handmade by stefanie

January has been dedicated to getting my knitting life organized.  My pattern notebooks were a mess - they were all thrown in there randomly and it was impossible to find anything you might be looking for!  The only categories I had were "things I've made"  and "things I'd like to make."  Is that a joke?  I assure you, it isn't - but it's pretty embarrassing to admit!  On my frequent trips to Skokie, where our vet is located, I've gotten a chance to get the supplies I need to get back on track - first off, some colorful notebooks, plastic sheet protectors, and sticky tabs that are repositionable.  To make up for the sheer chaos of before, not only are patterns grouped by category, but within said category, patterns from the same designer are next to one another (I didn't go so far to alphabetize, but the temptation was there!) Several bins and baskets have also been purchased.  I started organizing my yarn by weight at the end of last year,

Malabrigo Rios in Glazed Carrot - Can YOU resist its charms? I'm sure no one will be surprised to read what I'm about to type:  I have a problem.  This is the first step, admitting it in a public forum - I am, beyond a doubt, a Malabrigo Junkie (not merely a knitting/yarn junkie, as previously assumed).  And today, when I got to leave work early and just happened to have my birthday gift card to Nina in my wallet, and just happened to have the exact yardage and number of skeins needed for the next sweater I intend to knit for myself written down, I indulged in my most favorite of vices, Malabrigo Rios . And of course, now I want to start my Koukla cardigan .  Am I finished with the sport-weight cabled yoke cardigan I started right before Christmas?  Not so much.  Have I started the v-neck sweater I promised Tyler?  Nope!  Do I have any business beginning another project, with submission deadlines looming and some new responsibilities on my to-do list?  Absolutely not!

If anyone is tired of hearing me shout and squeal about Malabrigo Book 3...continue at your own risk, but don't say I didn't warn you.  As I've mentioned at least 80 times by now, Book 3 debuted at the beginning of this month at TNNA in Long Beach - so far, people are having trouble getting and keeping it in stock (for examples,  Webs has it on backorder).  A few copies have shown up on  ebay , but I'm sure your LYS will have it in stock soon if you're willing to be patient! There are some phenomenal patterns in this book - it's hard to choose what to knit first!  I'm honored to be included among such talented designers as Kristen Rengren, Stephen West, Mercedes Tarosovich-Clark, Julie Weisenburger, and Breean Elyse Miller.   Not only that, but the project photos are quite beautiful - I'm not sure where it was shot, but it's pretty cool stuff. Here are the official book photos of my projects: Project:  Quick Draw Socks Yarn:  Malabrigo Sock

Today's post will be filled with FO's I've been meaning to share with my dear readers for quite some time.  Hope you're sitting down for this! I realized there are some projects I made for holiday gifts that were never shared here as FOs, only WIPs.  The first among these would be the crazy rainbow socks I knitted for my husband, Tyler, who made one casual off-hand remark about wanting some crazy-colored socks and then promptly forgot about it.  Of course, I didn't, and immediately ran out to purchase the brightest skein of sock yarn I could find.  Yarn:  Zauberball Crazy Pattern:  Tsunami by Judy Sumner from Knitted Socks East & West I also knit my grandmother a pair of socks every year for Christmas.  She loves them because not only are they unique and knit with love (awww!), but they also don't compress on her ankles the way store-bought socks do, so they are infinitely more comfortable for her to wear.  You may recall seeing these intermittentl

In the past week, I've come across a few Ravelers who have knitted up some of my toy designs!  I'm always excited to see what colors and yarns people choose for their projects, and it's also nice to know that people appreciate your work.  This first one was completed at the very end of 2010 by lundr .  She used some Malabrigo Rasta (interestingly enough, purchased at Loopy yarns here in town, though she is from Kentucky I believe) in Coronilla to knit up and adorably googly Mr. Nubbins , and I love the variation on the bowtie!  I also came across the first person to knit any of my Malabrigo Book 3 designs on Ravelry - AngLouise from Minnesota wins the prize for knitting my Stuffed Ostrich pattern using Malabrigo Worsted in Bobby Blue and  Snow Bird.  I'm impressed with how similar those two colors are to the ones called for in the pattern - I knit the prototype using Malabrigo Twist in Teal Feather and Tender! 

Over the weekend, I was contacted by Stephen West regarding errata in the Lakedale Shawl pattern from Malabrigo Book 3 - as you can see, one side of this scarf is in broken rib, and one side is in seed stitch rib.  Apparently there were some pattern repeats missing from the book (the book has a 4-row repeat, but it should really be an 8-row repeat), causing the entire pattern to be in broken rib (I think I messed up an increase or two early on, resulting in the harlequin effect which is probably not evident in the squonchy* photo to the right).  Since this scarf is just for me, and I wasn't entirely sure it wasn't my operator error, I decided to press on instead of frog and begin again - plus, part of me was also curious whether or not I would have the correct stitch count by the time I reached the colorwork scallops.  Somehow I did, but instead of having 115 stitches on either side of the stitch markers, I had 116 stitches on the side with the seed stitch rib and 114 stitches

In this, the third year of tagging projects 'destashXX' (XX being the last two digits of whatever year it happens to be) in order to see how much knitting can be done from one's stash, I would like to suggest a synergistic movement for the masses - allow me to invite you to the party that is De-Queue '11! The rules:  Anything you've queued prior to this year is game.  Tag your qualifying projects with 'queue11' - and for added fun, write the original date of queue in the project notes.  For the sake of anthropology, take stock right now and make a note of how many pages and projects you have in your queue before you begin this effort (feel free to leave said info as a comment here!  I love a wildly unscientific experiment!). Now, I've seen some people on Ravelry with some truly staggering and impressive queues.  When you've got double-digits happening, you don't mess around (or, perhaps, you just queue any project that you think is cool, rega

Even though Christmas is over, and soon we'll be taking down the tree, I couldn't resist the Rebecca Danger monster ornament kits I got for Christmas.  On New Year's Day, I cast on my first project of the new year - Owen, the Christmas Monster Ornament !  Now he's ready to spend a few days on the tree til he has to hibernate in the ornament box til Thanksgiving. Now is probably a good time to share the other ornaments I knit this year: Tiny Snowmen !  I went a little crazy with these - they were just so fun and easy to make.  Before I knew it, there was an army of tiny snowmen in my living room.  Just to be on the safe side, I gave most of them away as gifts this year. Tiny Santa ! I predict I will be making a few more of these for next year, but I just ran out of time to execute all of my grandiose last-minute knitting plans.  This one went to live with my aunt & uncle in Kansas City Tiny panda with his dinosaur friend (knit by Sam) Tiny Panda ! I m

I don't know about anyone else, but I am relieved that 2010 is over - here's hoping that 2011 is a kinder year for everyone!  According to my grandmother, odd-numbered years are lucky - so here's hoping she's right.  She also would insist everyone eat sauerkraut on New Year's Day for good luck - something which I never did, since I can't stand the stuff, and it never seemed to affect things that much.   But all the same, here's hoping 2011 is better than last year.  2010 set the bar pretty low, so I don't think that's too much to ask! I never got around to writing about my trip to Urban Arts & Crafts during our whirlwind trip to Kansas City for the holiday - and I suppose there isn't much to report, since I usually make this trek while in town, and it's great little shop filled to the brim with crafty goodies, plus a cute kitty sleeping in a chair.  I think I found the happy medium between a total blow-out and purchasing a modest one o