handmade by stefanie

 it was a whirlwind trip - we all had fun on the road, and the wedding was lovely.  i got a considerable amount of knitting done in the car - one of the first things i did was finish the karate socks from Knitted Socks East and West .  i'm curious to see how this yarn behaves when i wash it - i used some of the knitpicks simply cotton in brass heather, and i will definitely be using this yarn again - not only because i bought a huge mess of it the last time i placed an order with knitpicks, but because it's really nice stuff!  it's soft, it's easy to work with (and i've worked with lots of other cotton yarns - it's often closer to wrestling with them rather than knitting), and they have a pretty nice range of colors.   i made some progress on my peak's island hood with the help of alexa, who was willing to join my sweatshop and knit all of the seed stitch between the increases and decreases for the hood.  i'm so close to being done, but of course am

dorky FO self-portrait i'll be leaving town tomorrow to drive down to kansas city (9 hours! both ways!) for my sister-in-law's wedding.  in preparation, i've been trying to get projects off the needles and amass the ones that have been languishing - the theory is that i can finish them in the car, and then when we return to chicago next week, i can start a whole bunch of new and exciting projects.  whether or not this scheme will actually work remains to be seen, but in any case, i did finally finish my tea leaves cardigan ! it was a tough choice, deciding which buttons to use from my stash, but finally i settled on some vintage buttons i've been saving for the right project.  i don't think i'll ever make another sweater worthy of these buttons, to be perfectly honest.  they're a bit on the fancy side, but i think they really complement the color and the pattern.  fancy top button! as mentioned in previous posts, i used malabrigo rios (color: cump

is it that obvious that green is one of my favorite colors?? honey cowl it's been a while since i've finished both of these projects - there's just too much to blog about these days.  i guess that's how you know knitting season is in high gear - although to be honest, i don't observe a knitting season, since i knit year-round in the true style of a hopeless addict.  daisy cutter at any rate, the honey cowl is complete.  this photo was a little premature (still a few ends to weave in!) but i think it's gonna do the trick for the cold, blustery winter that lies ahead of us.   this was a super-fast knit - it took me less than a week!  i probably could have finished it in a few days, if i hadn't been distracted by other projects.  also, finally got to take some photos of the daisy cutter beret!  tyler took this one as we went on a beer run - the karate place nearby just finished a really cool mosaic, which is serving as the background.  love this hat

side swipe stripe for those of you who are on the "breast cancer awareness" bandwagon during the month of october, i have two patterns which utilize flamingo stripe sock yarn - if you are not familiar with lorna's laces, then this is a good introduction.  a portion of the sales from this colorway of sock are donated quarterly to breast cancer-related charities. the first sock pattern, the side swipe sock(available from yarn market ), is knit top-down in the round with two cable panels running down either side of the sock, with the remaining portions of the sock knitted in stockinette.  it's a great beginning cable project for those who dare! the second sock pattern, peppermint lattice, has been mentioned on this blog before - allow me to refer you to this post for the details.  besides being able to purchase a .pdf of this pattern through my ravelry shop , folks in chicago also have the option of dropping by their lys, sister-ARTS studio , to purchase a hard c

since adding a chart to this pattern, i had it test knit by a colleague who recently moved to california.  julie (aka rotten cupcakes) has a fantastic etsy shop and blog that are worth checking out.  she was pleased with how fast they knit up, even with adding an extra pattern repeat in the cuff (a modification i highly encourage, that's what i did the last time i knit these up!).  she used one skein of knit picks gloss dk , with just a tiny bit left over.  that's a fantastic deal - less than five bucks to make a lovely hand-knit gift for someone you love...and don't forget to make yourself something pretty! this pattern is available through my ravelry shop (you don't have to join the site to purchase, all you need is a paypal account to buy now ), and if you live here in chicago, you can trot over to Sister-ARTS Studio and pick up a hard copy - you can also try on some knitted samples, which will be in the shop for the next month or so. the details: very sim

...this is the type of shipping envelope he would make.  first off, full disclosure:  in my years working at lorna's laces, i came to know the folks at jimmy beans as some of the nicest, cleverest people in the industry.  they are a marketing powerhouse, and those limited-edition colors we dyed for them each month, in addition to the huge amounts of yarn they'd order in addition to those, certainly puts them in a category all their own.  so when i start fawning over their newest innovation without having a portion of my paycheck sponsored by jimmy beans, hopefully that means something to my dear readers (all two of you!).  here's what they said in their October newsletter :  Yes!! In our constant quest to go AGAIN where no yarn shop has gone before, to do what no one in the yarn industry has done, we at Jimmy Beans Wool have unveiled shipping envelopes printed with a FREE LORNA'S LACES SOCK PATTERN . If Limited Edition Baby Me Boo wasn't impres

i have never gotten to attend yarn con - something always gets in the way (usually it was being broke, but quite often work has stood in the way as well).  i admit, i gave up hoping i would ever make it to one, but i should have bought a lottery ticket yesterday, as saturday was my lucky day.  i'm reticent to request saturdays off at work unless i absolutely have to, but my boss had pity on me and luck was on my side, too - all my clients were scheduled first thing in the morning.  i was out of work by 1 and on my way to my first ever yarn con!  if only i'd brought more cash (and not needed the money in my bank account to pay rent) - so many beautiful yarns!  i think i spent my money well and have definitely enhanced both my yarn and fiber stashes. first off, i bought this falkland roving (colorway: 'cloudy night') from pumpkinhaus - she's an indie dyer out of south bend, indiana with a great shop on etsy - my pal sam gave me some of her blue-faced leicester