Freshly Finished Friday #14

On April 17, 2015April 17, 2015 By hardknitlifeIn Free-For-All Friday, Fresh Off The Needles, Freshly Finished Friday5 Comments

Welcome to a link-up party for your Friday Finished Object posts! In an effort to connect everyone who creates and blogs about it here on the web, I thought providing a place to link up and share your freshly finished creations would be a great way to see what everyone is working on. Please feel free to share ANY of your finished crafty pursuits from knitting and crocheting to sewing and scrapbooking.

Again, no new finishes. However, I have been wearing 3 of my favorite knits:

My Squishy Socks, My Settler Shawl & My Rikke Hat. Not all at the same time, but over the last couple days. In fact, I wore my Settler Shawl to my interview yesterday 🙂 Hopefully it brings me luck.

To join in the fun, click the link up below to see all the others participating in a Freshly Finished Friday! It will take you away from this page, but don’t worry, you will always be able to find your way back. It’s especially helpful if the linked up blog has a link back here. Please add your specific blog post link and remember to link back here in your blog so we can all be connected 🙂

❤

Jenna

Freshly Finished Friday #9

On March 6, 2015March 6, 2015 By hardknitlifeIn Free-For-All Friday, Fresh Off The Needles, Freshly Finished Friday9 Comments

Good morning!! I was lying in bed last night around 11:45pm (CST) and realized I had not set up this post to publish in the wee morning hours I resolved to get my sleep and get up this morning to publish one. It’s 7:20am here and I do have a finish to show you!

I finished the Rikke hat for me! It’s in some luscious Malabrigo Rios in the Candombe colorway. I’ve been wearing it nonstop and I absolutely adore it! It took me maybe 3 or 4 days to finish it.

Selfie!

Until we meet again!

v’s & bumps,

Jenna

PS. As April/May approaches, so does my blog anniversary. I’m trying to make a decision on whether or not to switch over to a self-hosted webpage/blog so it will be easier to find me, I’ll have more storage, and that way the link-ups will show up as little picture icons right in the post.

Princess Bride & a Few Knit-Alongs…

On November 14, 2014 By hardknitlifeIn Free-For-All Friday10 Comments

Call me crazy, but I have never seen the Princess Bride. Until today, as I type, I’m watching it. I DVR’d it a few days ago and thought I should watch it. It’s so stinkin’ cute!! For all my love of awkward love stories, I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it!

Onto the real topic of Free-For-All Friday…KALs!! Ravelry, Instagram, Blogs, and Podcasts are all alight with Knit-Alongs for EVERYTHING!!! It’s got to be the holidays, but there are some really fun things going on out there. First up, how about the awesome

INDIE DESIGN GIFT-ALONG

There are 298 indie designers participating. It runs for 2 months, starting yesterday November 13 at 8pm EST and running through December 31 at midnight EST. Right now, they are running a little 25% off on their patterns from yesterday until Friday November 21 at 11:59pm EST. You can check out the group here on Ravelry. You knit, you post, you gift, and you win. Things. Nice things. If nothing else, it will open your eyes to some great new designers.

Here are a few of the ones I’m definitely scoping out.
Heidi Atwood-Reeves–I’m all about her Cedar Lake Cadigan. I was turned on to this designer by A Playful Day podcaster greentrianglegirl…maybe another few months and when I finish the Wee Envelope (that I still need to cast on!).
Alicia Plummer– A link to her GAL bundle. The DownEast sweater, Coalesce shawl, White Leaf Cowl, Birchbark sweater, Salted sweater, postgrad cardigan…Need I say more?
Bristol Ivy– A link to her GAL bundle. The Earl Grey Mitts, Stria cardigan, Triangulate Cowl, Windrow Cowl, Wainwright sweater…I could go on.
Megan Williams– A link to her GAL bundle. She’s Megan of the Stockinette Zombies podcast. And her Cool Clavicle Cover is making the WIP rounds on several podcasts. Definitely on my list 🙂
Sarah Burghardt Abram– A link to her GAL bundle. I’m loving the Stricken shawl, Foxversation Piece hat, Much Ado Shawl, Wicker Park shawl…Beautiful!
Gretchen Ronnevik– A link to her GAL bundle. I want to knit the Clarity Cardigan and the Madame Phelps Shawl has caught my eye as well.
ambah– A link to her GAL bundle. Oh those, mirri mitts, Magine shawl, Kalimna shawl…
Shannon Cook– A link to her GAL bundle. This is Shannon from the Very Shannon blog. I’ve been stalking her new collection, Seasonless…I want to knit her Onward shawl, Downton cowl, Laylow shawl, Antrorse sweater…
Jenny Faifel– A link to her GAL bundle. The Lucky no 7 cowl, her loopdigan, and the sleeveless in Vancouver. Beautiful…

I don’t want to keep you here all night looking at their Gift-Along Bundles…I’m sure you can do that yourself by making your way over to the Ravelry group. These are just a few of the designers that I’ve been eyeing for a while. I can’t think of a better way to explore some of the excellent independent designers out there!!

I know I said I wanted to talk about all the cool KALs out there, but I decided this one is enough to keep you going.

On second thought, if you aren’t in the mood for gift knitting, the lovely ladies over at the Knitmore Girls podcast, Jasmin & Gigi, are hosting a Grinch-Along. There are only two rules:
1.) It can’t be holiday gift knitting.
2.) It has to bring you joy.

What sounds better than that…I think several “Jenna” projects are in order…

Like perhaps these socks that I’ve been knitting forever…My lovely Technicolor Socks Take 2. It’s the Show-off Stranded Socks pattern by Anne Campbell in this gorgeous Pagewood Farm Denali in the Sky Blue Pink colorway. I’ve got them on some Karbonz. Dreamy US size 0 DPNs…

I finished the Rikke hat for Anke’s friend…Now I need to put it in the mail on Monday 🙂

Selfie!! I had to try it on because it looked huge!!

Lastly, you may be asking yourself, what happened to that delectable yarn she showed us on Wednesday?? You know, the Two Grey Dogs??

I decided to wind this one by hand. You know, to get acquainted properly with it.

Here we are about half-way in…

And I finished. It’s the cutest little (not really, 420 yds!!) ball of yarn! I think I’m going to cast it on. I am feeling the design bug.

Are you getting involved in any fun knit-alongs or craft-alongs? Are you totally wrapped up in gift knitting?

v’s & bumps,

Jenna

Brain Block

On November 10, 2014November 10, 2014 By hardknitlifeIn Monday Musings10 Comments

Yep, I’m a little stopped up in my thoughts for posting. I have noticed that I’ve been a bit bouncy in terms of my ideas and projects and goals that I talk about here on the blog. I have found that I bring up things and talk about wanting to do things, then I don’t follow through! Yikes! Not fun. And a little disappointing.

Just a moment though, because I do (sometimes) come back to them. For instance, the Whispers top.

It was supposed to be a part of the Nice & Knit Summer Sweater Knit Along. By the time I really got knitting on the thing, summer was over. I finished it well after the KAL concluded…so late in fact I was able to use it in the Commuter Knitter Finish Along for this year. If you haven’t wandered over to listen to NDJen04 (on Ravelry) on her podcast, you are missing out! Check her out on iTunes if you are looking for some fun knitting related listening.

I don’t know where I was going there. See what I mean? I’m all over the place.

So I think I need to work on holding myself accountable for all the awesome things I want to start and participate in!!

For instance, I’ve got 3 things I’d like to tackle before the end of the year. Maybe if I tell you about them, you can help hold me accountable. Perhaps I should make a weekly thing to check in. So those things that I want to do.

1. Rikke Hat— I finally caught up with all the blogs I read. While doing so, I came across several posts referencing this post by Anke at Our Little Piece of Heaven. She has a friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatment. Anke is requesting a few hats knit for her friend to brighten her day. I have the perfect skein of Malabrigo Rios in the Arco Iris colorway and I love the Rikke pattern. The slouch is perfect and so cozy.

2. Wee Envelope— As I mentioned in my last post, I received my LittleStitch box from PostStitch to make a Wee Envelope for my niece Payton. I went into this in good detail last week.

3. Turia Sweater/Featherweight Sweater— I want to knit the Turia because it’s been languishing in my stash for some time. It was also the first sweater I saw that I really, really wanted to make. It is in battle with the Featherweight sweater because I did just buy yarn for this at Vogue Knitting Live and Amy Herzog of CustomFit and Hannah Fetig of KnitBot (the designer) are running a KAL on Ravelry. Do you see my dilemma??

These three things sound doable, but this brings me to my hesitancy to even talk about them much less cast them on. I already have like 10 things on the needles! I don’t like having all these WIPs out there. Languishing. Feeling unloved. Being stagnant.

I look back at my WIPs and I remember loving all those things at some point. I ask myself why I put them down. Then I look at the next thing and think, yep, this is why I put that down, so I could start this! And I want those WIPs to be finished so they can go to their recipients or I can wear them!!

So this is where your thoughts come in. What would you do–finish up the WIPs or just go ahead and cast on the new stuff??

I’m sure I’ll make a decision by Wednesday, but I would love your input!!

v’s & bumps,

Jenna