handmade by stefanie

Even after just a few years of knitting or crocheting, you're bound to have some finished projects lying around that never get worn or used. After 10+ years of crafting, I have more than just "some" or "a few"....and with my ongoing quest to declutter my house this year, I've become obsessed with going through these forlorn projects and making some Big Decisions. Sometimes, they are perfectly fine and just need a new and loving home. Other projects may have not turned out quite right: there might have been some mistakes in the knitting that I thought I could live with, or the yarn was gorgeous but not well-matched to the pattern, or my  taste has drastically changed since I finished making the project...in any case, why on earth did I keep knitting?! Who knows, but I don't feel good about gifting anything that falls into this category to someone else. These projects have been relegated to the "frog pile" (or should I say, frog pond?), to b...

Last week, I shared a Brioche Cowl I recently knit in a new yarn called Boca Chica Fingering. This week, I'm sharing the basics of brioche knitting with you so that you can give this fun knitting technique a try! Getting Started There are tons of fabulous (free!) patterns on Ravelry to help you master the basics of brioche knitting. Here are a few to try while you practice this technique: Brioche for Beginners by Emma Galati Basic Brioche Scarf by Heidi Gustad Lacy Brioche Scarf by Kirsten Hipsky Brioche Stitch Pot Holder by Vickie Howeel Easy Brioche Scarf by Ewelina Murach Terminology As I said last week, if you can yarn over and knit or purl two stitches together, you absolutely CAN knit a gorgeous brioche project! You'll just need to familiarize yourself with the terminology commonly used in brioche knitting patterns. Here are the 3 most important terms to know for brioche knitting: The Brioche Knit Stitch (BRK): knit the stitch that was slipped in...

There's no need to be intimidated by brioche knitting: this technique is actually quite simple, once you get the hang of the somewhat-wacky abbreviations (brk? brp? what??) found in most patterns. If you can yarn over and knit or purl two stitches together, you absolutely CAN knit a gorgeous brioche project! Brioche knitting produces a wonderfully squishy fabric that looks especially cool when you use two colors of yarn. Believe it or not, two-color brioche is actually a bit easier than single-color brioche because it helps you see where you are in the pattern. And here's another surprising fact about brioche: it's actually easier to work in the round, rather than flat! Here's why: when working flat, you typically work two right-side rows followed by two wrong-side rows, which means that you work the first right side row, then slide your work back to the other end of your circular needle so that you can work the second right side row across all of the same stitche...

I used to think of duplicate stitch simply as a way to avoid intarsia, but it's also a great technique for weaving in your ends invisibly, especially in colorwork projects. Earlier in the year, I knit the Very Important Villager hat in two naturally-dyed colors of Rambouillet yarn from Shepherd's Lamb . This breed-specific wool yarn has great stitch definition and lends itself well to colorwork: Fun fact: if you consistently hold one color below the other as you work, the colorwork motif will look crisper (this is known as color dominance ). Plus, the wrong side will look just as lovely as the right! If you're new to duplicate stitch, here is a great tutorial video from Very Pink Knits . I think of it as a 3-step process: you start by bringing your yarn up in the middle of the stitch BELOW the one you want to duplicate, then behind both bars of the stitch ABOVE the stitch you are duplicating. You return the yarn through to the wrong side the same way you starte...