handmade by stefanie

Before the start of Spinzilla, I finished knitting my project for the Perspectives Mystery KAL - and now it's time to unveil the secret! This was a fun project to knit and probably the only Mystery KAL I've participated in recently where I finished/liked the resulting project! The length of the cowl makes it really easy to wear, not to mention adds a little extra warmth. I used a Mountain Colors Perspectives kit , which has mini-skeins of Crazyfoot sock dyed in gradients. This is my first time knitting with this yarn, which is a superwash Merino/nylon, and I would definitely make more projects with it because it's such a nice balance of softness vs. sturdiness. You can view more MKAL projects here on Ravelry !

I find myself with only grey projects on the needles right now! How did that happen?! It seems like I get stuck in little color phases, and this one is all grey, all the time! Each project is from a different portion of the grey spectrum - for instance, my project for the Sweater of Broad Shoulders KAL  is kind of a brownish-grey (the colorway is named Mousey , after all). It's been coming along a bit slowly after a few false starts, but last weekend I finally made it though the first two stitch patterns! I am still plugging away on my other  gray sweater , which is knit with Bijou Basin Ranch yak yarn in a nice, crisp light grey color (I think it has an ever-so-slight bluish hue). I'm using the Pennant Cardi pattern from the fall issue of Knitscene. Yep, That's a lot of grey stockinette! Last but not least, I am still chugging away on the Leonarda Wrap ...which is more of a purple-y grey. Everything was going well till I realized I'd incorrectly knit a crucial r...

Last Wednesday night, I discovered that I had inexplicably cast on 100 extra stitches from my Broad Shoulders KAL project. I don't even know how that's possible, but that's just the kind of crazy stuff my brain seems to enjoy doing lately. Thank goodness I discovered the mistake early on - having 5 extraneous stitches at the end of the first row of the first stitch pattern section was a major tip-off...though you would think that the unusually large size of the ribbing would have been my first clue. At any rate, I ripped out the entire thing and started again. By the start of the weekend, I was ready to start the first stitch pattern once more, and I am now halfway through that section: It's been slow going for most of my projects because there is just so much stuff  going on right now. I'm not even finished with the third clue of the Perspectives MKAL ! The final clue comes out tomorrow, so I definitely need to put some hustle in my bustle to get caught up:...

On Monday, the Sweater of Broad Shoulders KAL kicked off ( click here if you missed it! ). I've made a modest bit of progress since Monday - hello, 1x1 ribbing! I am still plugging away on my  other  gray sweater , but I feel like I'm basically posting the same progress photo each week, even though the sweater is just a little  bit longer each time! That's also how I'm feeling about the Leonarda wrap I have on the needles - progress is being made, but is it really exciting to see the same photo of a blobby work in progress? I'm assuming no (correct me if I'm wrong in the comments!) and skipping over these two projects to get to what's actually seeing the most noticeable change....for example, I'm finished with the second clue of the Perspectives MKAL and anxiously awaiting Clue #3, which comes out tomorrow! Unbelievably, I've resurrected the destash mitered square blanket this week thanks to the #BlanketMadness KAL that's happening on I...

While I wait for the Broad Shoulders KAL to start next Monday, September 14, I'm trying to focus on making progress on what's already on the needles and avoiding the ever-present temptation to start something new. And I've mostly been successful, believe it or not (I would totally understand if you were in the "not" camp)!  I've added another few inches to the yak sweater  - the body is now about 10 inches from CO edge: There has been just a little bit of progress on the Leonarda Wrap since last week:  A lot of my knitting time has been spent on the first clue of the Perspectives MKAL - I'm ready for the next clue which will come out tomorrow!  Lastly, I had started a project last week with my handspun flax which I had forgotten to share on my last WIP Wednesday post. I'm using the Tile Stitch Washcloth pattern from Knitter's Stash, which I've modified slightly for a larger gauge.  That's it for this week, thanks fo...

This was originally supposed to post on 8/31 - but you know what? I didn't hit the "publish" button at the appropriate time, which is really the most important step! I think that last week was the first time in at least a few years that I've missed a Monday post, the irony being that this was totally ready to go, I just had to pull the trigger. At any rate, August is over and September is here, which means that my favorite time of year (autumn) is just around the corner. Hooray! Before I get ahead of myself, however, I need to evaluate those pesky monthly goals which I've gotten quite good at neglecting. At this point, I am questioning why I continue to do this each month, as the results are mostly me feeling bad for neglecting my original set of goals because new and more interesting things keep presenting themselves each month. Look! Shiny! There is no end to shiny things to distract me, and even when I am ultra-modest in terms of goal setting, I can't qui...

It's September! Exciting things are afoot - yesterday, spinner registration for Spinzilla went live, and you can now sign up to be a part of Team Louet North America! I'll be captaining #TeamLouetNA yet again this year, and we have some really awesome prizes up for grabs for our team - click here to read more on the Louet blog . I hope you'll join us! It's been a pretty hectic start to the month, but I've managed to make some measurable progress on my Bijou Basin Ranch cardigan - just look at how sweater-y it's become! I also have made a little bit of progress on my Leonarda wrap ; unfortunately I did make a mistake in one of the rows or elongated garter stitch which took several hours to correct (rather than rip back, I opted to fix each stitch in the row below as I also knit the following row). Over the weekend, I couldn't resist starting a little hat using some of the new yarn from Knit Picks which just arrived, Mighty Stitch . It's a wool/...