Give lots and lots of hugs and kisses to all your Valentine’s today! My Valentine is living 1000 miles away (literally.. he made the move to Texas) so I have a date with my camera and my family at my Aunt’s wedding tonight.
Just wanted to spread the love to everyone on Valentine’s Day =)
EAT YOUR HEART OUT!
xxooxxoo,
My fingers have been very busy now that I have so much more free time on my hands! Check out one of the items I’m selling made to order. Any Chicago Blackhawks fans out there?
The pattern for the helmet can be found here and the booties are just a regular bootie with an improvised skate. I’ll just give you an empty promise of a future pattern 😉
Check out how great my friend’s baby (future Patrick Sharp perhaps??) looks in his helmet and skates!
If you know me (aka read my personal info) you would know that I don’t always follow patterns. In fact, I kind of suck at following patterns. So what I usually do is improvise, tear apart, improvise some more and then another couple of rounds of tearing apart and improvising. But lately I’ve found how useful patterns are, especially when making booties. I just can’t seem to get the hang of those things!
I’ve had a couple of requests for a pattern for my leg warmers. But each time I’ve made them, I never took good enough notes to make a pattern from it. Ooops. So what I’ve decided is to finally start keeping track of my most popular items and writing down a pattern. So yes, the title of this post is true.. I wrote a pattern! The school librarian I’m working with right now asked if I could teach her how to make my coffee mug cozy so she could use it for a Christmas craft program with her high schoolers. Being the over achiever I am, I even offered to write a pattern for her. Though I shouldn’t give myself a bruise patting myself on the back, because, hey, this pattern is ridiculously easy. Like, REALLY easy. Easy.
So I would like to call on my pals to test it out before I publish it to Ravelry or anything.. Could you fine folks do that for me? I’m attaching it for the low low cost of $0, and I would LOVE for ya’ll to give it a try and let me know if I need to make any changes. Tear it apart, add to it, tell me to never make another pattern because I’m just that horrible. But any feedback would be much appreciated! Just leave your comments on this post so I can know how to make the pattern that much better =)
Thank you!!!
So my email informed me that my domain name would be expiring in one month. And I thought, “Domain? What is this domain? I have a blog?” And then I remembered the old days when I had the time to sit around and make beautiful crochet things, and then write about crochet projects. And then I cried a bit because I miss those days. But they won’t be gone forever because I’ve only been getting my life in order and preparing for my career in Library and Information Silence. For the last 7 weeks I’ve been pulling 52-60 hour work weeks between student teaching and working (and only getting paid for 8 hrs!) so there hasn’t been much time for yarn and hooking! But I have been keeping myself busy outside of all that important stuff!
So here’s a recap of the last few months..
And there’s more that’s been keeping me happy and stressed and busy. But I have a few tricks up my sleeve for some future posts, including all of that yummy goodness that came out of my dad’s little garden this summer! I hope everyone’s Fall is turning out to be lovely and exploding with colors, while my friends in another hemisphere are enjoying their blooming Spring! What have I been missing in your world while I’ve been running around like a mad woman in mine? =)
Five things I resolve to do at the beginning of the summer, but don’t actually follow through on….
5. Wear more sun dresses, or just any dress or skirt for that matter
4. Work out and take regular walks with the dog
3. Plant an herb garden
2. Mass produce wintery crochet items so I can sell them when it starts getting chilly outside
1. Write more blog posts. WOOPS.
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!
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 =)
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?
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….
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.
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 =)
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!
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
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.
crochet hooker 