fill an order. Little things like that.
But in the mean time, and in-between time, I’m beginning to bang out a supply of coffee mug cozies that are sure to please. Be sure to keep an eye out for them in my future Etsy shop =)

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Jenna

Thinking Outside of the Professional Development Box

Posted by jennanana in Not quite crochet and tagged with , ,
Disclaimer: This post isn’t about crocheting.  I’m going to bore you with librarian stuff, so cover your ears or shut your eyes, or just go somewhere else — WAIT DON’T GO!  I was only kidding. Keep reading and see a snippet of my glamorous life as a library school student!  Enjoy.

As you may have noted from previous posts, I’m currently in grad school for my Master’s in Library and Information Science as well as a working librarian in youth services. I’m very passionate about my decision to become a librarian and believe it is important to incorporate my professional life with my personal life.  I love finding ways to bring together my love for literature and my hobbies as I’ve posted about here when I brought a popular children’s book character to life through crochet.  I have also taken on a small project begun through a class assignment.  Following blogs is a great way to keep up with all that is happening in the library field (or really any field for that matter!) and hone in on some concepts to develop professionally. I’m always thrilled to find new ways to think outside the box when it comes to professional development, so I’d like to share some funky blogs I have found from fellow librarians who are also passionate about bringing new life to this progressive career path:

The Unquiet Librarian is a blog by Buffy Hamilton which I have been following for over a year now.  Her insights into progressive school librarianship are great resources for those entering the field or established teacher-librarians who want to keep up on trending issues in the library field such as technology, best practices, and what’s new in her literally unquiet library.  I love following Buffy’s musings because she not only has great ideas, but because she is very down to Earth and makes her posts interesting and applicable to any aspect of librarianship, not only school libraries.

The Book Dork blog initially caught my eye because of the funky name, but after checking out the link I was amazed at the amount of YA Lit reviews it offers.  I wish I had more time to read YA and Children’s Lit, but since I’m bombarded with assigned and professional reading in my classes, I have to rely on reviewers like Aimee who are passionate enough to provide the other guys with quick and reliable tidbits.  My favorite part of her blog is obviously the reviews, but I like that she has her own visual rating system from “Waste of Time” to “Favorite”, making it easy to choose books for making suggestions.  This is definitely a blog I will keep coming back to!

And last, but of course not least, A Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette.  Simply, this blog cracks me up.  That’s really the only reason I picked it to share.  No, it doesn’t offer professional development.  No, it might not offer insights into emergent technology or best practices.  However, it is a breath of fresh air and shows that librarians do indeed have a sense of humor too!  Each post is a snarky comment on so-called library etiquette, but hilariously stated; for example “Librarians should encourage their patrons to have sex in the library. Any additional housekeeping costs can be paid for with the advertising revenues you get from the live stream to your library’s security cameras.”  Love it.  I guess it started out as a running joke but it soon became “the number one, most-trusted source for authoritative tongue-in-cheek librarian etiquette tips on the Internet” and consequently one of my favorite places to go for a bibliophile smile.

So there ya have it, folks.  Three blogs from the library field that you should probably check out.  I know this is a blog about my crocheting endeavors, but I’m a librarian by day (and night on Tuesdays and Thursdays) so deal with it!  I hope you find these blogs as helpful and entertaining as I do.  There are so many awesome resources out there that it was hard to pick only three, but that’s just because librarians are awesome. Simply put.  Where do you go to keep up on the latest and greatest in your career or hobby?

Jenna

‘Merica

Posted by jennanana in Afghan, Craftyness, Have made, Projects and tagged with , , ,

Yes, it’s been a while since I posted last. No, i haven’t had a chance to fulfill all of the promises I made in my last post. But I am here to tell you that, five months later, I finished the American flag afghan! It’s a beauty, for sure.  And my Captain America boyfriend loooves it, as does his dog =).

I won’t lie, I finished it over a month ago, but I haven’t had the time or patience to sit down and blog about it. But we’re on the verge of a blizzard right now and I’m in between homework assignments during Spring break, so what the hell.

I got a lotttt done on our trip down to Memphis, because crocheting makes an 8 hour car ride go by a lot faster! Take my word for it….

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The blanket turned out to be a little under 6 ft. long, about 3 1/2 ft wide, so the perfect size for him to curl up with on the couch like he’s been doing every day with it! But he’s not the only one; Midge wanted to stake her claim when I was photographing it, but I sadly had to inform her that it was for Matt.

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Already, my mom told me to make one for my Grandma, and a friend is begging me to make him one, but I’m in no hurry to do that all over again. I don’t even think I can recreate it… I winged practically the whole thing and I’m honestly surprised it worked out.. I mean.. I knew what I was doing the whole time! Not. Anywho, here’s the happy camper with a disgusting smile on his face because he finally got his American flag afghan..! I hope my Midwest and East coast friends are staying warm during the Winter storms! And happy March, everyone =)

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Jenna

From One Project to Another..

Posted by jennanana in Am making, Granny Squares, Projects and tagged with , , , ,

Hi, friends! It’s been a while since I posted last, but that’s because my Christmas/Winter break has been crazier than I thought it would be. And because of that, this post is going to be a bit drawn out, so sorrryyyyy.  I was looking forward to being lazy most of the time, catching up on TV shows, reading books I’ve actually been wanting to read, and spending at least one entire day sleeping. I sound like a bum. But anywho, I would say that I was only partially successful with those goals. I did spend at least one (almost) whole day snoozing and cuddling with the man.  I watched the whole 2nd season of the Walking Dead in only 2 days (while working on a huge crochet project I’ll talk about in a minute..) It took me just about 2 weeks to get through the audiobook of A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Apparently the movie has been in the works for a while now so I decided to read it before the movie comes out and I must say it was an entertaining read! I’ve only made it half way through Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata. It was the 2005 Newberry Award winner and I’m trying to get a hold of and read past winners; a task that will help me in my library career. Hmmm what else.. Christmas was nice and relaxing for the most part. Nothing too exciting to report except that my boyfriend knows me way too well and got me a watch, DD coffee, AND A TALKING HEADS VINYL.  Amazing. He rocks. New years eve was fun. We got all snazzed up and celebrated with some of his friends and had a great night. All in all my time off from school and work has been great and I don’t want it to end. EVER. However, we have one last hurrah before returning to the real world. Matt’s birthday is January 8th so we’re driving down to Memphis tomorrow to celebrate. I’ve never been but we’re going to gorge ourselves on amazing Barbeque and Blues music, and make a visit to Graceland! Yay Elvis! Pictures will come. You can count on it.

Other than all that, my fingers have been busy (not with typing blog posts, obviously) with a lot of crochet projects! Some of the things I’ve been working on: Baby booties for my cousin’s new baby, Ruby — PomPom bookmarks — small Christmas gifts (mug cozies, head bands, etc) — Sushi amigurumi which I’ll post about soon! — and two afghans. There’s more but I don’t want to list everything. But yes, you read right. Two afghans. One for a friend; it was supposed to be a house warming gift 8 months ago but I’ll save that for another post. The other is a birthday present for Matt. Hey, men, you know your girlfriend loves you when she crochets/knits you an afghan! So he told me back around September that he really wanted an American Flag blanket and if there was any one thing I’d crochet for him it would be that. I got to work looking for patterns and came across an image on Ravelry but since I’m the cheapest of cheap, I didn’t want to spend the whole $5 for the pattern so I used the image as a template and figured out how to do everything from the stars to joining it all together. I’m not quite finished yet, but almost there! And since he already knows what he’s getting, here’s a sneak peek at the blanket!

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I’m very happy with how cozy it’s becoming and I’m positive he’s going to love it. And if he doesn’t, he can shove it. =D

As for the Granny Square Scarves, they’re almost done! I have maybe 3 more to make and they will all be donated! I’m glad that’s almost done with because it’s a time consumer, but I know they’ll be appreciated. As soon as everything is donated I’ll post about my after-thoughts and some photos.

Well this turned out to be a longer post than I wanted, so I’ll stop now. I know I promised a lot of posts so we’ll see if I get around to them all! I hope everyone’s holidays were splendid! Tell me how they were; I’d love to hear about it! Happy almost weekend =D

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Regarding a Slight Change of Plans…

Posted by jennanana in Granny Squares, Projects, Scarves and tagged with , ,

So this collaborative leadership project is nearly coming to an end. I’m happy with the outcome for a couple reasons: 1) People ended up getting involved, and 2) Not tooooo many people ended up getting involved. That sounds bad, so let me explain… I was afraid that this project would have gotten so big that I wouldn’t have been able to handle crocheting everything together all by myself. But I got just enough granny squares (so far) that it’s enough for me to handle. So for that reason, I’m happy with the outcome.
As for changes in the project I have decided to nix the battered women’s shelter donation. First off, my donation would not have been big enough to make a bug impact, and secondly, it would have been a hassle to make a donation. I probably wouldn’t have been able to donate them directly to the shelter and I didn’t even have all of the information on the shelter! So I was super excited when another donation option fell in my lap…
At my library every year we set up a mitten tree. People can donate mittens, hats and scarves to the tree and everything gets delivered to an organization for needy families in the community. Perfect, eh?! So I’ve already put together 3 scarves and wrapped them all cozy like around our tree. Yaayy! I plan on adding them to the tree as I make them. This makes me very happy that it’s one less worry on my part.
So all in all I think things are coming along swimmingly, as I presented my project to my class last Saturday, so that portion is all done. Now it’s just a matter of combining the squares into a mish mash of scarves and putting them around the mitten tree!
So many thanks to everyone who has donated, and even to those who wanted to but didn’t.

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A Call to my Crochet Hookers: Part 2

Posted by jennanana in Granny Squares, Projects and tagged with , ,

Hello, hookers! I posted a while ago about my Collaborative Leadership Project. I just want to give a quick update on the progress I’m making with it!

I have started sitting in with the crochet group at my library and they seem to be excited about the project.  A few members have learned to work in the round and have expressed interest in making some squares as soon as they get it down pat, which is great! I’ve also received a small number of squares from some of my co-workers at the library and even some friends who crochet, so a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has helped and who plans to help out!

I’ve stated that my deadline to submit squares was December 1st, but I am going to push it back to December 15th, maybe even a few days more.  I want to make sure I get as many squares as I can for this donation of granny scarves! I haven’t started assembling them just yet, but as soon as I do, I’ll get some more photos up. But for now, here is the first batch of donations! Yay! These were only the first four I received, so I have a small stack on top of these. So THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone helping out with this! Keep them coming

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Afghan: A Finished Product

Posted by jennanana in Have made, Projects and tagged with , ,

At the end of July I posted about an afghan I was commissioned to make.  Well I made it! I actually finished it a little over a month ago, but haven’t had the time to get around to posting about it.  So let me explain a little bit more about this afghan…

I have a friend in Pittsburgh whose co-worker was looking for someone who could make an afghan.  He sent me a pattern and liked my sample, so a week and a half later I got a big box of yarn in the mail.  I used this pattern from Caron (he sent me a free pattern you would get from a craft store) and though it was a little difficult to figure out in the beginning, I got the hang of it and started cranking out the squares.  I worked on it during most of my free time, and even took it with me on a road trip to the East coast. It took me all summer to make, but it turned out just beautiful! The colors are gorgeous together and, though the yarn was a little cheapy, it ended up being nice an slinky and soft.  So now this afghan has a cozy home somewhere in Pittsburgh and I was able to make someone’s Winter a little more snug.  After I finished it I of course had a photoshoot with it, so here are a few pictures of the finished product..!

 

Yay for completing big projects! This is probably the most time-consuming and most rewarding thing I’ve made, and I couldn’t be happier with it.  If you’re a fellow crochet hooker, what was your biggest yarn endeavor?

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A Call to all My Crochet Hookers

Posted by jennanana in Granny Squares, Uncategorized and tagged with , , ,

You may or may not know, but I am in Grad School for Library Science. One of the classes I’m in this semester is a leadership course where, surprise, we learn how to be successful leaders.  Throughout the semester, each of us has to come up with and present a Collaborative Leadership Project.  I’m not entirely sure if we’re required to actually follow through with the project, but I feel like my “do good” meter is running low so I actually want to follow through on my plan.  I knew from the start I wanted to incorporate my hobby of crocheting and use the resources available to me (my blog, colleagues at the library, and the crocheting community) to do some good.

So here is my call to action:

I’m hoping to collect as many granny squares as possible from anyone who has the time or wants to do some stash busting.  Every granny square I collect will be joined into scarves, and if this turns out to be bigger than I expected, they will also be turned into small baby blankets.  Once I conjoin the squares, the scarves and blankets will be donated to a local women’s shelter on the South Side of Chicago.  I’m hoping to get a nice big batch by December 1st, 2012 so that during the month of December when I’m not busy with school work I can work on joining the squares and donate the scarves and blankets by the beginning of January. Chicago should be in for a cold winter (though considering what we had last year, ya never know!) so I want to make sure these women who deserve some love and care get that love and care.  I’m referring to this project (for now…until I come up with a more catchy name..) “The Warmth of a Granny Scarf”

So as I said, I’m calling out to my fellow crochet hookers! I’ll list the requirements below and the mailing info. Please help me out with this. Granny squares are so simple and even if you only have time to make a few, it will still be a big help!

  • Use medium weight, 100% acrylic, machine washable yarn. If you can’t use this yarn, that’s okay too. Like-squares will be joined together.
  • Feel free to use any color(s) you want! The more color the better. Make them solid, or use multiple colors in one square.
  • Only do four rounds, as the fifth will be the joining round.
  • Use a 5mm/H gauge hook.

If you don’t know how to make granny squares, don’t fret! I’ve found some really helpful patterns and step-by-step instructions from some awesome blogs. So go check those out for some ideas.

Once you have a nice stack, send them to me:

Jenna Harte
2730 W 97th Pl
Evergreen Park, IL 60805
 

Thank you so much in advance to everyone who participates. If you’d like to enclose a little card or something I’ll include that in my package when I drop off the scarves. Otherwise I’ll include your name (unless you’d like to remain anonymous) in a note.  Please pass this along to anyone it wouldn’t otherwise reach and let’s see how many squares can warm the hearts and souls of these women.

Grow Up, Already!

Posted by jennanana in Not quite crochet

I’ve noticed a theme in my last few sporadic posts, and it makes me sound like a broken record. “Okay, Jenna, we get it, you’ve had a lot on your plate lately!” Honestly, I haven’t posted in a while because I know it’s going to contain a sentence or six about me being stressed and overwhelmed, and I haaaate writing about that. So this is the last one, I swear.
I want to extend a question to whoever is reading this: How do you find the time and energy to accomplish everything? It was beyond easy when all I was doing was going to school and doing the occasional photo shoot. I had time to browse Craftgawker in the morning, fulfill crochet orders at lightning speed, and still have time left over to worry about what trouble I’d be getting myself into on the weekend. I’d be able to do everything I needed with minimal stress.
Now I’ve taken on a part time job at the library, a huge workload for school, a giant crochet order (which I’m almost finished with! Applaud me, please), all while trying to balance time with my amazing friends, boyfriend and family. I’m finding the little things that kept me amused before are taking a back seat for now. I used to take for granted the days when I had no obligations to force me away from the house; now I’m craving a half day when I can lounge around with some hot tea in my mug adorning my coffee mug cozy and a book. Today is one of those days which I’m very excited about! Until I have to go to class this evening. I know I only have a little bit of school left and once that’s over have more time to focus on a career and myself. But for now it’s my time to be angsty and complain about the stresses of growing up.
Anyway, I extend the question one more time: How do you find/make time for all of your obligations? It can’t be any big secret!

Quarter of a Century

Posted by jennanana in Not quite crochet and tagged with , ,

So I hit a milestone last Wednesday, Sept 12.. That’s right, I’m a quarter of a century old. The big 2-5. I know, it’s not old, but I feel like the last 25 years have flown by so I can just imagine how the next 25 will hit me. Despite my realization that I’m actually an adult and have been for, what? ..6 years or so?.. I had an awesome birthday! It was so awesome in fact, that I dragged it out almost a whole week. That’s right, go big or go home. Even if it had nothing to do with my birthday, I made it about my birthday. White Sox game on 9/11? Birthday Sox game! Pedicure the day before my birthday? Birthday pedicure! Camping the weekend after my birthday? Birthday camping! Birthdays are kind of a big deal with my family so this is a normal thing with us.

Luckily I have so many awesome friends and family that everything we did was made special. My super cool man, his brother, my sister and I all went out in downtown Chicago for some yummy beers on my birthday and I could not have asked for a better way to spend my week night birthday. They all had work the next day but trooped it out for me =) Then over the weekend I spent some quality time with the boyfriend and my parents camping in Michigan which was beyond a pleasant weekend.  Spending hours on the beach with Matt and little miss Midge the puppy was the highlight of the weekend, as well as relaxing around the bonfire with some brews and listening to my dad chat about music. I wish I had taken more photos to document this leap into the second quarter of my life, but I’ve admittedly been pretty lax with my camera.

But take my word for it, Best. Birthday. Ever. Thank you everyone, my friends and family, for making my life so superb and enjoyable =)

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