handmade by stefanie

Over the weekend, I finished my Spindleberry Shawl , can you believe it? I wasn't planning to start a new project so close to TNNA, but I ended up casting on for a pair of socks with some Tibetan Dream that's been in my stash for a while now: The pattern is called The Hub of Fashion, and the body of the sock is knit sideways, something I've never done before! Here we have the rarely-seen Robin photobomb: I'm still not finished with my Dorper project for Spinning Spring Training ; I was hoping to at least finish the singles before I left town, but realistically, that's probably not going to happen: I've also been making progress on my North Hollow Cowl in the new yarn from Blue Sky Alpacas, Extra - over the weekend I finished the first half and started the second half: It's soooo soft! I am really enjoying working with it, and the design is turning out to be the right mix of mindless/mindful knitting: it took a little concentration to get every...

Thanks to everyone who placed an order for my virtual Thirty-One party which ends today! Below is a reminder of how to place your order through my event; Callie will be submitting your orders tonight and your awesome stuff will begin shipping out later this week. Since I haven't ever done anything like this on my blog before, I'd like to ask for your feedback: Did you like the products and tips featured?  Was it easy for you to place your order?  Did you think there were too many or too few posts dedicated to Thirty-One?  Is there a better time of year when you would like to see this type of event (i.e. the holiday season, back-to-school, etc.)?  If you can please take a few moments to share your thoughts in the comments, that will help me to plan future content, events and promotions which are of interest to YOU! How to Join The Party You can view the Thirty-One catalog  here . To place your order through my virtual party, point your browser to ...

With TNNA just around the corner, I've been working long hours and six-day weeks for the last week or so. By the time I'm ready to sign off for the day, my brain power is pretty much spent, so I've been really appreciating the simple knits this week. First, I found a nearly-finished Itty-Bitty Batty from 50 yards of Fun in my knitting basket! I gave him some ears and feet and now he's complete: I couldn't resist starting another project from the book, the Small-Peanuts Elephant . I used up every scrap of the grey and blue oddballs from my stash - in fact, I had to pinch-hit to get those legs finished. I was also gifted a skein of Spud & Chloe Outer , so I whipped up a Slope Hat by Susan B. Anderson in just one night of knitting! I accidentally ran it through the washing machine on the maximum-abuse setting - usually I choose the delicate cycle for my superwash yarns. It emerged relatively unscathed, especially considering the wild ride it went on...

Over the weekend, I made some major progress on my WIPs! It was so nice on Sunday afternoon, I took my wheel out onto the back porch to spin and enjoy some of my husband's home brew. I managed to fill bobbin #2, start bobbin #3 and surpass the halfway point (weight-wise) in a matter of hours! I also worked quite diligently on my shawl , and on Monday night I reached the halfway point! Now I am decreasing across the remainder of the shawl, and I'm hoping to have it done just before I leave for TNNA next week. It's definitely reached the hard-to-photograph stage, that's for sure! Yesterday I decided to start knitting a brand-new pattern (the North Hollow Cowl by Robin Melanson) out of a brand-new yarn called Extra ! The whole kit & caboodle arrived at my house last week (along with some other goodies I'll be sharing on future posts). They were sent to me to try out, which is a pretty nice perk of my job, I can't lie. It's hard to go wrong with Bl...

Hi all! I hope you are still as excited about Thirty-One as I am (and if you aren't, I promise to return to my regularly-scheduled blogging next week)! Today, I wanted to talk about The Perfect Knitting Bag. If you're like me, you are always on the prowl for the shangri-la of carry-alls, and it can be quite a tall order to fill: lots of compartments and pockets, roomy without being ginormous and rivaling that of a suitcase, comfortable to wear and carry, and most of all....it's got to look cute, too! As I mentioned before, the cute & roomy Thirty-One bags my friend Julie had when she last visited were what inspired me to check out the website and decide to host a virtual party. As I'm sure she can personally attest, they fit the above criteria for The Perfect Knitting Bag, plus they are durable, too! There are several sizes and styles to suit pretty much every taste, and here are a few of my favorites: Retro Metro Foldover : there are two pockets on ...

By popular request, I'd like to share a few more photos from last Tuesday's meeting - as you can see, there was quite a big turnout! We had a great time trying out various Knitter's Pride needles and new yarns from Berroco , Mrs. Crosby (a new hand-dyed yarn making its TNNA debut next month) and Classic Elite . I heard a lot of great feedback about the needles, especially the newest lines: Karbonz, Nova Cubics and Bamboo. As I mentioned in my presentation, Knitter's Pride is one of the many awesome companies I work with in my job with Stitchcraft Marketing , and I was really excited to share my favorite needles with everyone. When I talked about Pinterest, I mentioned that one of my favorite personal uses was to collect crafting tutorials for reference later: Another popular use for Pinterest in our industry is to create "mood boards" to guide designers' submissions for magazines, books and pattern collections:  I also talked a...

I'm so excited - at long last, my #HKKAL project is done! Behold, my completed Cute Girl Squares top: I know that making a ton of granny squares and seaming them together seems terribly fussy, but it actually wasn't as time-consuming as you would think! I totally could have made this top in less than a month I hadn't taken so many breaks to work on other projects - what can I say, I'm easily distracted! The only modification I did was to create the belt using these instructions for a Foundation Single Crochet:  I think this turned out pretty darn well for my first-ever crocheted sweater! I'm also happy to report that Valley Yarns' Charlemont sock yarn is awesome to crochet with - plus, it's an affordable option: I made this entire project for less than $38! Thirty-One If you're just joining me, I am hosting a Virtual Thirty-One Party for the next two weeks ( click here for all the details ) andI have two product picks to share today: the...

In the wake of finishing several WIPs over the weekend, I was on the prowl for a new project I could start in addition to the MANY top-secret projects which are currently on my needles. Yes, there are exciting things afoot (pun intended), and I can't wait til I get to share them with you! Alas, that won't be for a while...next month at the earliest, to be exact. Until then, I'll be ever-so-slowly knitting on my new WIP, the Spindleberry Shawl by Joanna Johnson. I'm using a skein of Skein Merino Cashmere Fingering in the Ochiba colorway; I realized that I didn't have a single grey shawl, and this just happened to be in my stash!  I was able to snag the pattern for free when it was first published thanks to my Ravulous Hot Right Now widget that I have on my phone ( click here to read my review ). I've never made anything with fringe, and it's not something I would normally be into....but for some reason I like it in this design. Bonus: the fringe ...

For those of you who will be enjoying a tax refund this year, I hope you will treat yourself to something special! Though I won't be getting a refund myself, I like to live vicariously through others...and I may still treat myself anyway, because what better way to ease the pain of writing that tax check than getting a fun new bag for spring? If you're just joining me, I am hosting a Virtual Thirty-One Party for the next two weeks ( click here for all the details ), and today I'd like to share this month's amazeballs deal: both the All Pro Tote & Duffel are each just $25 with any $35 purchase! These bags retail at $80, and they will only be available this month ( click here to watch a short video on YouTube to see them in action). The All Pro Tote (pictured below) would make a fantastic bag for toting your WIPs to knit night! How to Join The Party You can view the Thirty-One catalog here . To place your order through my virtual party, point your browser to...

Littles Carry-All Caddy Last December, my friend Julie visited and she had that cutest bags with her - all of which were from a site called Thirty-One . She left me a catalog and I fell in love with all of the coordinated bags and storage solutions! For those of you who are new to Thirty-One, the products are sold via sales consultants (similar to Mary Kay or Avon). I've been ordering my Thirty-One goodies through consultant  Callie Woodland , and we have teamed up to bring you some fresh ideas for organizing your crafting life, both at home and on-the-go! For the next two weeks, I will be hosting a virtual Thirty-One party on this blog, sharing my favorite Thirty-One products along with organizational tips and my usual WIPs and FOs, too! Be sure to bookmark my blog, sign up for my free newsletter or follow me with Bloglovin ! Flip-Top Organizing Bin I'd like to start things out by returning to a topic that I blogged about earlier this month, when I shared this p...

With TNNA just around the corner, I've been working longer hours and have had much less craft time that I'm accustomed to, but somehow I managed to finish this hat ! I was able to cable (mostly) without a cable needle, which made it go fairly quickly despite the intricate pattern. It was definitely a pay-attention project, though - I think it will be all mindless knitting from here on out....at least til I've recovered from the trade show! The Vorderrhein Hat is designed by Kate Gagnon Osborn and appears in Vintage Modern Knits ; though it calls for Organik, which is a lovely single-ply yarn from the Fibre Company, I decided to sub in a different yarn from the same company: Terra , which I bought earlier this year from WEBS . I love how this turned out - check out the awesome stitch definition! - and I'm sure I'll be wearing it lots next winter! Thanks for stopping by this week - for FO Friday inspiration, visit the  Tami's Amis blog . Have a crafty...

This weekend's fiber stash acquisitions proved to be a great motivator for my Spinning Spring Training project which I started last week - one pound of Dorper top. I'm nearly to the halfway point, in fact - last night I finished the first bobbin and started on bobbin #2! I also made progress on my #HKKAL project....which I think had to rip back because it looked wonky. Attempt #2 at the crocheted front of the top is looking much better, however:  I have even made some progress on my Berlin cowl, though I haven't been working on it very much because I wanted to finish my twisted-stitch hat. I've also been working some long days this week, so this project has been moved to the bottom of the priority list for my remaining craft hours, unfortunately. Hopefully, you didn't miss my post earlier this week about YarnCon and my interview on the While She Naps podcast . If you can believe it, I have even more  big news: I will be this month's speaker at t...