handmade by stefanie

Hunter Hammersen's newest book of patterns arrived in the mail last week at just the right time - I was wanting to indulge in a little startitis, but couldn't seem to land on a pattern to cast on. Once I flipped through the book, I knew I wanted to get something  on the needles, and I grabbed some yarn and started the Suitable for Use hat that very day. I'd seen a preview of Fine Things for Plain Occasions ( available here from Pantsville Press ) at TNNA and knew the patterns would be great as always - I love Hunter's aesthetic; seeing the finished book just added another layer to it all. In the forward, she explains that she's been collecting vintage etiquette guides for many years now, and they are the inspiration for the patterns: each design is accompanied with an actual quote from one such guide (from which the pattern names are also derived). Each piece has a vintage flair to it, but with a modern twist, and the pattern layout has vintage flourishes which...

What perfect timing - last weekend, we had our first snowfall, and I finished my Pennant Cardigan from the 10th anniversary issue of Knitscene! It's designed by my pal, Mari Chiba , who is profiled in the issue by none other than....me. I'm super excited to finally have this project off the needles, just in time to wear for the holidays. A rainy Thanksgiving meant our photo shoot had to be held indoors. I started this project in August using 100% yak sport weight yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch; at the time, I knew I wanted to use handspun for the colorwork yoke, but I hadn't even purchased the fiber I'd be using for it! Luckily, a mostly stockinette sport weight sweater takes a long time for me to knit, especially when I have all kind of other projects and KALs to distract me. That allowed me to find the PERFECT gradient roving at the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival - a merino/silk braid from Fiber Optic Yarns in the Raven colorway.  On Monday, I share...

Spoiler alert for FO Friday: over the weekend, I finished my Pennant Cardi ! I'm now officially down to just one (adult-sized) sweater on the needles, and my goal is the use the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to make some serious progress towards the finish line on my Broad Shoulders Cardi : On the smaller side of things, my striped baby sweater is coming along nicely - I'm almost done with the first sleeve: And I had been keeping up with my one-pattern-repeat-per-day quota for the Miya Shawl KAL , when I got into the zone on Monday night and worked though 4 or 5 pattern repeats....which means that I am very, VERY close to the finish line - just one more repeat to go! Over the weekend, I did succumb to startitis, but only a little: I started crocheting a teeny tiny christmas light garland using this free pattern from Repeat Crafter Me : I have all of the lights I need crocheted to string across my knitting library, so now I just need to finish weaving in ends and han...

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this, but I almost never plan out my spinning projects ahead of time. I just grab some fiber and fiddle with the wheel til things feel "right" and go for it...which is great if you don't have a project in mind for the end result, but lately I have felt the urge to spin yarn for specific projects. By now, I know my wheels well enough that I have a general idea of what will work to produce the yarn I want, but I thought it was better to err on the side of caution and spin some samples to be absolutely certain. I happened to receive a pretty handy gadget from Spinzilla (which arrived broken, regrettably, but the good news is that the most important part was still usable...plus, there's always tape). Not only is this a nice tool to quickly identify the weight of any  yarn, I have been using it to check my singles as I spin to make sure they are (reasonably) consistent. So, when I was spinning a sample for the yarn which ultimately wa...

Despite a 4-day weekend filled with lots and lots of crafting time last weekend, all I have to show for FO Friday is.....a tiny Bluebird of Happiness !  Yup, that's it! I knit this little guy in just a few hours' time using some leftover Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted  (in the Douglas Fir colorway) that was in my stash using the free Bluebird of Happiness pattern from Ravelry. I think I might add a little loop at the top so that it can be used as a tree ornament for the holidays! 

You may have noticed I took Monday off from blogging (or perhaps you didn't notice at all, except for now I just drew attention to that fact). I took a four-day weekend to celebrate my "birthday staycation," which was pretty much just four days filled with doing as many craft projects as possible, mostly of the knitting variety. I probably made the most noticeable progress on my yak sweater , which is so. close. to. being. done. Please excuse the indoor photos and lighting, it has been really dark and rainy all week! Check out that oh-so-subtle gradient yoke: The Royals-inspired striped baby cardi with my Spinzilla prize yarn has also seen quite a bit of progress since last week: I continued to work on my one-pattern-repeat-a-day quota for the Miya Shawl KAL, and over the weekend I passed the halfway point - just look at how loooooong and hard-to-get-in-frame it's become! The spinning wheel also got dusted off as I embarked on a sheep to sweater project ...

I was recently sent a project kit from Skeino for review on my blog, and you have probably seen my WIP photos of the Aloha Hat & Scarf kit over on Instagram as well as here on the last couple of Wednesdays. In addition to sending me a free project kit, the Skeino folks were also kind enough to create a coupon code for my readers (found at the end of this post)! Aloha Hat-Scarf Kit in Hapuna I was pretty excited to give this kit a try because I don't knit many entrelac projects, so it's nice to have a reason to revisit this technique, which I learned via a Craftsy course I took 3 or 4 years ago. Since then, I've knit a handful of entrelac projects here and there, and while I don't really keep that skill set sharpened, it's pretty easy to jump back in whenever I need to. Sometimes I'll re-watch the Craftsy class videos to get a refresher, although there are some really great free tutorials online which will do the trick if you don't want to pay f...

On Monday night I started to have that feeling that I was coming down with something. Lo and behold, I got the cold that's been going around, and spent most of yesterday on the couch, attempting to accomplish some work to-do's (there are no sick days for the self-employed). I can always tell I'm not feeling well when it's even tough to knit, and I had a hard time getting through even the simplest rows on Tuesday night. Thankfully, it was a productive weekend. I spun both gradient singles for my yak cardigan and am in the process of plying them together this week. I also conquered the back piece of my Broad Shoulders KAL sweater ; all that remains is the right front, two sleeves, and a button band - I can totally  finish all that by December 13! My Spinzilla prize was a gift certificate to Purl & Loop, and I received my order on Monday and couldn't resist casting on for a stripey baby sweater using Allyson Dykhuizen's Baby Sweater Buffet  pattern:  ...

Earlier this year, I took the Joeli's Kitchen tech editing course , trained under a tech editor, and edited many patterns which have come out this fall - something I never would have imagined I'd do in the course of just one year, although tech editing has always been of interest to me. I would definitely say that I am still refining those skills, though some things are easier for me than others. Obviously, my many years of sock knitting mean that I am quite comfortable tech editing a sock pattern, as I know the basic formula for socks backwards and forwards. I've also knit so many hats, cowls, mittens, etc. that almost any accessory pattern resides well within my comfort zone.  What's been pretty far outside of that zone is sweater patterns. I've made a fair number of sweaters in my 10+ years of knitting, but I would by no means call myself an expert - and I'm definitely not on a sock pattern level of comfort with garments.  Most of the sweaters I...

This week's FO project kind of came out of nowhere, as I have neglected to mention it here for nearly the entire time I was working on it. I can't even tell you when I cast on for these socks - it's been over 4 months, I'm sure - but I am pretty excited to finally have them off the needles! I used a skein of Cascade sock yarn which was gifted to me and winged it for much of the pattern - I used a 2x2 rib cuff, followed by a 1x1 broken rib on the leg, the OMG heel , and then a stockinette stitch foot. All told, these should have been done in under a month's time, but they spent a lot of time in hibernation whilst I was distracted by other shinier  projects. What finally got me to finish these socks was the need for a nice, mindless project which I could work on in dimly lit bars while watching the Royals in the World Series. Along with my yak cardigan sleeves, these proved to be the ideal project, and I finished knitting them the night that the Royals won Game ...

What a difference a week has made....for some projects! With the Royals in the World Series, I found myself doing a tour of dimly-lit bars to watch as many games as I could (my very lucky husband actually got to go to Game 2 at Kauffman Stadium last Wednesday!). This meant that I needed to work on projects which didn't require too much of my attention, and so my go-to project became a pair of socks which I never blog about (more on them later this week) and the sleeves for my Pennant Cardi . The night the Royals won the World Series, I finished the sleeves and was ready to join them to the body of the sweater as soon as I got home! Of course, now I need to spin the yarn which I'll be using for the colorwork in the yoke.....so this project will be on the back burner til that happens. Even though my Broad Shoulders KAL project doesn't leave the house, I managed to make some some decent progress - as you can see, I finished the left front and am now about halfway through...

I'm excited to announce that one of my patterns is now available in French! I was recently approached by a Raveler who offered to translate my Chittery Chattery sock pattern into French, and I couldn't say no! Thanks to Guy (also known as tricotman on Ravelry), this free pattern is now available in both English and French. I took 5 years of French, but couldn't even pretend that I know enough to translate a knitting pattern, so I am quite appreciative of Guy's efforts. He noted that my super-clangy title was a big of a challenge for him to translate: "avoir un brin de jasette" or "piquer une jasette" translates to "having a chat" in Québec. Close enough for me! Guy has a blog of his own which is in French located here - it's worth checking out, you can definitely get the gist of it through Google translate. The Chittery Chattery socks are available as a free download in your choice of English or French here on Ravelry ...