handmade by stefanie

Earlier this month, I flew to Phoenix for a new-to-me trade show called Creativation . It's similar to the TNNA trade shows I've attended in years past in that it's specific to the crafts industry, but the similarities pretty much stop there. Creativation is much wider in its scope to include painting, beading, paper craft, edible arts, as well as yarn craft (and I think I saw some felt/fiber craft for good measure, too!). For me, it was heaven, because I've done pretty much every craft at some point in my life, and it was interesting to see how they have evolved since then. Let's just say I hit my step goal every day at the show! Yup, a legit bus route! The show floor is massive (enough to have its own bus route!!), and many of the booths were quite elaborate. It reminded me a lot of H+H Cologne in that regard, along with the cool gathering places and lounges throughout the show floor. Love this balloon display in the 3M booth.   The prize-...

There's nothing like starting off the new year with a beautiful handknit sweater that actually fits you! I finished my So Faded sweater on New Year's Eve and couldn't stop myself from running outside to take triumphant FO photos, despite the frigid temperatures. I won't lie, it was cold, but at least I had a lovely new sweater to keep me warm! I was able to destash a few skeins of yarn that had been lurking in my stash, and I dyed two more skeins of fingering weight yarn (which had also been taking up real estate in my stash) to work into the fade. I started with a skein of Kitchen Sink Dyeworks Luxe Merino Fine, which I had been hoarding for years since KSD closed its doors. I can't remember the name of the colorway, but it's the grey yarn you see at the top, and I used up nearly every little bit. The next color was a skein of Kraemer Yarns Beth (a blend of alpaca, merino and silk) that I dyed for this project, followed by a skein of yarn I'd re...

I haven't made many (or any) resolutions for 2018, but there is something I want to do more of: sweater knitting....for ME! Last year, I was a lot choosier with my knitting projects due to a busier work schedule and the addition of several new crafts which reduced my amount of knitting time. Additionally, there are some projects that I simply can't knit (or have to knit slooooowly) thanks to ongoing issues with my hands and arms. I have a ton of hats and cowls and unfortunately socks are on "knit sparingly" list, it finally dawned on me that I should focus on making myself a wardrobe of sweaters that match my existing wardrobe of mostly black and grey clothes AND actually fit me. The two sweaters I knit last year, the Rockling Cardigan and the So Faded Sweater (which I'll be sharing on a later post), made my realize how much I like to knit and wear the sweaters I make provided they actually fit me . And that is the hard part, because I have to do something a lot...

In 2018, you'll see some changes on this blog, and one of them is that I'll only be publishing 1 blog per week on average (the plan is to share a new post each Wednesday, if you're wondering - you can follow me on Bloglovin  so you don't miss out!). I want to focus on quality, not quantity of posts, and I'm also hoping this new schedule will give me a little more time to craft each week. I've never done a reader survey, but now seems like a good time to give it a try. Rather than guessing about the kinds of posts you find interesting and/or valuable, I created a quick little survey for you to take. I would be super grateful if you could take a few moments to fill it out! Click here to take the Reader Survey I'll be sharing the results of the survey sometime next month, and of course you will see some of those results inform future posts. Also, since I won't be blogging as frequently, I'll be sharing more of what I'm working on  over on In...

At the start of 2017, I purchased a rigid heddle loom, determined to learn how to weave. Like any craft, the basics are fairly easy, but there is always much to learn and improve no matter your skill level, especially if you want to move beyond the basics. After a year of mostly-consistent weaving, I would label myself as a novice at best, and as I started looking at all of my weaving projects from 2017, I realized that each one taught me something valuable that I can take into Year Two of weaving. I hope other beginning weavers find this helpful, too - maybe it can shorten the learning curve for you just a bit! Project #2: Destash Scarf I may have gone overboard with planning this project to make up for not planning the other one - I very painstakingly went through my bits and bobs of leftover worsted weight yarn to select the perfect gradients of blue and green with some black and grey for good measure. Unfortunately, I didn't take fiber content into consideration when pla...