Renegade Craft Fair Recap

I've been remiss in posting about Renegade Craft Fair last weekend. All of the car nonsense kind of distracted me last week - but it's time to return to my regularly scheduled blogging.

I'm sure it's no surprise to learn that I had a modest budget for Renegade this year, but I think I made my dollars count. As always, there were lots of cool things I'd like to have purchased - lovely-smelling soaps, nifty ceramics, and some really cool terrariums (there were two vendors of terrariums this year - and very few items with birds on them, now that I think of it. Way to go, Portlandia!).

Everything I purchased fit perfectly in this wee canvas tote bag, which I bought from Alysson at The Sweatshop of Love. Her mom hand-stamps them, and it's absolutely perfect for taking a sock project on-the-go....which brings us to item #2: my annual Rhino Fluff purchase!

Last year, you may recall the amazing blue skein of silky sock yarn I purchased from Rhino Fluff. This past May, that skein of yarn became a Pogona Shawl - the perfect project to show off the lovely hand-dyed variation in the skein (which reminds me...I need to take some better photos of said shawl!)

I was psyched when I saw the Rhino Fluff booth, even though I knew it would be bad news for my budget! When I spied this rich tobacco-colored skein of yarn, there was no way I could talk myself out of buying it. I'm weak-willed when it comes to yarn - especially if it's superwash sock. I have no idea what this yarn wants to be (YET!), but I'm certain I won't wait so long before I knit it this time around.

Finally, my search for the perfect birthday present for my Dad ended: once I saw this Chicago Dog T-shirt, I knew I'd found what I'd been looking for. Every time my parents come to visit, we make sure to grab a hot dog somewhere. The first year they came up to Chicago, we spent half a day taking mass transit to Superdawg (and it was worth it!). The last time they visited, we went to a place over in Lincoln Park whose name escapes me (not Wiener's Circle). This year? We'll be in line at Hot Doug's at 10 AM on a Saturday morning (I haven't informed them of this yet, but it's gonna happen!).

Besides Renegade and The Great Car Debacle, last weekend was also filled with tasty food and beer. We headed to the German American Festival in Lincoln Square on Saturday afternoon for litres of beer - the best way I know to welcome autumn. On Sunday, we headed to the farmer's market by our house to get delicious crepes for breakfast and some fresh veggies for dinner. I still haven't gotten over the novelty of having weekends off again - I'm sold on the concept! Tyler is enjoying having the occasional weekend day off himself - his new work schedule has been giving him Sundays off lately, and we find it to be quite agreeable!

Australian Superfine Merino Yarn Review & Giveaway

After more than ten years of knitting, I can still have new experiences - even with well-covered territory such as merino yarn! This recent merino experience actually took me by surprise: I've spun with it, I've dyed it, I've knit with it, and I've even crocheted with it...I was pretty sure I knew all there was to know about merino! Turns out, there are four different classifications of merino fiber, sorted by micron count range . At the bottom of the spectrum is Strong Merino , which ranges from 26-22.9 microns; above that is Fine Merino , which ranges from 20.1-23 microns; next up is Extra Fine Merino, which ranges from 20-15.6 microns; and at the very top of the heap is Superfine Merino Wool , with a micron range of 18.5-15.6. If you're into numbers and wondering how these four classes stack up against other fibers you may be familiar with, here are a few for comparison's sake: BFL (Blue-Faced Leicester) has a micron range of 24-28, Cashmere goat down ...

App Review & Giveaway: Stash 2 Go

The developers for a paid Ravelry app for iPad and iPhone called Stash 2 Go contacted me earlier this year to see if I was interested in writing a review or their app on their blog. While I don't own an iPad or iPhone, I was able to gift a download to a knitting friend who had an iPad and was willing to let me play around with it for the purposes of this review! This is the first time I've ever accessed Ravelry via an app (on my Android phone, I typically use the m.ravelry.com site), and I found most of it to be easy to use. Some of the features weren’t intuitive to me at first, but once I got the hang of the idiosyncracies, it was smooth sailing. Stash 2 Go makes the most of API functions Ravelry has opened up to developers (there are still several areas which have yet to be completed in the Ravelry programming interface, so developers can only implement what is available through www.ravelry.com/api ). Most of the app's functionality allows the user to view the ...

A Finished Sweater, With Cat Hair

After losing Tilly and Robin within a year of each other, I sure didn't think I'd be finding cat hair in my knitting any time soon. But the universe had other ideas. Over the winter, a white feral cat adopted us. I'd noticed her when we moved into our apartment last summer - I would see her hiding in the bushes or sunning herself in the grass when she thought no one was looking. I assumed she was someone's cat until I realized how skittish she was around humans, plus she had a tipped ear, which is a universal sign that a feral/stray cat has been spayed. Neighbors confirmed that she was a feral kitty (descended from several generations of feral cats, in fact), and that she has survived on her wits and whatever food various residents put out for her. We had some bitterly cold days over the winter, and I just felt so sorry for this poor kitty! I started offering her treats and slowly gained her trust. She didn't even want to come inside our apartment at first, much le...

handmade by stefanie

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