handmade by stefanie

Today I'm back in Chicago after spending a long weekend with my husband and our families in Kansas City. We both needed a trip out of town that wasn't for business (or a family emergency). This mini-vacation was laid-back, filled with food, family, friends, knitting, and most importantly....BEER! Early on in the trip, I finished my Indigo Swan Cowl . It proved to be the perfect train knitting project - an easy-to-memorize pattern that I could absentmindedly knit no matter how tired I got. I used up pretty much all of the skein, too - after binding off, there were only a few yards left. the first day we were in town was my Dad's sixtieth birthday, so my mom and I treated him to lunch at Beer Kitchen. Our server brought him some drunken donuts for dessert and he was a pretty happy guy! We stayed with Tyler's parents downtown and took some time one morning to explore the historic graveyard that their balcony overlooks. I lived in Kansas City til I was 23 and neve...

It's done, it's done, it's DONE! And I love it...(is anyone surprised?) This shawl is enormous - as you can see in this photo I took while it was blocking, it's longer than my massage table (which, if you're interested, is a good 75 inches in length). I used three colors of The Fibre Company's Canopy Fingering , which is one of my new favorite yarns - alpaca, merino and bamboo. It's delightful to knit with. I think this will be a staple throughout the fall and winter - it's perfect for draping around my shoulders, and since it's in my three favorite colors, it'll pretty much match everything I own (not that matching is ever a huge priority for me, considering most days I don't actually interact with the world at large!). One of my friends on Facebook commented that it looked like a Japanese rock garden, which hadn't actually occurred to me, but now I can totally see it. It was a pretty zen-like knitting experience, too - very soo...

Warning: there are WestKnits Mystery KAL spoiler photos in this post!!   Last Sunday, I was determined to finish the short-row section on my Color Affection . It took the better part of the afternoon, but I did it! I am now working through the final rows of the edging...and it's taking forever, not surprisingly. I am determined to get this off my needles before the month is out so I can spend August making a birthday present for my nephew and finishing both socks I have in progress (and maybe, just maybe, finish the designs I've been ignoring for several months, too). It's definitely at its least photogenic stage, and it appears as though I may have gotten carried away and did some additional increases. The only way to know for sure is to finish it! Color Affection: Getting close! Meanwhile, the WestKnits Mystery Shawl rolls on. I finished Clue #2 last night, just in time for Clue #3 to hit my inbox today. I have a hard time imagining where we'll go from here, ...

Warning: there is a WestKnits Mystery KAL spoiler photo in this post!!  Startitis has hit me hard this summer. I know a lot of people quit knitting once the thermometer starts to rise, but I'm just the opposite: I grab a beer and some yarn so I can hide in the air conditioning til cooler temperatures prevail. My line of work is perennially enabling my yarn-buying, pattern-queueing, casting-on habit, and right now it seems to keep getting worse as the summer progresses...not that I'm complaining.  Far from it! Last month, I indulged in some retail therapy by purchasing enough Canopy Fingering to make a Color Affection shawl. I've been making regular (yet slow) progress, but am nearly done with the short row section: The short rows are getting longer! I'm using   Manatee ,   Conifer   and   Sarsparilla ...my three favorite colors! I can't wait for this shawl to be done - I'm already envisioning myself wrapping up in it all winter long. My WestKn...

Lately, socks seem to languish on the needles.  I'm not sure why - I love knitting them!  And yet, the colorwork socks I started last month have been cryogenically frozen since before TNNA...n o real reason, but I just can't seem to progress past the heel turn: I'm having similar issues of inertia with my toe-up socks . While I love the yarn and the pattern, second sock syndrome - something I've never had to deal with in my seven or so years of sock knitting - has set in. Getting the toe started on sock #2 is my main stumbling block; I'm either too tired or stressed or pressed for time to sit down and work through the cast-on and first few rounds of toe shaping.  Here's #1 - it looks great, right?  If only it had a friend! Meanwhile, my Narwhal Mittens are also progressing at a glacier-like pace. I started them at the beginning of June ( before the colorwork socks but after the toe-up socks, for those of you keeping track) and have yet to proceed to mi...