handmade by stefanie

It wasn't my intention to go cold sheep in 2020, but I'm nearly through March and still haven't purchased a single skein of yarn. This was true before the global pandemic took hold, and now here we are in the midst of event cancellations, school closures, shelter in home orders, and the ridiculousness of a toilet paper shortage that has all become the new normal. My favorite yarn event of the year, YarnCon, has been canceled, and I'm hunkered down for the foreseeable future while we try to flatten the curve here in Chicago. Everything seems to be hanging on by a thread right now. We're all scared and nervous and unsure of what's to come - and all we can do it wait it out and hope that once we get through to the other side, we can all pick up the pieces and start putting our lives back together. The good news is that most people are pulling together and finding ways to support one another in a way I don't think I've ever witnessed before, from chec...

Hey there, it's been a while since my last post. I'm still trying to get my blogging mojo back (and TBH, my everything mojo). I will try to keep sharing posts whenever I have something interesting to share, but I don't anticipate any sort of regularity going forward. I strongly recommend signing up to get new blog posts delivered via email (there's a link on the right-hand sidebar) or following me via Bloglovin to stay up-to-date. I also share whatever I'm working with here on Instagram , if you like to see works in progress. Ok, now that that's out of the way....substituting yarns is another much-requested topic from my reader survey a few years ago. It's one I think about a lot, because it's rare when I use the actual yarn called for in a pattern, much less the color, and I have seen a lot of really great blog posts covering this topic in recent years (I link to my favorites at the end of this post). Here's what I've learned over the year...