handmade by stefanie

Today is a special post, since I'm starting not one but TWO excellent KALs this month! Lorna's Laces Fisherman in 36ns Chocolate. I'm joining thousands of knitters as we take the Yarn Nation 30 Day Sweater Challenge , and you can, too, by clicking this link ! I'll be using some yarn from my stash (two skeins of Lorna's Laces Fisherman in Chocolate) and the Uma pattern from Chic Knits . Originally, I was going to follow the recipe found in the 30-Day Sweater eBook (available here ), but I had a hard time deciding what to do - did I want to do some colorwork? What about cables or some sort of stitch pattern? Did I really have time to figure all of this out, even with the easy-to-use formula provided in the eBook? Probably, but I must admit that I am kind of lazy when it comes to sweater-knitting: I'll wing it for just about any other project, but for sweaters, I prefer to use existing patterns. I know that I should step outside my comfort zone this time,...

Last night I got back home to Chicago after spending the weekend in Kansas City. I'd found a last-minute Megabus fare and surprised my mom for her birthday, which was on Monday of this week. The trip was about 10 hours each way, and I'm sure you can take a wild guess as to how I spent most of that time! I packed one WIP and yarn/patterns for two other projects; I returned home with two FO's and one brand-new WIP!  I can't give out too many details of this current WIP since it's a holiday gift, but I don't have anything else to share this week, so here goes: this mystery project is being knit with some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Satsuma....and that is pretty much all I can say on the subject.  Starting next week, I will happen to have a shareable WIP, since I'll be casting on for the 30-Day Sweater Challenge KAL beginning on October 1. I hope you'll join me, because it will be a really fun event that will involve a TON of great ...

In today's post, I'll be talking about how to successfully knit (or crochet!) with hand-dyed and variegated yarns!  Each skein of hand-dyed yarn is unique and often has subtle variations that might not be evident in the skein til you begin to knit with it. Shaded solids are often the easiest to manage when knitting a larger project, while variegated yarns behave differently depending on the dye process.  A selection of hand-dyed yarns. A general rule of thumb for hand-dyed yarns is to alternate skeins of yarn every couple of rows to minimize differences within the dye lot. Yes, I know it sounds fussy, but trust me - it works and it's worth the extra effort! Alternating skeins tricks the eye to blend the colors of each row, which makes it the knitted piece appear more uniform. Not only is this a handy trick when knitting with skeins from the same  dye lot, it also works if you are knitting with skeins from  different  dye lots! Don't believe me? Let's se...