handmade by stefanie

I've got two FO's to share this week! The first is my finished monkey for my newest nephew, Ethan: The yarn is Green Mountain Spinnery's  Wonderfully Woolly  (now discontinued) in Turquoise and a little bit of  Malabrigo Worsted  in Pigeon. Once again, I used Rebecca Danger's excellent  Jerry the Musical Monkey  pattern. I also bound off for my scrap yarn scarf last weekend and have been wearing it ever since! It's nice and soft and a good length; I used the Snippet Scarf pattern (available for free on Ravelry) as a guide, though I used smaller needles and cast on more stitches. Some of the yarns used are:  Malabrigo Finito, Dream in Color Smooshy,The Uncommon Thread Heavenly Fingering, Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, and The Fibre Company Canopy Fingering. Celebrate FO Friday by checking out more posts over on the  Tami's Amis blog ! Have a crafty weekend!

Destashing is the name of the game these days! I have been listing more of my stash for sale here on Ravelry in my efforts to streamline my craft room and reduce clutter around the house. In the spirit of these endeavors, I decided to join in the fun of the FreshStitches Scrap-a-Long , which gets rolling tomorrow! I used Stacey's excellent Russian join tutorial to create my very own magic ball using various red, white, grey and brown worsted yarns (including my leftover Sock Monkey yarn!). Then it was time to decide which pattern to use - after much debate, I decided that a cute monster would be the perfect project, so I'll be making  Mixtro the Monster , which is a free crochet pattern from FreshStitches on Ravelry! Also in the spirit of destashing, I I chose three colors of leftover sock yarn to start Tanis Gray's Constitution Hall Scarf from Capitol Knits . It's going to be three colors (I think), with one half of the scarf being light and dark grey and the ...

First off, let's start with the disclaimer: as a new affiliate, I was given a special code to create my first Blurb book for free using a preview of their new Designer Photo Book Template . The catch? I had less than a week to use the promo code, which meant that my first book with Blurb would be a whirlwind! I decided that the best place to start would be with my back catalog of patterns, so after much internal debate, I decided to do a sock retrospective called Super Socks! (what do you want? I was under a deadline). From start to finish, everything was totally easy and user-friendly. I used Bookify to drag and drop each page's graphics (I converted the PDF pages to PNGs for speed, I admit) and added in text and graphics elsewhere as need, easy peasy. Once I was done, I listed it for sale to the general public; all you have to do is order the first copy and set your price, then folks can choose which type of book they'd like to order. I myself ordered the hardcov...

This week, I have two amigurumi projects, both of which use patterns by one of my favorite crochet designers, Stacey Trock of Freshstitches . First, I finally got around to making my February kit club project, Dale the Mosquito ! I spent last Saturday afternoon baking and crocheting in the kitchen. A few hours later, I had a new friend, complete with poseable nose and legs! In other crochet news: the moose is done! The moose is done! It took much longer to put together than I was expecting, mostly because I had to reattach pieces more than once. I think he's cute, but a little on the wonky side; part of that is because I still managed to have a pretty loose gauge, despite using a smaller hook than recommended (used an F instead of the recommended H). I probably should have noticed sooner and switched to an even smaller  hook, but it's a little too late for that now! The pattern is Stacey Trock's Maple the Moose from Crocheted Softies , made with Malabrigo Merino Worst...

I think I'm about halfway through the fingering weight scrap yarn scarf ! I try to work through a few rows each night at the very least, so there's a good chance this will be done by the end of this month if I can just keep my momentum going. Of course, it's a little tough to photograph, but I think you get the idea! My top-down Arroyo Cropped Cardigan is coming along well - I am just about ready to take off for the sleeves. The rest should be downhill from there, as they say. I've made a few minor changes to the pattern as written, mostly because I'm not joining in the round for a pullover. Last night I took off for the sleeves and tried it on - success! It fit! And it's even looking more sweater-like! After taking off the sleeves, I split the remaining skein in half by weight, figuring I could knit the body til I ran out of yarn, and then I would be able to use the other skein I wound off to finish the sleeves and collar. Mr. Monke y is nearing compl...

I think I can get this in just under the wire....instead of my usual Monday post, I thought I'd wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day today! Though it's a pretty huge holiday here in Chicago, Tyler and I prefer to stay as far away as possible from the insanity. On Saturday, I made Guinness brownies and Chocolate Stout Cupcakes and we enjoyed the remaining Guinness pints from my baking adventure. Today, we spent some time with family (including our new nephew Ethan!). See you back here on WIP Wednesday!

Happy FO Friday! I finished my finito mittens for Malabrigo March and have been wearing them all week! They are so soft and warm, and it was surprisingly easy to convert the Waiting for Spring fingerless mitt pattern to mittens (and I still only used one skein of Finito !). I also made some yoga socks over the weekend - these have been in my queue for quite some time, and I can't believe I waited so long to make them. The pattern is from one of my favorite books,  Knitted Socks East and West  by the late Judy Sumner. I used the  Obi  pattern with just a few minor modifications to whip these up! They were a great way to destash some mystery yarn, too; I'm 98% certain this was a skein of alpaca yarn from Blue Sky, but of course the label is long gone. I split the skein by weight and used the whole thing up, save a few yards. I'm excited to test them out; it's been way too long since I've dusted off the yoga mat, in part because our living room is a bit drafty in...

It's week two of Malabrigo March and already I've finished my first project, with the second one close on its heels. Here is the pile of moose parts I need to assemble this week, ideally in time for my FO Friday post...though that might be a long shot, considering how many fiddly bits there are to assemble: Since I was without an "on-the-go" knitting project, last week I decided to cast on for a scrap yarn scarf  based on Becky Herrick's Snippet Scarf , a free pattern on Ravelry. For some reason, I had the insane delusion that carrying around several leftover skeins of fingering-weight yarn was a really good idea. The reality, of course, is the complete opposite, and I think this will become my kitchen knitting project instead! I have been saving lots of bits and bobs from luxury skeins of yarn - Malabrigo Finito, The Uncommon Thread Heavenly Fingering, Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, and The Fibre Company Canopy Fingering, to name a few. Already, it's...

For Malabrigo March , I bought a beautiful skein of Arroyo in Plomo that was begging to become a sweater of some sort. Of course, I only purchased one skein, so that means I'll be making a cropped cardigan or shrug of some sort. After scouring Ravelry for something that matched what was in my head, I decided that I needed to DIY it. As luck would have it, I was researching apps for an article that will soon be published, and came across Raglanify from ShhStudios , a knitting pattern generator for making top-down sweaters with raglan shaping, as the name would imply. I purchased this app from the Google Play store for $0.99 (there is also an iPhone/iPad version for the same price) and immediately fired it up!  The screenshots provided in the app store are pretty much exactly what you get: after choosing your design elements and gauge information, you simply input your measurements and written instructions are generated. A lot of reviews mention the fact that it doesn'...

It's done, it's done, it's DONE! On Monday night, my yarn order arrived and I set to work finishing up the final bits of my Rocky Coast Cardigan . By the end of Tuesday night, all of the ends were woven in (and there were many!) and it was time to block in some lavender Eucalan ! All in all, it was totally worth reknitting the sleeves and purchasing one more skein of yarn at the 11th hour. It's the perfect cardigan and I'm so excited that I finished it with plenty of time to enjoy it before warm weather arrives, though I think I will add some sort of closure at the top. I also finished a few more owl hats, which were made in the interim before Malabrigo March began. From R-L: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Douglas Fir & Growth; The Fibre Company Organik in Algae and Claystone, and  Malabrigo Worsted  in Pigeon and  Knit Picks   Andean Silk (which is apparently discontinued) in Imperial. Deal alert!   I'm excited to offer you an excl...

Two of my three proposed Malabrigo March projects are in progress! I started the Finito mitts over the weekend; since I couldn't work on my Rocky Coast til the extra skein of yarn arrived, I spent most of my knitting time on this project. Since I was hoping to convert the Waiting for Spring pattern to mittens, I split the skein by weight and was happy to discover that I would have enough yarn to do so! The first mitten is complete save the thumb, and mitten #2 is proceeding quite nicely as well.  I also started Maple the Moose over the weekend; I am nearly done with the second main body piece! I love crocheting with singly-ply yarns such as Malabrigo's Merino Worsted , and this particular colorway - Cognac - is working up beautifully. On a different note, I've come across some really great photos this week via various internet wormholes that it would be criminal not  to share here. You can see even more unbearably cute animal photos on my Awesome Animals Pintere...

Confession time: I had to order an extra skein of Canopy Worsted in Macaw to finish my Rocky Coast Cardigan (luckily there were still a few skeins of Malabrigo Worsted on sale to make my order worthwhile). At this point in my knitting life, I should have known to purchase an extra skein of yarn from the beginning; I cannot tell you how many calls we'd get at Lorna's Laces from people who needed just one more skein of a particular dye lot to finish their sweater - let's just say I'd be retiring quite early if I had a dollar for each call, and that was just in the four years I worked there. So close to being done: sweater mess-in-progress I would have been fine with the recommended 900 yards of worsted-weight yarn, except I decided I wanted roomier sleeves. I figured I'd be cutting it close, but on Friday night, there was no denying that I was going to run out of yarn. I even wound off my final skein of yarn and began to knit the collar, but it was still clea...

One of my family members used Blurb to create a book of photos a year or so ago, which is the first I'd heard of this website. Since then, I've been wanting to give it a try, but always got sidetracked. Earlier this week, I received an invitation to become an affiliate for Blurb and figured that was the perfect opportunity to take a closer look at this site. Here are my first impressions: 1. Affordable & User-friendly. Books prices start at $3.95; there are a number of ways you can create your book, including an optional Adobe InDesign plug-in (which I am excited to try out). 2. A viable way to self-publish. Whether you have a pattern collection, photo tutorials, a collection of recipes or photos of cats in bowties to share with the world, Blurb.com  allows you to create printed books and e-books easily. There are options to create books using your Instagram feed and Facebook photos, as well as ways to create calendars, brochures, magazines, and more.  3...

I finished two long-term projects this week - all the better to make way for my Malabrigo March projects! My crocheted Calm Cowl seemed as thought it would never end, and that's partially because I didn't want it to! It was the perfect type of project to take on the CTA, so I ended up making it considerably larger than the pattern specifies. The yarn was perfect for this project, a nice subtle gradation of emerald green and occasional turquoise hues. You may recall that I ordered this last fall from Craftsy's Thanksgiving sale - I'm not sure if I mentioned it at the time, but they accidentally sent me an extra ball of yarn, something that ended up coming in handy after all! The other project I finished this week is my Sock Monkey Monkey! I had been wanting to try the hand-dyed yarns from Haldecraft and fell in love with the Sock Monkey Colorway. When my SIL bought a skein of worsted-weight yarn in my color of choice, I knew I had to make myself a stuffed monk...