handmade by stefanie

A friend of mine recently asked for a few pointers for finishing the tawashis I've been so fond of making since last December, so I thought I'd share this photo tutorial for anyone else who is interested.  I've knit several versions of Maryann Walsh's Two-Tone Tawashis , a great free pattern I found on Ravelry.  I became obsessed with this pattern!  If you are having a hard time picturing what the finishing instructions are telling you to do (as I did at first, too), hopefully this blog post will point you in the right direction. 1.  Lay your tawashi out as below: 2. Fold left side of piece over (fold line will be where arrow A indicates above - your piece should look like the photo below): 3.  Fold right side of piece over: 4.  Piece should now look like so: 5.  Using one of your ends and a tapestry needle, whip-stitch pieces together: 6. Your piece should now look like this: 7.  Now, use one of your ends or a new piece of yarn to gather the top

The Wisconsin Spin In got me excited about needle felting again - so I set up a little workstation in the enclosed porch earlier this week!  I hope having a dedicated workspace will help me branch out a little bit this summer. I've since relocated my yarn swift and ball-winder to the area; meanwhile, Robin has already staked his claim: In other news, we FINALLY GOT A NEW LAPTOP.  This has been a long time coming, as our current laptop is simply unable to keep up with the amount of work we're making it do of late.  After I smashed the screen , it's been a little on the sensitive side; plus, the battery is kaput, it needs way more RAM to handle all of the graphics work we're doing on a daily basis, and you can make and eat a grilled cheese sandwich in the time it takes to do a restart.  Hence it is with great joy and ALL CAPS that I announce the latest addition to our home office, the MacBook Pro!  Tyler is getting it all set up, and Robin is demonstrating how I spen

Traditional Gansey Socks Unbelievably, I only have two projects on the needles right now!  In preparation for some knit-a-longs next month, I'm trying to keep my WIPs lean.  Currently, the only projects I'm working on are a pair of toe-up socks (yes, you read correctly!) and a sweater for myself.  Don't worry, I hold no illusions that I'll finish either project before May starts next week.  I am completely ready to slide down that slippery slope of breaking my self-imposed "three-at-a-time" rule. Inspired by the Cookie A workshop , I cast on for a pair of toe-up socks by Wendy D. Johnson - the Traditional Gansey Socks .  I'm using some yarn that was hand-dyed by my tattoo artist, Kit; it's a luxurious MCN blend in a bright carrot-y color with subtle greenish undertones.  I brought out the size 0 needles for this project, as I figured such a soft yarn would need to be tightly knit if it were going to withstand many months in winter boots. Deadl

Robin-sized bite Now that I actually give myself the weekends off, I manage to pack a ton into those two days - so if you're hungry, you better go make a sandwich before reading any further.  This will take a while. Witness this weekend:  Friday night Tyler and I went to see our friend's band ( Soft Speaker ) play at Subterranean. Getting home from this show was much less traumatic than last week's Red Line/Blue Line debaucle, being that venue is much easier for us to get to, and they played first, so after sticking around to see what White Hills was about (answer: borrrrring), we headed home and were back on the couch by midnight. Bird's eye view (one half of show floor) Saturday was a big day.  It started off innocently enough - I made pancakes and Tyler and I shared a french press of coffee (for those of you who know me, I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but it was delicious!).  Robin decided to help himself to a pancake - or rather, he tried, but I

Since finishing my Tightrope socks, I've been focusing on finishing that other  pair or socks I'd cast on at the end of March.  Funny that the project in question is from Wendy D. Johnson's Toe-Up Socks, and I just happen to be knitting them top-down, right?  At the time I just wanted a simple sock project that I didn't have to fuss with, and I can knit top-down socks in my sleep.  Once I finished the first top-down Trilobite sock , I set them aside for a little while (a dicey move, I know!), but now I'm coming down the home stretch and hoping to have them off the needles by Sunday night. ...so I can cast on for a pair of toe-up socks. 

Fan-girl photo by Lauren! Cookie A 's Toe-Up Socks class this weekend was fantastic!  I can't believe I am only now writing about it, but it's been yet another crazy week.   This is the first-ever "official" class I've ever taken, so I suppose I don't have much of a measuring stick to go by, but this class far exceeded any expectations.  Cookie was personable, knowledgeable, and above all, knew how to keep a large group of people with varying skill sets on task.  I loved that she prefaced the class by saying "I will read all the instructions three times - please hold all of your questions, and then if you still need help after the third repeat of the instructions, we can break out from the group for individual help."  Brilliant!  Those that wanted hands-on help received it, and for more independent learners such as myself, I was able to follow along with the detailed course materials and verbal instruction.   I signed up for this class becau

In photos - details to follow! Friday night: Implodes, Lotus Plaza and Disappears @Lincoln Hall Disappears Saturday: Tightrope Socks complete Sunday: Toe-up sock class with Cookie A

At last, I have some FO photos of the Flapjack Frogs to share with you!  These knit up pretty quickly - each frog body took only a few hours, and I made all of the arms and legs over the course of a weekend.  Sometimes, the hardest part of toy-making is sitting down and attaching all the fiddly bits and weaving in yarn ends - I find the best thing to do is pick a "finishing day" and allow enough time to get properly psyched up.  To that end, I finished knitting these cute little guys and sorted all of my "frog parts" into piles for finishing at a later date.  Last weekend, I got the spring cleaning bug, followed quickly by the finishing bug - and thus these frogs came to life!  I love the way they turned out, and it made me realize that I need to get back to toy-making in earnest. Pattern:   Flapjack Frogs from Mochimochiland Yarn:  Cascade 220 in Palm, Highland Green and Herb, Berroco Vintage in White Hot off the griddle!

I keep forgetting to mention some more big news: I'm taking a toe-up sock class with Cookie A this weekend!  She'll be in Chicago for three days of Sock class awesomeness with the Windy City Knitting Guild .  Though I'd like to take a few more classes (or even the whole shebang), I had to choose just one, so I decided to take the socks from the toe up class on Sunday. Though I've knit a few pairs of toe-up socks successfully, I wouldn't say that I've made friends with them by any stretch of the imagination, so I'm excited to learn Cookie's tips and tricks for happy toe-up sock knitting. Last year, I'd signed on for a Cookie A class with the WCKG, but she had a family emergency that required her to head back to Thailand and the classes were canceled.  Needless to say, it's been a long time coming, but some things are worth waiting for!  I'm very excited for this weekend - this will be my first formal knitting class, actually.  Hopefully I

It's amazing to me how quickly I can complete a project if I don't let myself get distracted by anything else. To wit, I've already finished the first Tightrope sock for the KAL!  On Friday night I ended up watching a bunch of Home Movies (the show, not actual home movies) while Tyler recorded a new song.  When he emerged from his studio, he had most of the song recorded and I had finished a sock!  Yes, it's a wild life we lead... Actually, this last week has been pretty eventful: Instagram: Socks-in-progress Tyler gave his two weeks' notice at his crappy job;  several places are now hiring that would be a much better fit for him - and closer to home, too, so it seems like a good time to take the plunge.   We got good news from our tax preparer - we'll be getting a refund from the feds that will help us buy a second computer! This means that Tyler can pick up sidework with the transcription place he sometimes works for, as well as website design work (

Not that my cousin would ever react in this manner (she and her husband are both super-cool, laid-back people), this is what I immediately think of whenever the subject of wedding gift-giving etiquette comes up: Knowing that there "you just can't" give a wedding gift after the one-year anniversary, I wanted to be sure to hit that mark for my cousin Alex & her new husband Derek, who got married last May.  I actually began knitting their gift long before their wedding, but I didn't finish it til late last fall.  My intention was to present it when we went home for the holidays, but we ended up staying in Chicago instead.  When we went back for what was dubbed "fake christmas" in January, Alex & Derek were on a well-deserved mini vacation....and also it didn't fit in our luggage with all of the other holiday gifts. Thankfully, I headed down to KC earlier this month and had PLENTY of room for some ginormous pillows.  I'm pleased to report th

The KAL has officially begun!  Last night I cast on for my Tightrope Socks - they ended up being the perfect bar knitting while waiting for our set at Township .  We don't play a whole lot of shows these days, although this was our warm-up for next week's show at The Burlington. Anywho, it's always a good idea to bring a project or two - preferably ones that can be worked on in the semi-dark while drinking beer, because there is a lot of time to kill from load-in to the start of the show. We even showed up an hour late due to a last-minute work meeting at Tyler's crappy job and I still managed to cast on and knit most of the cuff by the time the first act took the stage. Shalloboi shows are usually odd affairs, mostly because we get booked on the strangest bills.  Quite often, two or three other bands featuring wildly divergent music styles are crammed on the same bill with us.  We've played with metal, hardcore, singer-songwriter, white-boy funk, experimental