handmade by stefanie

As I mentioned before, it's going to be difficult to post about each and every holiday gift I knitted or crocheted this year, but here are a few of the highlights which I haven't blogged about yet...can you guess this year's unintentional theme? Dinosaurs for my nephew Ethan (patterns by Rebecca Danger): Monster Tissue Cozies (patterns by Rebecca Danger): Narwhal for my knitterly friend Lauren, which I apparently forgot to photograph as an FO before gifting (pattern by - you guessed it! - Rebecca Danger): I also crocheted several cotton washcloths and a few more handspun baskets to incorporate into our gift-giving this year: On my last post of 2013 this Wednesday, I'll share a few of the fiber-related gifts I received PLUS my booty from a trip to The Studio while I was in Kansas City last week!

I knitted and crocheted nearly all of my holiday gifts this year, but I'm not sure if I will get a chance to photograph and blog each and every one now that there's no risk of spoiling the surprise. There are just too many, and my photographer extraordinaire has been working so much that finding time for proper photo shoots has been difficult. Excuses, excuses....at any rate, I will be cherry picking a few of these gifted projects to share over the next few weeks, starting with the Star Wars amigurumi I made for my nephews in Portland using patterns from the  Lucy Ravenscar etsy store . Most of the yarn I used was already in my stash, with the exception of the gold sparkly yarn I bought at VK Live earlier this fall for the express purpose of making the world's greatest C-3PO. I had a hard time deciding which nephew should receive which toy, so I ended up randomly selecting three for each package, which I then wrapped up, juggled a bit, and then had my husband stic...

To those who celebrate the holiday today, Merry Christmas! Here is the holiday card my husband designed and silkscreened this year: It was his first year being in charge of the holiday cards, and his ambitious design took more than a little doing to come to fruition. You can bet next year's card won't be a four-color process, but I love how they turned out and it was well worth spending an entire snowy day printing. Here are some of the process photos I instagrammed along the way; it is typically my job to document the process as well as assist in any way I can: grabbing a clean cloth if Tyler gets ink on his hands, running freshly-printed cards to the next room to dry (which is always a challenge since the cats always try to follow me in....Tilly LOVES trying to walk through the drying cards). Whatever holiday you choose to celebrate, I hope it's wonderful!

Once again, there are a LOT of new babies and babies on the way in my life: In addition to our newest nephew and my good friend's little one who were both born at the beginning of 2013, a few (more) of my friends are due in the new year, my cousin is due in February, and Tyler's cousin just had a baby boy this fall. Needless to say, I have been doing a huge amount of baby knitting these last few months! Here is the sweater and owl hat which I sent to welcome baby Ritter to the family: Pattern: #21 Raglan Cardigan by Therese Chynoweth Yarn: Brown Sheep Serendipity Tweed  JHB Button Closure Pattern: Crochet Owl Hat from Repeat Crafter Me (free pattern!) Yarn: Leftover yarn from sweater + Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted Rest assured, there will be more cute baby knits to share in the new year! 

First off, congratulations to our winners! I have contacted these three folks to arrange for the delivery of their prizes: Carrie P, Sweetpurls and Ellie Raine Knits. Thanks to everyone who entered and shared this contest, and thanks very much to the folks from Stash2Go for generously donating the prizes! If you didn't win the giveaway this week, I hope you'll check out the Stash2Go app on iTunes ; downloads are just $3.99 and they're going to be adding some really great new features in the near future! At long last, I am pleased to share my finished Marin shawl! I love how this turned out, and despite some crazy-looking charts, it was actually a fairly simple project to make. I did run out of yarn just as I was finishing up, but that was only because I'd used a bit of this skein to knit a few rows on a snippet scarf earlier this year - otherwise I would have had plenty of yarn to finish this project! The yarn is lovely to work with, so I don't mind having a ...

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This is my last WIP Wednesday for 2013, can you believe it? I sure can't! I'll still be blogging next week even though I'll be visiting family for the holiday, but my posts from now through the end of the year will be focusing on projects I've finished recently (and not-so-recently) which I am finally at liberty to share. Don't forget to follow my blog to keep up! I am thrilled to report that the yarn I ordered to finish the Marin shawl arrived on Monday afternoon: Oh, look at that - the yarn for my next  shawl arrived too! I'm planning to make the Velocity Shawl from Interweave Crochet with those lovely skeins of Seraphim yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch which I purchased during their December sale (free shipping + everything's on sale!). I have no idea how to do Tunisian crochet, but I guess I'll be learning in the new year because I've become obsessed with the pattern and won't rest until I've made one! At any rate, I promptly finish...

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 ...

I thought I would be sharing my finished Marin shawl today since I am so close to being done! However, I ran out of yarn (doh!) and have to wait for my order to arrive before I can get back to work. If only this had happened before I posted my only shareable FO earlier this week, the Berlin Cowl , which also happens to be my latest design in Baah yarn ! Perhaps I should share some of my WIPs today since I posted my only FO on WIP Wednesday?! Alas, the only WIP I can safely blog about is one that I started over the weekend with some handspun yarn. I needed something simple to knit at the bar, so a chunky garter project on size 13 needles seemed like the obvious choice. I'm planning to make a rather long scarf which has buttonholes on one end, allowing me to convert it into a long cowl if I'm in the mood. I'm using the hand-dyed Falkland handspun I made during Spinzilla earlier this year, and it's delightful to work with. Incidentally, there is a  Craftsy Yarn Fl...

This week, I released a new pattern that is perfect for last-minute gift knitting emergencies: the Berlin Cowl can be knit up in a weekend using just one skein of worsted weight yarn. Named after one of my favorite Lou Reed songs, the Berlin Cowl is simple yet complex at the same time - you can definitely take this project to knit night! The statement cable is easy to work amidst a garter stitch background, a combination which will perfect show off any of the hand-dyed colors Baah Yarns' Shasta worsted. I chose this yarn not only for the gorgeous color options, but because it is easy-care, too! My husband and I decided to do our photo shoot at the Christkindlmarket , which is our favorite holiday tradition here in Chicago. It's modeled after open-air markets in Germany, and you can get traditional food, beer, and hot spiced wine to enjoy while browsing all kinds of traditional goods such as cuckoo clocks, glass ornaments, candies and more. Naturally, the day of the shoot ...

I had the good fortune to meet the author at Vogue Knitting Live Chicago last month, and we ended up exchanging emails and hatching some plans for future promotions together (you can read my recent guest post on Gwen's blog here). Gwen kindly gifted me an eBook version of her beautiful new art book, The Fine Art of Crochet,  so that I could share a review with my dear readers. First, let me say that I always have a hard time getting into reading digital versions of books. I know I'm old-fashioned, but I just love a real printed book - the smell of the paper, the turning of actual pages, the experience of sitting somewhere and reading something that you can hold in your hands (not that you can't hold a Kindle or an iPad in your hands, but it's just not the same). I was a little worried that I'd find it hard to get through a hundred-or-so page book that I only had access to on my laptop, but it turns out that the subject matter was so fascinating, I was practical...

I finished my snowman crochet-along project for the FreshStitches choose your own adventure CAL - isn't he adorable? I plan on making at least one more this holiday season once I finish my more pressing gift projects! The yarn I used is Drops NEPAL , which is a nice-quality, affordable worsted weight that comes in a wide range of colors (I ordered mine from the NordicMart ). It's really easy to crochet with, and I've been liking it for amigurumi projects especially. In other news, I snapped up a FreshStitches project bag just before the holiday when they were on sale for only $6! Isn't the fabric adorable? I know that I have quite the collection of project bags, but it was time to retire a few from the rotation. While I was justifying things to myself, I remembered I had a paypal balance, and before I knew it I'd bought myself this cute new bag.  Speaking of things I don't actually need...my SweetGeorgia sock yarn arrived earlier this week! I ha...

My Wednesday posts are going to be kind of boring between now and Christmas, though I will try to spice them up any way I can. I suppose it's exciting to see how much progress I've made on my Marin Shawl in the last week - I'm officially past the halfway point, hooray! I had to take Robin to the vet on Monday and needed a simple knitting project to stash in my purse, so I ended up starting a Monster Tissue Cozy by Rebecca Danger using some hand-dyed yarn in my stash from The Wool Dispensary . I think it's going to be quite cute! Here's one more fun piece of newsiness: I wrote a guest post on the Crochet Queen blog this week -  click here to check it out ! It's more or less a social media primer for crafty folk, so hopefully you will find a few nuggets of wisdom there. Thanks for joining me this week! For more WIP Wednesday inspiration, visit the  Tami's Amis Blog !

Lately, I've become more than a little obsessed with pom poms. Ever since I got this new set from Knitter's Pride, I've wanted to put pom poms on everything I own! Rejoice Pom Pom Maker Set from Knitter's Pride. I used the tiniest size to make these wee little pom pom magnets using leftover handspun and other scraps of yarn. The largest size made for the perfect tree topper: And I used some funky novelty yarn I'll never knit with to make this ornament, too: I've been seeing all kind of interesting uses for pom poms on pinterest. Below are are just a few of my favorite ideas, but you can see more on my new Inspiration: Pom Poms pin board! Pom Pom Garland Button Bunnies with Pom Pom Tails Pom Pom Tree Garland Pom Pom Wreath What are your favorite uses for pom poms? I'd love to find more fun crafts to put my new pom pom maker to use!

Ah, Black Friday. My least favorite day to be out in the world. You won't find me shopping today, unless it's for groceries. Insane crowds and fistfights over discounted crap just isn't my scene, which I know seems strange since I am obsessed with getting got deals on nearly everything I buy. I'd prefer to shop online as a general rule, and most places are doing Black Friday deals online, too - in fact, many places have been doing them all week, which is just ridiculous if you ask me. What's to stop retailers from making Black Friday a monthlong festival of pain next year?! Anyway, op-ed piece aside, there are some Black Friday sales I've been looking forward to, such as the annual  Craftsy Yarn and Fabric sale - up to 80% off from 11/27-12/2! . There are lots of yarn and classes on sale this weekend, and I just noticed a new product: The Side Swipe Sock kit featuring my pattern and Lorna's Laces Solemate Yarn! It's currently a steal at 40% off, and y...

It's that time of year when I can't share many of my actual WIPs for fear of the recipient taking note and spoiling the surprise. Luckily, I can't seem to resist starting projects for myself, so hopefully that will keep things marginally interesting between now and Christmas. First, I've made some noticeable progress on my Marin Shawl : I'm also participating in the FreshStitches Snowman CAL that started last week. I've already finished five pieces: the head and body, carrot nose, scarf and and hat! I am using various colors of Drops Nepal, which I ordered from the Nordic Mart . It's become my favorite amigurumi yarn because the colors are lovely, it's easy to work with, and the price is nice, too! Their shipping is also super-fast; I ordered the yarn last Wednesday and had it in my hot little hands a mere two days later. Now that, I really  like! Finally, happy Thanksgiving to those of you who will be celebrating tomorrow! I plan to cook a lo...

Though I no longer have a daily commute, I still like to have one relatively simple project on the needles which can be worked on while riding the train or bus. Socks are one of my favorite on-the-go projects since they don't take up a lot of space, and I prefer patterns that are easy to memorize so that I don't have to keep pulling out a chart as I knit on-the-go. I designed these socks to be the ultimate travel knitting project - easy without being boring, all the while resulting in a pair of socks you'll love to wear. The colorwork lice and stripe pattern at the top of the cuff can be easily memorized (and you can just use your first sock as a reference when knitting sock #2); the striped toe allows you to easily work your toe shaping - all you have to do is remember which color is worked for the decrease round! As an added bonus, they are a great way to use leftover sock yarn, as you only need a small amount for the contrast color. Each pair can be knit up quick...