handmade by stefanie

Warning: there are WestKnits Mystery KAL spoiler photos in this post!!   Last Sunday, I was determined to finish the short-row section on my Color Affection . It took the better part of the afternoon, but I did it! I am now working through the final rows of the edging...and it's taking forever, not surprisingly. I am determined to get this off my needles before the month is out so I can spend August making a birthday present for my nephew and finishing both socks I have in progress (and maybe, just maybe, finish the designs I've been ignoring for several months, too). It's definitely at its least photogenic stage, and it appears as though I may have gotten carried away and did some additional increases. The only way to know for sure is to finish it! Color Affection: Getting close! Meanwhile, the WestKnits Mystery Shawl rolls on. I finished Clue #2 last night, just in time for Clue #3 to hit my inbox today. I have a hard time imagining where we'll go from here,

Um, where  did July go?! The Tour de Fleece ended this past Sunday, and I can't even claim to have been an active participant, except for the fact that I did spin nearly every day...if even for just five minutes. I wish I'd had more time to see what others were doing and be a little more involved, but it's just been a crazy summer. I've checked in here and there, but mostly I've just been lone wolf-ing it. To recap, here are my modest accomplishments from this year's Tour de Fleece: Louet Camel/Silk top:  finished spinning up the singles and plied them together (photo  here ) Rhinofluff Handpainted BFL top in Barn Owl: Spun into a single to be plied with something else (photo here ) Spunky Eclectic Dark BFL top: Single is in-progress on my wheel still  (see below!); will most likely be plied with the Barn Owl BFL The real test will be if I continue my daily spinning and actually work through the giant fiber bin I've been accruing for quite some t

I'm psyched to be a stop along the Celtic Cables Blog Tour to promote Carol Feller's exciting new Craftsy class, Celtic Cables ! As you can see below, it's starts today, so be sure to check out all of the stops along the way (there is apparently a super-secret stop not listed below, I guess we'll all find out about it together)! July 23 - Heatherly Walker, www.yarnyenta.com July 25 - Miso Crafty Knits July 28 - Ursa Hawthorne, The Pagan Knitter Podcast August 1 - Anniken Allis August 3 - Mixed Martial Arts and Crafts August 5 - Yours Truly August 7 - Romi August 9 - A Good Yarn Sarasota August 11 - The Sexy Knitter I'll be sharing everyone's posts on the HBS Facebook page & my Twitter feed  as they happen. Don't miss my own post on August 5th, where I'll share an interview with Carol, a brief class review AND a signup link giving you a significant enrollment discount...what's not to love?! Finally, I have a few exciting annou

Just a short post on this FO Friday - last weekend, I finished my Entrelac Cowl !  There were lots of ends to weave in (you break the yarn with every tier), but Gwen had a really clever time-saving finishing tip at the end of the final cowl lesson.  I opted to block my finished project, but have yet to take some photos of myself modeling it, since it's been over 90 degrees every day this week.  I'm longing for the days when I can wear a cowl out-of-doors! Pattern: Infinity Neck Warmer by Gwen Bortner from the Entrelac Knitting Course on Craftsy Yarns: The Sanguine Gryphon Codex in Le Petit Prince, The Fibre Company Acadia in Asparagus and Blue Heron

Warning: there is a WestKnits Mystery KAL spoiler photo in this post!!  Startitis has hit me hard this summer. I know a lot of people quit knitting once the thermometer starts to rise, but I'm just the opposite: I grab a beer and some yarn so I can hide in the air conditioning til cooler temperatures prevail. My line of work is perennially enabling my yarn-buying, pattern-queueing, casting-on habit, and right now it seems to keep getting worse as the summer progresses...not that I'm complaining.  Far from it! Last month, I indulged in some retail therapy by purchasing enough Canopy Fingering to make a Color Affection shawl. I've been making regular (yet slow) progress, but am nearly done with the short row section: The short rows are getting longer! I'm using   Manatee ,   Conifer   and   Sarsparilla ...my three favorite colors! I can't wait for this shawl to be done - I'm already envisioning myself wrapping up in it all winter long. My WestKnits M

I realize I haven't posted much since the Tour de Fleece began.  It's been several days since I finished my Rhinofluff BFL roving with flying colors (no pun intended): Then I promptly started some natural dark brown BFL that I bought a few years back from Spunky Eclectic .  It's spinning like a dream, but I am so distracted by the WestKnits Mystery KAL , my socks in progress, and nearly-finished Color Affection that I am barely even a half-ounce in. On the plus side, I have been better about spinning every day, even if for a few minutes.  I'd like to think that this will stick, but I know that it hasn't in years past.  Maybe now that I work from home full time, things will change (she said, optimistically)> In other news, Tyler and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary (and 12 whopping years of being together in general) tonight at Revolution Brewing Company .  We were in luck tonight- there were tons of brews on tap!  I tried the Bastille Day brew and

I've been obsessed with this pattern ever since it came out, and at the beginning of June, I finally cast on with some Road to China Light I bought at Doodlebug Yarn. I chose Carnelian, which I thought was going to be more reddish in color (those laptop screens can really fool me sometimes!); it turned out to be more of a purple-red - I'd call it a mauve almost. I was weighing my options between Carnelian and Garnet and probably should have gone the other way when I placed my order. At any rate, it was a surprise, but I decided to just go with it and start knitting. I tend to buy the same colors of yarn over and over again, so sometimes the caveat emptor of online yarn purchasing is a good way to get me out of such color ruts. RtC is a super-soft blend of baby alpaca, silk, camel and cashmere. Yep, it's incredibly soft! I used my Cubics special interchangeables (they're great for hats and cowls, hence I am now obsessed with them) and quickly realized that this patte

I've clearly given up on the whole three-at-a-time rule for WIPs; that's long since gone out the window. In addition to the four projects already on the needles, I've added my first-ever entrelac project to the mix, and will be casting on for the WestKnits Mystery Shawl KAL today. The more the merrier, right? It's well-documented that I've been wanting to give entrelac a try for quite some time (see here , here , here and here , for example).  I haven't done anything to act on that impulse until now, however.  Last month, I signed up for Gwen Bortner's entrelac class on Craftsy , though I thought it would be better to wait til after the madness of TNNA before getting started.  Last weekend, I watched the first few lessons and was surprised at how EASY (not to mention, addictive) entrelac really is! Like so many things in knitting, looks are deceiving - while the entrelac fabric looks intricate and the charts seem complicated and intimidating, the tec

Bijou Basin ranch Order! I'm not sure when the Fourth of July became synonymous with buying a lot of STUFF, but apparently that is a thing now. All last week, I got tons of e-mails for July 4th sales.  Most were deleted, but I couldn't pass up my client's flash sale, which was on the actual holiday only.  I ordered these two skeins of Bijou Bliss  to make Ysolda's Hendreary Hat - I would have been crazy to pass up 25% off my entire order! Plus, 10% of all online sales from the beginning of last month til the end of the summer will be donated towards High Park Fire relief efforts .  I'm a sucker for a good sale, and the photos and reports from all of the wild fires burning in Colorado right now are just so awful, I'm glad there is a little something I can do to help.  Bonus: they included a QR Club pin with my order! I also fell victim to (yet another) irresistible Craftsy deal - this one was for a Westminster Fabrics reusable bag, made from recycled wa

I've been remiss in sharing all the details about Marly Bird 's Designer Dinner in Columbus last month! This was the first time I've gotten to attend and had been looking forward to it for quite some time. It was supposed to be a masquerade, but I just didn't have time to do something creative, so I packed my mustachio nosewarmers for the occasion. You'll see I was able to coerce someone else into going incognito via knitted mustache! There were some pretty cool masks and costumes, but I think my favorites were by Alasdair Post-Quinn's (his was, of course, double-knit & SPECTACULAR) and Gwen Bortner's (she being the entrelac queen). You can view all of the photos here on Facebook - don't forget to like Marly's fan page while you're there!  I'll spare you my opinions on the food - the vegan options were a little lacking, but that's something I've come to expect pretty much anywhere I go, especially in the midwest. It's

My hat obsession continues....I've had the Topiary Beanie from Weekend Hats finished and blocked for a few weeks now, but things have been so crazy that photographing and blogging about it has been at the bottom of my to-do list.  I love the way it turned out, though - it's nice and slouchy, and the MadTosh Merino Light is so very soft and squishy.  I am in love with the color, graphite - while it may not photograph well or display the stitch detail while atop my head, I really dig the subtle gradient greys of this colorway.  Plus, I have plenty leftover to make matching fingerless gloves!

Lately, socks seem to languish on the needles.  I'm not sure why - I love knitting them!  And yet, the colorwork socks I started last month have been cryogenically frozen since before TNNA...n o real reason, but I just can't seem to progress past the heel turn: I'm having similar issues of inertia with my toe-up socks . While I love the yarn and the pattern, second sock syndrome - something I've never had to deal with in my seven or so years of sock knitting - has set in. Getting the toe started on sock #2 is my main stumbling block; I'm either too tired or stressed or pressed for time to sit down and work through the cast-on and first few rounds of toe shaping.  Here's #1 - it looks great, right?  If only it had a friend! Meanwhile, my Narwhal Mittens are also progressing at a glacier-like pace. I started them at the beginning of June ( before the colorwork socks but after the toe-up socks, for those of you keeping track) and have yet to proceed to mi

Camel/Silk Singles Waiting to be Plied I wasn't planning on participating in the Tour de Fleece this year.  I told myself I was too busy and rationalized that I've barely touched my spinning wheel since the last one.  Strangely enough, I started spinning yesterday, quite by accident.  I finished the first camel/silk single that had been languishing on my wheel since February, and then I spent the next hour or so spinning through the second camel/silk single.  It didn't even occur to me til much, much later that Saturday was the first day of the Tour de Fleece! Quite by accident, I will be challenging myself to spin every day til July 22nd.  It would be great if I could stay in the habit of spinning a bit every day, but let's not get too ahead of ourselves, right?!  I'll just be happy if I can spin through a few braids of my fiber stash this month.  Meanwhile, here is my plied yarn (the fiber is a 50/50 camel/silk blend from Louet): I had some extra camel