handmade by stefanie

I spent most of last weekend nursing a cold and snuggling cats, but I couldn't resist crocheting a trio of Sweet Tweeters from the newest addition to my craft library, Modern Baby Crochet (you can read my book review here ). I made them with leftover skeins in my amigurumi stash, and they were fun and fast to make! Tweet tweet! From L-R: Manos Maxima in Nickel, Malabrigo Worsted in Butter, and Berroco Vintage in Aquae. Thanks for stopping by this week - for FO Friday inspiration, visit the  Tami's Amis blog . Have a crafty weekend! 

I managed to make some modest progress on my robot mittens even though I didn't work on them all weekend long due to (another) stupid cold. Most of the progress since last week was made on Monday night, when I took off for the thumb and really started blazing through the chart! On a related note, something kind of exciting happened last week - the designer of the Robots vs. Downtown pattern commented on my project ! In other news, Stacey Trock's new book Modern Baby Crochet arrived last Friday! I spent the weekend crocheting a few of the smaller projects, starting with the Sweet Tweeters (which I'll be sharing on Friday) and Zabby the Giggle Monster , which is currently just a collection of random crocheted shapes: I'd been saving this skein of Three Irish Girls Lindon Merino for the right project; the colorway just happens to share a name with one of my nephews (Rhys), so I couldn't resist starting a cute little monster with it! I made a wee bit mor...

I've been anxiously awaiting the release of Stacey Trock's latest book, Modern Baby Crochet , ever since she began sharing sneak peeks on the FreshStitches blog late last year. Having taken her Woodland Animals Craftsy class and made countless designs from her second book (Crocheted Softies) and Ravelry pattern store, I was excited to have a brand-new book of patterns in my gift-making arsenal for the latest batch of babies. In short, Modern Baby Crochet doesn't disappoint! There are 21 patterns total, and they are grouped by color family (bold and bright, pastels and neutrals), making it easy to crochet several items for a coordinated nursery if you so choose. With very few exceptions, the designs are unisex; they're not only perfect for nurseries, but would suit any modern home decor as well. There is a great assortment of afghans, decor and stuffed animals, plenty of which I plan on making for myself! Mondrian-inspired afghan Besides the well-written, eas...

Bonus: got to try out my new blocking wires! Happy Friday! I am relieved to be back at home base this week. Taking three separate trips in the span of a month is just too much for me, and I'm looking forward to staying put for a while. Besides being stressful, it's hard to keep up with chores, much less start a bigger fibery project. For instance, I haven't had time to spin in the last few weeks because I couldn't block out enough time to process a large amount of fiber in one sitting. You can bet I'll be dusting off the Ladybug this weekend, though! Small projects have been the name of the game, consequently. My primary project for the last trip to KC I took ended up being the Serpentinite Scarf by Carol Feller knit with a skein of Fiesta Yarns' La Luz . Since I was substituting in a yarn that had less yardage than what was specified, I knew I'd have to do some modifications going in. What ended up happening is that I only knit one half of the scarf...

Now that my holiday gift knitting is complete, I've started a few projects for myself. The first is something that has been in my queue for a while now: Robots vs. Downtown. I'm using a skein each of ShiBui Sock in Peacock and Wasabi - one of my favorite color combinations! I'd like to knit myself more colorwork mittens as a general rule (especially since I already have some really excellent books), and I had already picked out some yarn from my stash to make these mittens. I purchased the pattern back in November when it was on sale as part of the Indie Designer Gift-Along . Though I didn't end up participating, I really liked the concept and hope they do the event again this year so I can actually take part this time! My other WIP is a sweater I started over the weekend using Canopy Fingering from the Fibre Company. I'm using the 30-Day Sweater framework to design it as I go; I'm not sure if it will actually be done in 30 days, but I am looking f...

As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, my husband thoughtfully bought me a WEBS gift certificate for Christmas. After much internal debate, I placed a carefully-chosen order: 3 bundles of handpainted Targhee Top from Abstract Fiber in "The Gorge" colorway (the idea is to have enough finished handspun to make a large project of some sort!) 2 skeins of Terra from the Fibre Company in Blue Spruce (to make this cabled hat from Vintage Modern Knits) 2 skeins Valley Yarns Northampton Sport in Gray (this is for a top-secret  design project I'm currently working on!) After a small delay due to the insane weather this month, it arrived and I am dying to dive in! Alas, I find myself heading to Orlando today for business while Tyler holds down the fort. I'm pretty sure I'll be busting out the spinning wheel just as soon as I return home and get unpacked.  I also purchased a pound of Louet Dorper Top ; I'd spun some during Spinzilla last October a...

Happy Friday, I'm excited to share two projects with you today! The first is another adorable amigurumi snowman using the choose-your-own-adventure pattern from FreshStitches: I thought my first snowman could use a friend, especially since he will be spending the next 10 months in storage. I love this pattern and will probably crochet one or two more next holiday season! My second FO is the Arctic Circle Cowl , which I started right around the time the Polar Vortex hit Chicago. I finished it while I was in Kansas City for a wedding last weekend, and have been enjoying it ever since! I absolutely love yarns from The Fibre Company, and Tundra  is very soft and lovely to work with: it's a heavenly blend of baby alpaca, merino and silk. The tent stitch pattern was quite easy to memorize, and I love the way the cowl drapes when I wear it. Thanks for stopping by this week - for FO Friday inspiration, visit the  Tami's Amis blog . Have a crafty weekend! 

This week I have just one WIP to share with you: I started the Serpentinite scarf from Carol Feller's Among Stones using a skein of La Luz from Fiesta Yarns which was gifted me for my birthday last year. It was my main project while traveling to Kansas City last weekend, and as you can see, I am very close to being done! It will be my first ever beaded project, so I'm kind of excited to finish it up. The new year has been off to a hectic start - why is it that I always must travel in January? Next week, I have to head to Orlando for a few days to do a workshop for my job, so I am reticent to start too many projects in the interim...yet I am thinking of starting my next 30 Day Sweater this weekend to take on my trip. Um, yeah. Regardless. I'm hoping next week's WIP Wednesday post will be more interesting! Thanks for joining me this week! For more WIP Wednesday inspiration, visit the  Tami's Amis Blog !

Purchased at SOAR: CVM blend roving I met Ellen and Wanda, the two women who run Fiber Curios and Sundries , at SOAR this past October. Their booth was filled with interesting natural fibers and hand-dyed yarns. After chatting with Ellen for a while, it became clear that they had an incredible passion for locally-grown, sustainable fibers. The company is relatively new, having started last year (their  website  says that neither Ellen nor Wanda have given up their day jobs yet!). I was able to interview Ellen via email* to learn more about their dedication to sustainable yarns and fibers and find out what's in store for 2014! Etsy shop purchase: 100% CVM roving + fiber samples Your shop is dedicated to locally grown and sustainable fibers. Tell us why sustainability in fiber production is so important to you and why they should also be important to handspinners! When the issue of sustainability is raised, the reason that is at the forefront in my mind is to dec...

I first heard about SilverSpun yarn from the Feel Good Yarn Company over on my pal Allyson's blog . It popped up again as a reward for the Woolly App Kickstarter, and finally I ended up connecting with Laurie, the woman behind it all. She sent me a skein of SilverSpun yarn to try out, and I couldn't wait to cast on! Since the pure silver that is spun throughout the yarn has therapeutic properties, I thought a pair of fingerless mitts would be a good project. It should also be noted that the silver lends the yarn conductive properties as well, which means that you can knit a pair of gloves and use them to operate any touch-screen device while wearing them! Anyway, I went the fingerless mitt route and made the Dalkey Mitts from Carol Feller's Contemporary Irish Knits . This is the first project in my never-ending quest to see how many projects I can make from books already on my shelf, might I add! There were several pleasant surprises about this yarn: first, I was...

Arctic Circle cowl in progress! Chicago, like the most of North America, is experiencing an extra-frosty dose of winter this week - we're talking negative double-digit temps with truly frightening windchills. This is when being a work-at-home cat mom is awesome; though I like winter (it's my favorite season), I will admit that this is a little insane, even for me. My husband had to brave the arctic conditions in the name of coffee, however - and it's times like these that I'm glad I'm a knitter! Knowing that he is out there in various layers of warm winter wear which includes my hand-knits makes me worry a little less when my phone keeps pinging about dangerously cold weather conditions. Free pattern: Handspun Garter Scarf/Cowl And so it seemed incredibly appropriate to cast on for the Arctic Circle Cowl using Tundra yarn from The Fibre Company. I'm not sure whether it's the hair of the dog or an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'e...

Last year's Tour de Fleece and Spinzilla events left we with a healthy stash of handspun yarn. I have gifted many skeins to knitting friends (especially those who don't spin), but there are a few skeins that I knew I wanted to save just for me. I was particularly enamored with a Falkland 2-ply I'd made with hand-dyed roving from Hearthside Fibers and Pumpkinhaus . Both of my winter coats just happened to coordinate perfectly with the resulting yarn, and I decided on a simple knit to let all of the variegated colors take center stage. I should preface this by saying that I really hate knitting scarves - they seem to go on and on without end, and I usually tire of the process. However, I have tons of cowls and shawls in my collection, and it would be nice to have an actual scarf that is big and snuggly. As I was knitting, I thought it would also  be nice to have the option of draping it around my neck several times like a cowl, so I decided to add buttonholes before...

Grey has always been one of my favorite colors. With my coloring, there are more than a few colors I simply can't wear, but grey has always been something I can fall back on (not to mention, it looks great with just about any color, much as black does). So I guess it's fitting that my first two finished projects to share in 2014 are grey: first, a cowl knit in Manos Maxima 's Foil colorway, and second, my first handspun project of the year spun from Grey Gotland top. Cowl blocking in progress! I knit the I Wish I was Weaving This Cowl on my trip to Kansas City last week; it only took two days, in fact! It was the perfect "conversation" project since the basket weave stitch pattern was easy to memorize. The pattern is available for free on Ravelry from the talented Liz Abinante of Feministy. While I was out of town, I pined for my spinning wheel. I'd taken a hiatus prior to the holidays so that I could focus all of my free time on gift-making, so by th...

Happy New Year! I can't believe it's 2014. The holiday season whizzed by and I am not sure I'm ready to embark on a new year just yet - but it's here whether I like it or not! In fact, I am still processing the holidays: I felt more than a little spoiled by my friends and family. As I get older, I can honestly say that my focus on the holidays isn't on what gifts I'll be getting, but rather, giving gifts and spending time with family (and friends!). That's not to say I don't enjoy receiving gifts, of course - who doesn't?! In fact, I received many thoughtful, useful, and all-around awesome gifts this year, and I thought I'd share some of the fiber-related ones on today's post: Mollie Makes Crochet : Tons of great projects to make for the home!  50 Yards of Fun by Rebecca Danger - all the better to continue the theme for 2014!  Scarf Organizer: I've been trying to find a good way to store all of my scarves and shawls so that ...