handmade by stefanie

As I prepare for the Tour de Fleece (which starts this Saturday, eek!), I'm focusing on clearing out my bobbins and figuring out which fibers I want to use from my stash, which got me thinking about what to do with leftover singles. After a while, most handspinners have a lot of leftover bits and bobs of single-ply yarn leftover from past projects, and I have made it my mission to find ways to give them new life so they don't have to sit on storage bobbin for eternity. If you've been saving those singles (or just want to find some creative uses for the next time you have leftover handspun), here are three of my favorite ways to put those singles to good use! 1. Practice a new technique: there are a lot of techniques you can test out which might be less intimidating on the smaller scale of a leftover single - chain plying, felted singles, or experimenting with unbalanced plies all come to mind. Not only that, but using leftover yarn that otherwise would have collected du...

I confess, weaving in the ends on a finished project is one of those tasks I tend to procrastinate. It seems like I have to get in the exact right mood, and to do so, I need to spend about a week psyching myself up for a session of finishing work. What's strange is that I kind of enjoy it....once I finally get started, that is! So why do I always put it off the next time I have a project with a lot of ends to weave in?! I really don't know!  At any rate, I have totally finished and blocked my Faux Fair Isle Mittens , which were a class project from Marly Bird's excellent Mittens & Gloves Galore Craftsy class ( click here for my review and 50% off your class signup!). I absolutely LOVE how these turned out!  I ended up stash-diving to use a skein of Lorna's Laces sock yarn I'd custom dyed as the main color (the top and bottom skein pictured above), then various leftover bits of sock yarn to simulate the long color repeats of the yarn that was...

Late last week, I couldn't resist casting on for a project with one of my newest skeins of handspun yarn: after much deliberation, I decided to make a simple kerchief-style scarf using a pattern recipe from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts : I've been making a concerted effort to make projects from my extensive library of knit/crochet/craft books, and this is one which I bought pretty early on in my days of knitting and have always loved. Lately, I've discovered that many of the patterns from  Last-Minute Knitted Gifts  are perfect for handspun yarns because they are simple, easy-to-customize, and great for variegated colorways. I expect that this is one book I'll be revisiting much more often. My super-secret knitting projects (yes, plural!) are going quite well and I absolutely cannot WAIT to show them to you! Also, if you missed Monday's post, I am giving you a chance to win the best fiber-care tool I've come across ever, a Gleener Cleaner! Click here f...

Earlier this month, I test-drove a product I discovered at TNNA, the Gleener Cleaner. Billed as "the ultimate fuzz remover," this two-in-one product not only removes unsightly pills from virtually any fabric, it also has the most effective brush for removing lint, pet hair and spinning fluff I've ever used - click here to view my blog review & case studies ! As I prepare for the tour de fleece, the Gleener has become an essential tool to keep near my spinning wheel. Just look at how amazing it is at removing fluff & stuff from a heavy-duty spinning session (bonus: my cat Tilly makes her requisite videobomb appearance): On today's post, I'm giving you a chance to win a Gleener Cleaner  of your very own! Use the form below to subscribe to my e-newsletter as your entry (if you're already a subscriber, just enter the email address you subscribed with); there are also plenty of ways to gain bonus entries via Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest! The w...

At last, I have some FO's I can share with the world! First, I knit a modified version of the  Monster Tissue Cozy  from Rebecca Danger's  Knit a Monster Nursery for Father's Day: I love how he turned out! I used Cascade 220 for the main color and some leftover oddballs for the ears, legs and features. I also decided to crochet my eyes instead of knitting an eye patch and using safety eyes. Next, I finished my  FreshStitches kit club  project, Sprocket the Robot! Mine turned out a bit sillier than the pattern photo, due mostly in part to my inability to count and follow the directions properly. I also decided to switch the head with the body in favor of having a smaller head: I like this squishy version, however, and I have lots of beads left over if I decide to make him a friend (but, you know, actually pay attention and follow the pattern this time). Have a crafty weekend!

Over the weekend, I joined the sleeves of the baby sweater to the yoke and am coming down the home stretch on this project! I'm using yarn that I dyed myself and the Seed Stitch Yoke Cardigan from 60 Quick Baby Knits. I haven't made much progress on my chevron yak socks, unfortunately: What's been diverting my attention, you ask? The two S's: Spinning and Secret Knitting! Over the weekend, I finished spinning these BFL singles (two from Cloudlover and one from Miss Babs)... ...and plied them together into two beautifully squishy skeins: I also started working on another top-secret project which I can't show you just yet, but I can tell you that I'm using  SilverSpun  yarn from the Feel Good Yarn Company, a surprisingly stretchy blend of cotton and pure silver! Thanks for joining me this week! For more WIP Wednesday inspiration, visit the  Tami's Amis Blog !

A few months ago at TNNA, I had the pleasure of chatting with the folks from Abuelita Yarns , a yarn company located in Uruguay. They have a lovely range of hand-dyed 100% merino and merino-blend yarns, and I was attracted to their booth by the beautiful braids of merino they had on display. They kindly allowed me to take a few home to spin up and write about on my blog. Something I discovered by visiting their website is their commitment to use fiber from happy sheep -by this I mean healthy, well-cared for sheep. Abuelita has even obtained a  certificate of non-mulesing , a hotly disputed practice which will turn up some pretty grotesque descriptions and photos if you choose to google it. They also pledge to protect the environment in Uruguay through various conservation efforts which you can read about in greater detail   here on their website . Sustainability and social responsibility is something that is important to many of us in the fiber community, so I hope that th...

This week has been all about the spinning - at least, more so than usual. First, I finally got the bulky flyer for my Ladybug wheel that I've been wanting and was able to ply the 3 singles of Nerd Girl BFL together into one mega-skein! That was pretty exciting on its own, but the next big news item is the Louet Victoria spinning wheel (the one I borrowed last year for the Tour de Fleece and Spinzilla, in fact) which arrived on my doorstep on Wednesday. My craft room will be its forever home; it's official, I now own 2 awesome spinning wheels! With it came some lovely spinning fibers, too: Cheviot and Jacob , which I have been dying to try ever since reading the rave reviews over on the Knitting Sarah blog , and more pretty Northern Lights Wool Top in Icy Winter, which you may remember from my spinning experiment last month in which I compared various fiber samples spun from both rolags and straight from the top. I'm trying to save these fibers for either the T...

It seems like I'm not the only one suffering from Startitis this month! I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I suppose it's nice to be in good company. Over the weekend, I started a new spinning project which has been on my mental to-do list for a little while now: After first hearing about opposing-ply yarns on the We Are Yarn podcast, I've been wanting to try this technique to spin a sport-weight(ish) yarn to knit myself a pair of socks. A few months ago, I ordered 8 oz. of Superwash BFL from Nerd Girl Yarns in the #hashtag colorway , and I knew immediately that this was the fiber I should use for this project! Last night, I finished the third single, and tonight I hope to ply all 3 together...and I am already planning my next  spinning project, too! I also started a baby sweater from 60 Quick Baby Knits in some superwash yarn I'd custom dyed back when I worked at Lorna's Laces. It's not super-exciting to look at just yet, but ...

It may be counterintuitive, but there is something about summer that makes me want to spin more! My fiber stash is overflowing, and everywhere I look, I find amazing spinning inspiration. Some of my favorite bloggers have been enabling sharing their spinning projects; the latest examples would be this comparison of Top & Sliver on the Knitting Sarah blog and some absolutely gorgeous spindles and fibers on the Woolen Diversions blog . Not only that, but we're entering the final month of Spinning Spring Training over in the Louet Ravelry Group , the Tour de Fleece will be happening in July, and my fiber stash is overflowing with my latest acquisitions from YarnCon and TNNA . Conditions are just right for a Summer of Spinning! Spinning in progress: Merino top from  Abuelita Yarns . I've been spinning for about 4 years now, but I still feel like I have much to learn. I have subscriptions to both Spin-Off and Ply Magazine , and I find I am constantly referring back t...

I don't technically have an FO to share today, but last week I crocheted this basket and now it is for sale in my Etsy shop ! I've found that crocheting baskets is a fun way to stay busy when I don't feel like concentrating on a crazy chart or complicated project; it's also great for destashing! I'll definitely be making more crocheted baskets in the future (and will try to explore some new color territory since my first two have all been in the brown/blue category). Next week should be a much more interesting FO Friday, I promise! In the mean time, have a fun & crafty weekend! 

Lately, I seem to be easily distracted, or perhaps I'm suffering from Second Everything Syndrome? Either way, I have managed to avoid casting on for Chevron Yak Sock #2 since finishing the first one last week. Not only that, over the weekend I finished the first Faux Fair Isle Mitt (minus the thumb), but I still haven't started mitt #2. I know...I'm the worst! So what have I been doing instead? Well, I started crocheting this robot from the FreshStitches kit club : I had to rip out my work on this robot head a few times since I apparently couldn't count the correct number of stitches, so it's been kind of slow going. But I am super excited to have a cute robot sometime soon! I also realized I needed to cast on for a Father's day gift, since that's just around the corner. I'm pretty sure that my dad doesn't read my blog, so I can tell you what this amorphous blog of knitting actually is: It's a modified version of Rebecca Danger's...

I have been wanting to get my hands on a Gleener Cleaner for a few years now, but somehow never got around to it. Last month at the TNNA trade show, I stopped by their booth for a demo and was totally in awe of what I saw: it was even more amazing that I'd been expecting! I asked them if they were interested in having me review the Gleener Cleaner on my blog, and they generously offered to ship one to me after the show. Of COURSE I took them up on that! It arrived shortly thereafter, and I have been testing it out on every available surface ever since. To sum it up: I'm in love. I've used a sweater shaver, sweater stone, and a D-Fuzz-It, which are all adequate tools at removing pills in their own right. However, the Gleener Cleaner has them beat on so many levels: the 2-in-1 product includes the best lint brush I've ever used.  the 3 interchangeable edges have you covered for just about any fabric - wool, synthetics and blends. the ergonomic handle is easy t...