This is a blog series in which I tell you about random things I recommend you try – and they aren’t often ami related!

feedly:

I follow quite a number of blogs in order to stay up to date on all that is going on in the world of yarn, plus some other personal interest blogs. I could bookmark them all and check them for updates every so often, or I could sign up to receive an email every time they release a new post, but those options aren’t very convenient. It is time consuming to check each blog individually, and I don’t want my inbox to be filled with every single blog post, some of which I might not even want to read. What do I do? I use the blog reader feedly!

There are other popular feed readers out there, such as Bloglovin’, and if you are looking for a place to organize your blogs I recommend trying them all out to see what works for you, but my favourite is feedly. It is basic, easy to use, and displays your favourite blogs nicely in one feed. While Bloglovin’ has a more social aspect to it, I didn’t want that with my reader – the simpler the better!

Basically, you search for your favourite blogs within feedly, save them to your account, and then each new blog post from your saved blogs will show up in your feed. You can also organize the different blogs into categories, so if you only want to see the updates from the amigurumi blogs you follow, you can just look at your amigurumi category feed!

You can also save individual blog posts to read later if you can’t currently read it but don’t want to forget about it – or maybe you really liked the post and want to read it again in the future.

There is also a mobile app for feedly so you can check your feeds on your phone or tablet while on the go. It syncs with the desk-top version so everything is kept up to date.

My favourite thing about feedly is how easy it is to add a new blog to your feed by using the chrome add-on. The add-on shows up as a little feedly icon in the bottom right-hand corner of your computer screen and when you click on it while you are on a particular blog’s page you can do a number of different things, including share the post to facebook, share the post on twitter, save the post for later on your feedly account, or add the whole blog to your feedly feed. So easy!

A crochet and knitting meet-up group:

This year I started a knit and crochet meet-up group with a few of my friends and I love it! There are only four of us, but that is a perfect size for chatting it up while we knit and crochet together. It is fun to see what project everyone is working on and we can help each other out with tricky patterns.

Knitting and crocheting really are great hobbies for getting social – it is so easy to take projects with you anywhere and talk while creating. My group sometimes meets in a cafe, but lately we have been meeting for picnics at lunch so we can fully enjoy the summer weather.

Some meet-up groups knit and crochet for charity, too. They might knit winter hats for the homeless, crochet blankets for disaster relief packages, or crochet and knit amigurumi for sick children. So many great ways to help out, and it is always more enjoyable when you do it together.

If you aren’t involved in a knit/crochet group, I highly recommend you find one, or start one! You can check out different places online for groups that are already organized, such as on ravelry, facebook and meetup.com, or check with your local yarn shop to see if they have any groups or know of any. Of course, if you already have friends in mind that knit or crochet but you don’t currently get together, start organizing a meet-up yourself! It is so fun 🙂

A TV antenna:

My husband I don’t have cable television, but we still get to enjoy HD tv – and for free! Don’t like paying the big bill to your cable company but still want to enjoy watching basic tv? I suggest you try using a tv antenna instead! They usually cost less than $30 and you can often still watch the top stations in HD quality.

With our antenna we can get about 10 channels, including Global, CTV, CityTV, and CBC (which are some of the main Canadian stations). We could maybe even get more if our apartment building wasn’t surrounded by other, taller buildings. For us, however, these channels are enough. We can watch the news every morning and evening, as well as whatever other fun show might be on when we just want to be lazy 😛

There is one major negative that you have to put up with, however: you might lose the signal for a station occasionally, especially during bad weather. While some of our stations are no problem and we always receive great reception, other stations can be a little more finicky. But hey, when it is free, you can deal with these little hick-ups that only occur occasionally. Plus, there is always Netflix!