Passing the Summer Hours

Posted by jennanana in Projects and tagged with ,

I think I mentioned a while ago — hmm it’s been so long since I’ve blogged that I’ve forgotten what I wrote! — that I’ve been working on some big projects this summer. I hate sitting jn the heat with a mound of yarn on my lap, but what better way to pass all of this free summer time? One project in particular, an afghan I was commissioned to make, is very slow going, but coming along great! Here’s a photo of the progress..

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And good news! I finished a baby afghan but shh it’s a gift. Pictures to come after the baby shower.
How have you been passing your lazy summer hours? Do you even have any lazy summer hours?!

Summertime Blog Gaps

Posted by jennanana in Not quite crochet

My fellow Americans: I’m not sure if you’ve noticed or not, but it’s been HOT. This summer heat has struck with a vengeance, probably making up for the poopy June weather we had last year. Stupid heat. Don’t get me wrong; I looove Summer and the heat and sun that comes with it! But when the weather gets up to 103 degrees with humidity that can melt your face, I start longing for the chilly days of Fall.

Where am I going with this…? Well, I’m trying to justify my not keeping up with my crochet themed blog. I hate that I’m paying for a domain name and I haven’t posted in a month. But really, with the heat I just haven’t wanted to sit around with a ball of yarn on my sweaty lap. So, I’ve decided that since my crochet projects kind of wane during the summer months I’m going to fulfill your lives with bits of my life outside of my hobby. Maybe I’ll have a weekly series about what I’ve been doing lately, or some snapshots of my day to day. Gotta love social media.

Anywho, my summer has been awesome so far! With a spontaneous road trip to the East Coast and landing a new job in my profession I’m feeling like I’m in a happy place right now =)

 

 

Best Birthday Present EVER?

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

Maybe not ever, but pretty damn sweet! So remember when  in my last post I mentioned that I had something to share for my sister’s birthday?… Well she had her birthday this past weekend so I can finally show off my gift for her! I’ll preface it by letting you know that my sister LOVES Pac Man.  We grew up with a table top Pac Man machine in our basement where my sisters and I would spend hours playing.  The sounds of Pac Man gobbling up yellow dots and those elusive fruits was always coming from our basement (wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka).  In fact, Krystle is so obsessed with Pac Man that she has the little yellow dude and Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde tattoo’d on her! So when I came across a pattern on Ravelry for Pac Man and the ghosts I couldn’t resist.  I don’t know how I kept it a secret from her for so long and didn’t show her as soon as I finished…

I’m happy to report that she looooves them! Their eyes are kind of wonky  and it looks like they’re wearing skirts, but that’s just the perfectionist in me.. They’re so fun and easy to make, I wouldn’t mind making them again! Maybe a Mrs. PacMan?? Hmmm!!…

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I’m still here! And with a baby afghan to show you.

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

I have a confession. And I’m probably not the only ‘blogger’ who does this.  Sometimes I wait weeks to post about a craft or project I’ve done. =O UH OH SECRET’S OUT!! Seriously though, I have things I’ve finished months ago that I haven’t posted about simply because either I forget, I neglected to take a somewhat professional photo of it, or I’m just overwhelmed by the thought of it possibly being a very involved post. However! The semester has come to an anticlimactic ending, and I now have so much free time that I’m planning to be more active in my posting.  Wait, did I say free time? Just yesterday I felt overwhelmed with all of the things I need to get done now that I’m not worrying about deadlines with school! This is why I’ve been AWOL from my blog. Library school is way more involved than I could have ever imagined. But the crochet hooker is still alive and kickin, and swamped with summer projects which I need to find motivation to finish.  It always seems so hard to sit down with a skein of yarn and my hooks when the sun is shining bright in the sky and the birds are beckoning me outside. Of course, I can always work on things outside, but who wants to fuss with a big afghan on your lap when it’s 75 or 80 degrees outside?? Not this gal.

Anywho, I recently finished a baby granny-square afghan! Commissioned by a friend to make it for her friend, it turned out ADORABLE. it was just a simple granny square pattern, but the colors go really well together and it was so nice and cozy that I know any baby would be obliged to sleep with it. Granted it did take me a lottt longer to make and put together than I had anticipated. That’s okay though, it gave me something to do while I listened to audiobooks for my young adult literature class =) Lots of people are amazed I can crochet and listen to an audiobook at the same time.. multitasking!

Since my last post, I’ve been busy with lots of projects which I’ll share now that I can shift my attention from schoolwork to hobbies (I promise!) Previews: another granny square afghan that is a whooole lot more advanced than this, a family of beard hats, and a birthday present for my sister!! I’m way too excited about this last one! Stay tuned!

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p.s. I’m starting a new job today at a car dealership. (Is my excitement just exuding through the computer?) I worked as a cashier/receptionist for the last 5 years in another dealership and thought I was getting away from that. But hey, a job is a job right? Wish me luck!

Itsy Bitsy Spider

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

As a library science student, I obviously love books.  But what I love most is finding fun ways to do more than just read them.  I love to do more interactive activities and find ways to get kids into reading.  My friend Beth has a beautiful baby gal named Brooke and when she came to me and asked if I could recreate her favorite book character, I jumped on it!  The book is Itsy Bitsy Spider by Kate Toms

I haven’t had a chance to take a gander of the book, but apparently Brooke goes crazy over Itsy! So when Beth showed me the cover of the book it looked fairly simple to recreate.  The shape is just a flattened pear shape and the feet, big long tear drops.  I’m so happy with how he turned out! His legs are kind of wonky and dangly, but he’s handsome nonetheless.  I’m  happy to report that Brooke loves her Itsy!  Hopefully she doesn’t love him to pieces…

Itsy and I had a photo shoot =P What is your favorite character you’d love to pieces?

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Busy Busy Busy.. And a Spring time wreath

Posted by jennanana in Craftyness, Not quite crochet, Projects, Yarn and tagged with

I don’t know if you could tell or not, but I’ve been busy lately.  Graduate school isn’t fun when the end of the semester comes rolling along.  While working on major projects and trying to keep my 4.0 GPA (let’s see how long that lasts..) I’ve been crafting in between reading, reading, and more reading.  I’ve got a lot to share, but I’ll spread everything out so your brains don’t explode with amazingness.  HA.

Anyway, for the last year or so I’ve been seeing a lot of these fun and simple wreaths all over Craftgawker and Pintrest.  I’ve been wanting to make one myself but never got around to it.

FINALLY I DID.

It turned out supah cute and looks lovely against our red front door.  My yarn stash is getting put to good use other than being knotted by a crochet hook.

Since I haven’t posted in a long time, I have LOTSSS to share. But that’s it for now.. Preview for coming attractions: 2 afghans I’m working on, an accessory for my camera, and finding inspiration from a baby book. Stay tuned!

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I Feel Special

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

Oh my! I have a loyal follower! And he nominated me for an award!

I have to admit I blushed a little and it put a smile on my face when I saw my name under his nominations =) This fantastic guy is Mr. Raynor over at The Shy Lion.  I follow his blog as well and he always has something fascinating to say. So thank you, Raynor!!

As per the terms of this Versatile Blogger Award, I have a few rules to follow..

  •  Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.
  •  Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy — if you can figure out how to do it.
  •  Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly.
  •  Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site.
  •  Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

Not quite the one to always follow in order, and in no particular order of intrigue, first here are seven things aboot myself!

  1. I have lived in the same house all of my 24 years, and have never called any other place than Chicago home.
  2. I shaved my head once! (It was for a good cause; not teenage rebellion)
  3. I buy and hoard classic paperbacks with every intention to read them, but I don’t know when I’ll get around to cracking most of them open
  4. I’m nerdily excited about being on the front lines for literacy as soon as I’m done with my Masters Degree in Library Science and become a school librarian
  5. I’ve always wanted to become a professional photographer, but chose not to go to school for it because I know I would lose some passion
  6. I spend way too much time at the beach, on the boat and in the sun during the summer, and tan lines are my biggest pet peeve
  7. and finally, My absolute biggest, most consuming fear is to lose a limb or any part of my body.. weird?

And now, this is going to be the hardest bit because I’m not sure that I follow 15 bloggers..But shhh I listed 16! But 16 of my favorite blogs, those who are loyal to my blog and blogs I’ve found helpful in the past are as follows (and in no particular order..)

Okay, so that wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.  There are so many great blogs and creative minds broadcasting out there and I wish I had more hours to dedicate to following them more often.  But that is a list everyone should browse because there is a lot of amazing content there! Keep this going, don’t keep this going, I don’t caaare.. I just felt honored that I was mentioned so I wanted to make someone else feel supah special too.

ANYWHOOOO, I’ve been very busy lately! Granny square baby afghan, planning another baby afghan, more amigurumi, Easter/Spring decorations.. So much to update you on! But I’ll save it for another day.

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uhmeeguhroomee

Posted by jennanana in Am making, Amigurumi, Have made, Projects and tagged with , ,

I promise I know how to spell. This post is about amigurumi! For the last year I’ve been seeing these cute crochet and knit animals and things with little faces like carrots, cupcakes, acorns, you name it.  I wanted to make them so baaad! I finally gave it a go with an adorable pattern I found for peas in a pod which I posted about back around Christmas. I made them for my pseudo-sister Jessica as a gift (it took everything in me to part with them..)  Since then I’ve made two more attempts at little amigurumi guys and I have to say, I was pretty successful. Toot toot (me tooting my own horn).

I made a pig for my gramma for Valentine’s Day; she’s obsessed with oinkers.  I couldn’t find the perfect pattern so I based one off of this pig from Lion Brand and tweaked it to my liking. Since posting the picture on my Facebook I had a few more requests for the pig! Someone also asked if I could make a bunny so I used this pattern from Lion Brand which resulted in a wittle wabbit. Next project: an owl.  I can’t wait to get started on a little hooter for my friend’s baby =) So here are a few pictures of the little guys… That amazing backdrop is a huge piece of fabric I found at an antique store for only $2.50 btw!

It’s very tedious to make each individual part then sew it on, and they take a little more time to make than I had expected, but they’re so cute that it’s totally worth it.  Stay tuned for future cuteness!

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P.S.

It’s St. Patrick’s Day! I made cupcakes! ..I wish I could actually send you one through the computer, but you can take my word for it that it tastes delicious. Happy Patty’s day to my fellow Irish folk!

“Should we talk about the weather?”

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

I’m more than happy to say that it’s been a very mild winter here in Chicago, and the Midwest for that matter.  When usually we’ll have nipping winds and mounds of snow we had balmy and miserably rainy days as well as temperate sunny ones.  But hey, I didn’t care.  Other than being able to wear cute scarves and sweaters, I hate hate hate winter and live for Spring and Summer! I was happier than a pig in shit when I was able to rock some colorful tights, cut off jean shorts and a cute sweater or cardigan in the middle of Winter.  We really only had two significant snow falls and I completely missed the second one when I was in Nashville.  We flew home into a rainy Chicago to find that every inch of it had melted away! Huzzah!

Even though it’s been a warm one, this winter was very lucrative for me. I’ve had tons of crochet orders — hats, beards, headbands, leg warmers.. — so the temperate weather didn’t affect my little business at all which I’m very happy about. Everyone has been super supportive and more than awesome when making purchases from me and I can’t be more thankful! But now that it’s really starting to warm up I’m trying to find some inspiration for banging out a bunch of little projects like amigurumi items and little things I can sell when the weather turns chilly once again. But for now I’ve got 2 baby blankets and some little projects on my agenda. But today I’ll take a break from it =)

The last couple of days have been in the 70′s (very strange for March!) and we’re expecting the rest of the week to be the same.  Now that Daylight Savings Time happened on Saturday night, the days are getting longer, the sun is changing angles in the sky and I’m waking up to the chirping of birds.  Right now it’s 5:15pm and still sunny! Today I sat in the sunshine with a book and couldn’t have been happier in life. I even added to my sunburn I got on Sunday! My sad, winter-pasty legs have acquired a little bit of a pinkish hue =) Ganja even came scratching at the door from the inside wanting to soak up some rays. Me-yow. Good things are happening.

A nice, quick read – biography of Janis Joplin

Ganja baby with her irresistible kitteh smile

Honestly this weather couldn’t have come at a better time because I’m starting to burn out from repetitive crochet projects.  I’ve made too many hats in the last 3 months! Hopefully the warmth keeps up and we don’t get any unexpected, late Winter snows like a few years ago (5 inches in late April of 2009!) I need to start getting my tan on and soaking in some Vitamin D. So, let’s talk about the weather. How’s everything in your neck of the woods?

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Wet blanket

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

So last winter, I think in January 2011, I was feeling pretty confident in my mad crochet abilitiez, so I decided to start an afghan. Who was I kidding? I was inspired by older movies from the 80′s or early 90′s. You know the films, where there’s an old, ugly blanket neatly folded over the back of the sofa. Take Roseanne, for instance. Green couch with a granny square blanket laying over the back.  I LOVE THAT BLANKET. So I started dreaming of making myself the ugliest crochet blanket I could.  And so it began. I chose three colors for this gem: sky blue, black, and some confetti color I found in the Red Heart brand. Hey, if you’re going to make a big blanket you’re going to opt for the cheap stuff, right? Then I shopped around for the perfect pattern and decided on the larksfoot stitch. I used this same stitch for a baby blanket I made prior to starting this.  I like how the “claw” part of it digs down into the previous color and sort of.. pops. I just think it looks really cool so I went with it.

I started my blanket and may have gotten a little overambitious. After a few rows I realized it was a little bigger than I anticipated.. and I was working the width. The width is a little over 7 ft. Meaning the height will be about 9ft. But hey, go big or go home, right?!

Unfortunately, I only finished 24 rows, meaning it’s about 1/8 of the way finished. I chalk it up to the fact that at that point I was really getting into taking orders from people wanting hats and things so I focused more of my time on making a few extra dollars and, in the end, the blanket was folded up and thrown into my closet. Doesn’t this happen to every crochet hooker?

But fear not, for the blanket is revived! The other day I was clearing out some of my hoard of hoodies (no shame in admitting that I had 54 hoodies folded on a shelf in my closet.. don’t ask) and I noticed a sad heap of technicolor staring at me saying “You’ve forgotten me, haven’t you…?” After some denial, I finally picked up my blanket and declared that I would finish it. Despite my large list of orders I need to fill, I will get this thing done. It will no longer be a wet blanket, but one of the coolest, ugliest afghans around. Maybe not, but I will cherish it forever =). Actually I love the colors I picked for it and the more I look at it the more excited I get about finishing it. I like to think that one day it will be a family heirloom.. HA!

Here are some pictures of my blanket:

That’s my ‘squatch blimpus in the background

The unfinished edges. At this point I wasn’t familiar with the whole sew it in while you work concept.

Eww my little piggies!

So that’s my ongoing project I’ll hopefully finish sometime in the near future! How do you feel about my colors? Do you have a big project you can’t seem to finish?

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