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Brrrrr…

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*Sigh* I have become acclimated to Houston. I hate to say it, but I’m cold, man. I am a born and bred Chicagoan used to the bitter cold winters, but after four years of mild winters, this cold snap has me shaking. A winter storm came through Houston last night (it’s finally warming up now, yay!) and the whole city shut down. Highways are iced over, work was canceled, it’s icy and frigid, and no one in Houston is prepared for this. I was even sent to Autozone by my boss to buy a bag of rock salt for the library entrances! The wonderful guys there didn’t even know they sold it!

Luckily, this means I get some time to get working on updating my store and making some new items. The ice and frost yesterday made for some fabulous photo ops this morning too. Last night I came across the surface braid technique, of which there are TONS of tutorials out there, and knew I wanted to make a headband with it. I’ve been out of the headband game for a while so I’m obsessed with making this chunky, squishy pattern I’m calling the Sweetheart Headband because of the shape the cinch gives it. I’m currently working on writing out the pattern, so stay tuned for that! For now, here are some photos of these beauties.

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I basically posted up on the couch with a blanket last night, the husband built a fire, and we binged some episodes of Fargo. Pretty fitting for the ice raining down from the sky last night. Check out my store if you would like to place an order for your own Sweetheart Headband. Your warm ears will thank you!

I’m looking forward to the warmer temps this weekend — it’s supposed to get up to 70 — and will be wearing this mermaid colored headband while I still can.

Are you in the South getting these crazy temps as well?? What are you doing to keep from going stir crazy?

Jenna

Bring it on, 2018!

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And just like that, 2017 is gone.

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Poof. I don’t think a year has gone by more quickly for me. I just finished reading my tribute to 2016 on Facebook, and it was a doozy.

“Well 2016 was oh so bitter, but oh so sweet as well. As much as I joke about 2016 being the absolute worst (just like everyone else!) it was also one of the best. It’s easy to dwell on the bad from 2016, so let’s all focus on the great of 2016. Here is my year in review, including some of the bitter points because they made 2016 what it is: We rang in the new year as an engaged couple. Matt and I found an awesome brewery close to home. We moved out of a crappy little apartment into our first home. We went to Wrestlemania and Matt cried when one of his idol wrestlers came out. He also cried when his Cubbies won the World Series. We made a million and two trips home to spend time with family and friends and celebrate all of our engagement milestones. We all lost our best Fred and had our worlds turned upside down within a matter of a month. Work treated me very well and I earned a hefty raise. Matt turned our home into DB&B with delicious bbq and beer. I visited Denver for the first time and was reunited with an old friend. We filled our home with family for Thanksgiving and gave daddy a Gulf Coast send off. And best of all I married my best friend and became a Wisniewski!! (Though not officially on paper yet.. Technically I’m still Harte. But soon that will change.) Please be gentle, 2017, and give us nothing but luck, love and happy memories we can reminisce on at this time next year 😊”

Well here I am, as it is already that time of year to reminisce on the memories of 2017. Honestly, we got very lucky this year, and I’m okay with that. Last year was a beast of a rollercoaster, so this year actually turned out to be a nice cool down from 2016. This was the first full year without my best Fred, and I’m heartbroken as ever. We began by ringing in the Irish New Year, and then went out for our first New Year celebration as a married couple. We celebrated Matt’s 29th birthday. We saw Willie at the Houston Rodeo. I visited San Antonio for the Texas Library Conference and jumped up on stage at Coyote Ugly more than one time… We explored more of what Houston has to offer and discovered a new favorite brewery. Matt quit his miserable job and opened up Dixie’s Home Maintenance! I got a rad new hair-do and Matt has never looked finer with his head of hair. Sister got engaged and we’re thrilled to welcome Paulie to the family! But he’s not the only one we welcomed to the family.. Luci Joy made her appearance and was hands down one of the highlights of the year. We smoked a LOT of meat at DB&B, and drank a lot of beer. I had an idea to “just build up a portion of that half wall and put in a sliding barn door to close off the bathroom from our bedroom.” We then began a complete bathroom remodel. That bathroom remodel was interrupted by a little storm called Harvey, and we saw a lot more water than we should ever see in some places.  We had no damage or flooding to the house and counted our blessings! We finally took our honeymoon/anniversary trip to Jamaica and it changed our lives. We had a lot of visitors to Texas (thanks, everyone, for coming!) I enjoyed a tata on the beach with dad one year after he passed. We finished said bathroom remodel. We made our annual ACL Fest trip. I had blue hair. Dixie saw snow for the first time! (And it was in Houston.. weird.) I decided to pick up where I left off with my crochet adventures. Matt decided to make a lot of changes for the better, and the end of the year has turned into a resolution of happiness. Oy.. what am I missing? We have a lot of high hopes and plans for 2018. 2017 was the year of “please be gentle” and it sorta was; but tomorrow begins the year of “don’t disappoint!” Bring it, 2018!

Happy New Year, friends! Cheers to a great year!

Jenna

Master of Library Silence

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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

A Call to all My Crochet Hookers

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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.

Regarding the Support of Family and Friends..

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Hello, all! The new year is finally here and I am sad to say I’ve neglected this once again for a few weeks. The holiday seasons have been hectic with fulfilling orders and making gifts so I haven’t been able to find the time to come up with any good blog posts.  However, this being my first post of the year, I want to stray from the typical new year resolutions and make it extra special by acknowledging the people who matter the most…  I know Thanksgiving is long past, but I want to dedicate this post to saying thank you to all of the awesome friends and family who have been supporting my hobby throughout the season and giving me new inspiration to try new patterns and ideas. Being a full time grad student in Library school is getting very time consuming with all of the reading and whatnot, so I absolutely am humbled that I am able to support myself with my two hobbies: photography and crochet. All of the awesome people who are purchasing my handmade goodies as well as spreading the word about my business are more than wonderful and I couldn’t be more appreciative of your business. It gets crazy sometimes and my hands and wrists do get sore, but it’s all worth it to see my yarn creations light up the people in my life. Thank you, and keep the support coming, friends!

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