handmade by stefanie

I was really excited to try out the new superwash yarn from Brown Sheep, Stratosphere . In fact, this yarn was sent to me near the end of the summer, and I am a bit overdue in posting my review (oops!). That's not the yarn's fault, however; I happened to bite off more than I could chew in my pattern choice, the Color Block Cowl from Purl Soho. It's not that the pattern was difficult to knit, but it was fussy. Each stitch pattern used the technique of knitting into the row before, which is actually quite easy to do - but again, fussy. Especially when you are working from all 3 skeins. Also, I don't know if it was just my newness to the technique or if this is typical of patterns like this, but I found that the fabric edges were a little messy looking when working with more than 1 color. As a result, there were some days and even weeks where I just didn't feel like picking it up to work on, which made me feel a but guilty, because I loved the yarn and I knew...

It's not often when you find a pattern you don't mind knitting again and again (or maybe that's just me?!). But when you do, it's nice to have that old favorite ready to go whenever you need a quick gift or a soothing knit. When I originally designed A Most Addictive Slipped Stitch Hat , it used one of my favorite yarns from Bijou Basin Ranch, Himalayan Trail. I knit both of the samples pictured in the original version of the pattern (which then went on to become display pieces in the Bijou Basin Ranch booth), plus another one I got to keep for myself . Recently, the yarn base originally used in the pattern was discontinued, and they have sold out of nearly all remaining stock - but the good news is that project kits for this pattern are still available, because I worked with the folks at Bijou to rework the pattern to use their newest yarn, Himalayan Summit ! This crisp fingering weight yarn is really delightful to work with, and the 50/50 yak and merino b...

After spending most of last month working on a top secret test knitting project, it feels like forever since I've gotten to share a finished knit on here. I have an uncomfortable (for me) amount of WIPs currently on the needles at the moment, and my hope is to spend November fixing that problem so that I can start some new & exciting projects over the holiday break next month. Back in September, I was sent some yarn for review from the generous folks at Kraemer Yarns, who have provided yarn and fiber for several reviews over the past few years, such as July's needle felted ornament tutorial , the Knit for Baby sweater kit review from this past Spring, and a solar yarn dyeing tutorial from 2016 . Each time, I've been impressed with the products they send me, which are all beautifully made at their mill in Nazareth, Pennsylvania using domestically-sourced fibers. After working with the Mauch Roving for the needle felting tutorial (and also carding the leftover fiber ...