crochet

Off the Hook!

/ jennanana / 2 Comments

OMG, you guys… My hobby and my career have finally come together to form something SUPER exciting! So I’ve probably mentioned somewhere down the road that I’m a librarian. I guess I’m your typical librarian who loves cardigans, coffee, scarves, a good book, and of course crochet. Not a huge fan of cats, but I’ll pet one every once in a while.

But I am finally going  full-blown cliché by starting up my very own crochet club program. Woo woo! I was first intrigued at my last library because we offered a crochet club, and I’ve always wanted to start one here. Welp, now I finally have the time and ambition. So after some heavy name considerations, and trying to choose the perfect, catchy nom de programme (I like to pretend that I still know French…this probably isn’t even grammatically correct) I decided to start up “Off the Hook” Crochet and Knitting Club! It’s a bi-weekly program for crochet and knitting enthusiasts to meet in the library’s Silent Space and work on their project, start a new one, or if you don’t know the first thing about crochet there will *hopefully* be plenty of happy faces to guide you along the way, including myself.

Untitled-1So, if you’re one of my Off the Hook members reading this, HELLO! I can’t wait to get started on October 7 and finally crochet at work without it being frowned upon. Yeeeeaaaaaaah!

Jenna

Just Like Daddy’s

/ jennanana / Leave a comment

Let me tell you about my friends Angie and Nick.. They have the 2nd cutest, loudest Beagle I’ve ever met, and now 2 handsome little men running around their home. Angie just had her second boy a few weeks back so of course I had to crochet him something. Nick is a Union man to the bone, and his (made in America) work boots are one of the most important tools of the trade. I figured I’d give baby Luke a pair just like his daddy. How adorable are these?

JCH_2453

I should make something for their first born again.. I was just learning to crochet when she had him so he got a funny looking hat that was too small to begin with… hmmm..

P.S. All is well in Texas =) I just put my mom back on a flight to Chicago this morning after a 4 day visit. She soaked up the sun and palm trees around Houston and on Galveston, and actually got to see me do work at my Spring Book Club discussion of Kathleen Kent’s novel The Outcasts. It’s really good, go read it.

Jenna

Book Bird

/ jennanana / 2 Comments

I posted a couple years ago about connecting literature with crochet. I made a funny looking spider from a children’s picture book for a friend’s daughter and he turned out awesome. I now have another chance to merge my crochet skillz with my library profession once again because I’m an over achiever.

The idea was sparked when a little girl left her Hello Kitty toy hanging out on a statue we have in the library. The statue is of a little boy reading a book, and the way she abandoned it there, nuzzled next to the little boy, it looked like Hello Kitty was sucked into whatever bronze book the boy has been reading for the last 20 years. Then it gave my boss an idea… What if we had our own “mascot” for the library, and what if it traveled to a new spot every day, waiting for a kid to find it?? Genius. So the plan is it to hide it in a new spot every day and whenever a kid finds it they’ll get a sticker or some little toy to leave under the seat in their mom’s mini van.

The over achiever in me decided I was going to crochet this little mascot because I haven’t made anything in a while and my fingers are losing that crochet hook tone (yes, crochet muscles!) So here I go, working on a little blue bird to flutter around the library!

Book Bird

I promise he will be something soon… And the children will love him! Or they’ll just love the stickers and bookmarks they’ll get when they find him hiding in the library…. Tweet Tweet!

Jenna

I made a pattern?

/ jennanana / Leave a comment

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!!!

Crochet Coffee Mug Cozy Pattern

Jenna

‘Merica

/ jennanana / 8 Comments

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….

DSC_7505

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.

DSC_7589

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 =)

photo

Jenna

Afghan: A Finished Product

/ jennanana / Leave a comment

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?

Signature

I’m a lumberjack and I’m okay…

/ jennanana / 2 Comments

I could only wish to take credit for the infamous beard hats which have been floating around in magazines and websites like SnorgTees.com. About a year and a half ago, a friend sent me a picture of a beard hat and asked if I could replicate it. First I laughed my ass off at the concept of a hat with a connecting crocheted beard and proceeded to tell her “ABSOLUTELY.” I got really excited as I tend to do when I get new ideas, and got cracking on it. I did good.

The result:

Fantastic. BUT after making this style for a long time, I found there were a few things I needed to work out.. 1) The beard is completely attached to the hat and, if you have a big head, it’s not so easy to slip on and off without squeezing the ever lasting life out of your skull and 2) it was just a simple mustache portion that hung straight across. It needed a little more pizazz.. a mustache worthy of the British spelling “moustache.”

After some trial and error, I finally recently came up with a new beard! This time, I added a fancy moustachio AND figured if I only attached the beard to the hat at one end I could sew a button on the inside of the hat at the other end, making it much easier to take on and off. Evolution, people.

But it gets better. What can be better than a full face of lumberjack, you ask? I made it detachable.

VOILA! Presto cabob, I grew a beard-o:

“Cheers, mates!”

Right now I’m making and selling the beard hats as 2 separate pieces (Interested in making a purchase? Send me an email! We’ll talk) so I’ll see how that works out. Maybe if I feel like sharing my tricks of the trade I’ll make a post sharing a pattern on how to make these bad boys! But for now, I’ll share some photos of the famous beards slutting their way around Nashville, TN.  Everyone looks handsome in a beard!

Signature

Knitting Hooker!

/ jennanana / 6 Comments

Fantastic news! Regarding my previous post, I have officially become a “knitting hooker.”  If you haven’t been following me (=O for shame!!) I received a request from my friend Jessica to make an adorable bohemian style headband last week.  First I was going to crochet it, but being that I’ve been wanting to actually make a knit project I found this the perfect opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone.  The pattern seemed easy enough and I’ve had the basics of knitting down pat for some time, but I could just never get over that hump of following through with a project. Finally, I sat down and (…6 hours later) came out with a gray headband.  As adorable as it is, I don’t think I will  be knitting another one for some time.. I think I’ll stick with being a crochet hooker and a small time knitter for those special projects on which I don’t mind spending my precious, precious time.

Drum roll, pleaaase…..

TA DA! And as an added bonus, a headband I whipped up inspired by vintage headscarf-ware.

I’ve already crocheted two headbands like this and they look just as cute as the knit version; they just take about 5 hours less to make! I love the style and they do a dandy job of keeping the ears cozy. Jessica loves hers and reported that it bore the Chicago Winter just beautifully!

Signature