handmade by stefanie

2019 is the 10th year of the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (aka C2E2) , and I have been meaning to go pretty much ever since it started. Of course, back when it started, I worked a crappy service industry job and never had the weekends off. Over the years, various excuses have piled up, which ranged from not being in the country during the event (that one time I went to Germany for the H+H Trade Show ) to forgetting to buy tickets (oops), and all points in between. But at long last, I can check this off my list: last Friday, I went to my first ever C2E2! Technically, I was there on official client business, researching cosplay and trying to make some connections with movers and shakers in the cosplay world. I truly admire those who cosplay, and do it well because that's never been my skill, though I am feeling inspired to give it a try this year. My problem is always coming up with a good idea - the harder I try to think of something, the more my mind blanks out. ...

Hand dyed yarns are all the rage, but checking for color fastness is not a popular topic that the average crafter is excited to discuss. When you've just finished a project and are dying to wear it, even taking time to properly block it can be a tough sell. But checking hand-dyed yarns for color fastness is an important step to take when washing your finished projects, especially if you're doing it for the first time.    If the dye is properly set in the yarn, you shouldn't have an issue with colors bleeding (also known as  crocking ) when you wash them. However, factors such as the soap you use to wash your project and the mineral content of your water (which is ever-changing in a lot of places) can affect the fastness of the dye. While a little bit of color release is actually normal for any dyed yarn or fabric when it's washed, it is NOT normal to have the color of your water change dramatically. If it does, that means that the dye was improperly set. There...

I've kind of been in a funny place with knitting lately; either I'm slooowly knitting myself a sweater (or two!), or I'm looking for an instant-gratification project like a hat or cowl. But when I had a chance to try out Drama, a new variegated colorway dyed from Bijou Basin Ranch's Emotions Color series , I wanted to make something a little bigger than a hat or cowl. The Emotions Collection on Lhasa Wilderness (yak/bamboo blend) features hand-dyed colorways from MJ Yarns! A few weekends ago, I went through all of the printed patterns I've accrued over the years and rediscovered a lot of great patterns I'd forgotten about! One of them just happened to be the Gradient Serendipity shawl , which was designed especially for this yarn, but with a catch: back then, the skeins were much smaller. The pattern originally calls for two 180-yard hanks of Lhasa Wilderness to make the smallest size; since then, they have bumped up the yardage in Lhasa Wilderness...

Sorry for running silent, but I've been fighting burnout for quite some time and just needed to take a break... not just from blogging, but from spending every waking hour online. It's kind of a requirement for my job, so spending time online outside of those 40ish hours each week has become less and less appealing to me. Sadly, this blog has suffered because of that! Self care has become the name of the game, starting with spending more time offline. Rest assured, I'm still crafting, but I'm also doing things like decluttering my house (my, we've accrued SO MUCH STUFF in the 7 or so years we've been in this apartment and I'm totally drinking the #konmari kool-aid!), reading comic books, spending more time working out/getting into shape, and trying to finally "adult" a bit (basically this translates as finally going to the dentist after many years of procrastination and dealing with the tooth issues I've been ignoring during that time). I...