handmade by stefanie

Honestly, I had no idea we would be able to do it again, but it's official: Team Louet has won this year's Spinzilla event! All in all, there were 5,525,309 yards of yarn spun during this year's event, 296,849 of which was contributed by Team Louet spinners. You can see the full Spinzilla results here - and there is more info about how my team did here on the Louet blog . It was a pleasure to spin with such an awesome group of people - I'm looking forward to Spinzilla 2017!

I was pretty psyched to hear about the Ply Away retreat in my hometown of Kansas City (brought to you by the editors of Ply Magazine), and knew that it was quite likely I'd end up going, since I had a free place to stay in town with my family. This year has been off to a busy start, so why not include a short little jaunt to Kansas City this month? I flew down on Thursday with the intention of spending part of Friday and Saturday at the marketplace, and then taking my first-ever official spinning class on Sunday morning - Fractal Spinning with Jillian Moreno. That's more or less how things played out, though there was the added element of some family stuff mixed in - my grandpa was released from rehab after emergency hip replacement surgery a few months back, only to fall down, sprain his wrist, and - eventually - be readmitted to the care facility he was released from 48 hours prior within the time span of my visit. Thankfully he is doing quite well now, and I was glad I wa...

Welcome back to another guest post from the Take 5 Blog Series ! Today's blogger is the top spinner for #TeamLouet for the past 2 years of Spinzilla; last year, she was among the overall Top 5 spinners for the entire event, clocking in at 26,384 yards! She definitely played a huge role in our team's third place finish last year, and I consider Alexis to be our not-so-secret weapon. I asked her to share some of her tips for spinning at maximum speed with my blog readers this week. Enjoy! If you’re thinking ahead, July's Tour de Fleece  can be a great warm up for Spinzilla , a time to try new techniques and fibres and maybe even time yourself to discover how to maximize yardage in your available spinning time. Of course there are other times one might give a thought to speedy spinning…...winter fast approaching, dire need of a new sweater? Or perhaps a sheep to shawl competition (I’ve never participated in one but I would love to)?  Fibre stash threatening to take over yo...

The results from Spinzilla 2014 are in! Congratulations to Team Fancy Tiger Crafts, who defended their title well and won the golden niddy noddy for the second year in a row with a total of 171,492.6 yards. I'm pleased to say that Team Louet came in third place with a total of 156,852.920 yards. My own total turned out to be 3,404 once I'd added in the leftover singles from all of my Spinzilla projects, putting me in the Monster Mile club along with 881 other spinners; you can see all of my finished Spinzilla yarns  here on last week's post . Click here to check out the rest of this year's Spinzilla results! Yesterday I came down with a bug and was out of commission for most of the day, and now I'm scrambling to get caught up on work and chores before I head to KC for a friend's wedding this weekend. It's amazing how much losing just one day can throw things off! I thought about not posting a blog today at all, but in the end decided I could spare ...

Since I don't have a finished project to share this week, I want to talk about my goals for Spinzilla , which starts this coming Monday, October 6! Last year, I spun 2,390 yards of yarn total, which I also plied during the event. I'm excited to see how this year's plying credit affects my finished yardage; if this policy had been in effect last year, that would have doubled my finished yardage to 5,542! Also looking over my notes from last year, I see that I managed to spin approximately 8oz. of fiber each day for the first six days, and on many of those days, I also plied. The final day of Spinzilla was spent plying, which I have a feeling will be my plan for this year as well, unless I decide that I want to spin a single which will be semi-felted later on. Based on my experiences last year, my Spinzilla 2014 goals are: To spin 6,000 yards of plied yarn total. To spin 8oz. of fiber each day - ideally, more!  To spin thinner & more consistent yarns than I d...

In just a few short weeks, Spinzilla will be kicking off! Today is the last day to register for a team; those of you who would like to spin Rogue have until October 3 to register - click here for more info on the Spinzilla website! #TeamLouet is officially full, and we are ready to spin for the glory this year. Our team thread in the Spinzilla group is buzzing with activity, and between now and October 6, I'll be sharing Spinner Profiles of our teammates here in the Louet Ravelry group . We'll also be discussing various topics to help folks prepare for the big event - our most recent thread is focused on fiber prep . Even if you aren't a member of our team, all are welcome to join in the discussion! #TeamLouet will have some amazing prizes up for grabs in addition to all of the other opportunities to win prizes throughout the event: GRAND PRIZE:  The  Bison Boogie  will be awarded to the spinner with the most yardage, who will win a fiber prize pack valued at ...