handmade by stefanie

For me, 2016 will most likely be the Year of the Hat. There are so many great patterns in my knitting library, and I am determined to shop from my stash and knit as many as possible this year since they are fun, useful and - most importantly - instant gratification. Over the weekend, I started a chunky weight hat when I needed a break from all of the teeny tiny yarn and needles from my current WIPs. The Library of Congress Hat from Tanis Gray's Capitol Knits was a super quick knit on size 9 needles: I also finished Tyler's Force Awakens hat , which he is pretty psyched about. Since I added in a fourth color and opted to cut yarn instead of carrying it up the inside, there were a lot of ends to weave it, but I think it was worth the effort. And as you can see, he is already enjoying it immensely! Also, for anyone who has an excess of hats looking for a good home, there is a collection happening right now for the 25,000 Tuques Project, which I discovered via the Knitmore G...

This week's finished project is also in Spud & Chloe yarn ( click here to see last week's post )! I have been wanting to make this cute little striped top ever since it came out, but very few of my friends and family members have had girls, which I find a little mind-boggling, statistically speaking. I picked up a skein each of Lipstick and Sidewalk when I spotted a really good sale online earlier this year, so I decided to just make it anyway . Eventually, a little girl will come along which this project will fit! There was a bit of errata that will be helpful to download if you happen to knit this pattern. Overall, it was a nice simple knit, though I did manage to have a self-inflicted oopsie when it came time to knit the straps, which I didn't notice until all the ends were woven in and I laid it out to block: Apparently I can't count! Luckily, it was easy enough to fix; I just undid the seam, ripped back, and then did the three-needle BO once more. All...

I realized I never shared my finished handspun pookies on my blog - oops! This pattern is so fun and quick to knit - and it's perfect for handspun yarn! I plan on making more of these cute little guys throughout the summer. My other FO is kind of a big one: my first-ever Knitscene article! I've been keeping this under my hat for quite some time and am SO excited that I can finally let the cat out of the bag (pun intended - sorry!). Look for my designer profile of Mari Chiba Luke in the 10th anniversary issue of Knitscene , along with some really awesome patterns that are a must-knit for fall...I'm having a hard time deciding which one should jump to the top of my queue first, though I think the Pennant Cardi might be THE ONE. If you aren't already a subscriber, you can look for it at your LYS or purchase a copy of the magazine in the Interweave store . Bonus: this weekend, they're having a Fourth of July tent sale and you can save and additional  10%...

Hello there, new sweater! I've kind of been holding out on you: this project has technically been finished since June 10, but I didn't get a chance to block it out til last weekend, and I really didn't want to share it until I had some awesome photos of a totally washed-and-blocked sweater to share! If you've been following my progress, you may already know that I started this project back in April, when I found the perfect skein of hand-dyed grey yarn at the Leading Men Fiber Arts booth at YarnCon. I used the mondo skein Soliloquy in London Fog ( a BFL sock yarn) to knit the yoke of the sweater, and it enabled me to destash two more skeins of yarn from the coffers: Top Draw Socks from Skein Yarn (Knight, the variegated colorway which comprises most of the sweater body) and a skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock I dyed with my own personal color I call Inky. The Lake Michigan Tee is part of Allyson Dykhuizen's collection in the Summer 2015 issue of K...

Last weekend, I finished the self-striping OMG Heel socks which I started near the end of March. They would have been done much quicker if I hadn't gotten distracted by gnomes and lots of other projects, of course, but that's just how things go around here! I love how they turned out, and as luck would have it, the self-striping pattern even matches up pretty well. The yarn is hand-dyed by me on the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock base, which is a superwash merino/nylon sock yarn. I made it many years ago when I still worked there, as evinced by the 225-yard skeins (they've since changed the put-up to be around 440 yards per skein, I believe). I made the smallest size of the OMG heel socks, which means that some lucky kiddo in my life will be getting a new pair of socks at some point! I had plenty of yarn left over, too - I didn't even touch the second skein! If you follow me on Instagram, you might want to check your feed, because I plan on giving the left...

Since finishing my Block Island Sweater , I've been all about working on smaller instant-gratification projects: for instance, over the weekend, I finished my Gnome Rainbow for #ProjectGnomeDiplomacy: This got me excited about knitting tiny things - I purchased the new Tiny Alpaca pattern from Mochimochiland along with the Tiny Sheep pattern so that I could make some friends for my gnomes. I plan on knitting some of these fun little guys over the upcoming weekend! I was inspired to start a crochet Platypus when I randomly thought about the Easter Platypus from Invader Zim ( click here to see what I'm talking about ) - I think he's going to be so cute! I'm just using random destash yarn: I've also been working on my self-striping socks from last week - here is my HO (half-finished object): And lastly, I've been working on finishing up the newborn vertebrae I started last month: I'm not totally in love with this particular pattern, but I th...

I'm totally mixing up my usual blog schedule from now til the end of year (consider this your fair warning!), which is why I'm sharing a finished project today instead of waiting til Friday. Over the weekend, I managed to finish the sock yarn baby sweater that I've been intermittently working on since October . October! I guess that's what happens when you spend the better part of two months ignoring something on your needles. At any rate, it's finished and I think it turned out pretty well, although I probably won't be knitting the same pattern again. I used a free pattern on Ravelry and let's just say you get what you pay for: my first indication that this wasn't going to become my go-to baby sweater pattern was the vagueness of some of the instructions. I feel competent enough to fill in the blanks and figure it out myself, but I do find it a little annoying - if I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have been looking for a pattern to knit from in...

Over the holiday weekend, I finished my handspun kerchief-turned shawl ! I still have a few yards left over after binding off, as I wasn't up for playing yarn chicken. The end result is an extremely soft, squishy triangle scarf that will undoubtedly keep me warm all winter long. I used the recipe from Joelle Hoverson's Last-Minute Knitted Gifts , which is a great source of knitting inspiration, especially when it comes to finding the perfect pattern for handspun yarn. I absolutely love all of the colors and the texture: Garter is fast becoming one of my favorite stitches! This week, I also finished my Stegosaurus for the FreshStitches/Spud & Chloë CAL : I have enough yarn left over to make an inverse version of the dino, too, so that will be a fun project to revisit later this month! Incidentally, it's not too late to join in on this CAL - there are prizes you can win just for finishing before the end of the month! Also, on Wednesday night I fi...

Over the holiday weekend, I finished up my crocheted bunting for the kitchen! I used some yarn from my stash and did a modified version of the Rainbow Bunting from Modern Baby Crochet, where I made the triangles just a tiny bit smaller. I can't remember what the black yarn is, but the yellow and turquoise are both from Green Mountain Spinnery . It makes me happy every time I walk into the kitchen! Also, I've been seeing lots of people posting this around: If you'd like to find out what Raveler number you are, just go to your page and hit these keys: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, and then enter - your Raveler number will magically appear! Thanks to the Ravelry Crew for this fun Easter egg! As always, have a fun & crafty weekend! 

I'm so excited - at long last, my #HKKAL project is done! Behold, my completed Cute Girl Squares top: I know that making a ton of granny squares and seaming them together seems terribly fussy, but it actually wasn't as time-consuming as you would think! I totally could have made this top in less than a month I hadn't taken so many breaks to work on other projects - what can I say, I'm easily distracted! The only modification I did was to create the belt using these instructions for a Foundation Single Crochet:  I think this turned out pretty darn well for my first-ever crocheted sweater! I'm also happy to report that Valley Yarns' Charlemont sock yarn is awesome to crochet with - plus, it's an affordable option: I made this entire project for less than $38! Thirty-One If you're just joining me, I am hosting a Virtual Thirty-One Party for the next two weeks ( click here for all the details ) andI have two product picks to share today: the...

I knitted and crocheted nearly all of my holiday gifts this year, but I'm not sure if I will get a chance to photograph and blog each and every one now that there's no risk of spoiling the surprise. There are just too many, and my photographer extraordinaire has been working so much that finding time for proper photo shoots has been difficult. Excuses, excuses....at any rate, I will be cherry picking a few of these gifted projects to share over the next few weeks, starting with the Star Wars amigurumi I made for my nephews in Portland using patterns from the  Lucy Ravenscar etsy store . Most of the yarn I used was already in my stash, with the exception of the gold sparkly yarn I bought at VK Live earlier this fall for the express purpose of making the world's greatest C-3PO. I had a hard time deciding which nephew should receive which toy, so I ended up randomly selecting three for each package, which I then wrapped up, juggled a bit, and then had my husband stic...

Once again, there are a LOT of new babies and babies on the way in my life: In addition to our newest nephew and my good friend's little one who were both born at the beginning of 2013, a few (more) of my friends are due in the new year, my cousin is due in February, and Tyler's cousin just had a baby boy this fall. Needless to say, I have been doing a huge amount of baby knitting these last few months! Here is the sweater and owl hat which I sent to welcome baby Ritter to the family: Pattern: #21 Raglan Cardigan by Therese Chynoweth Yarn: Brown Sheep Serendipity Tweed  JHB Button Closure Pattern: Crochet Owl Hat from Repeat Crafter Me (free pattern!) Yarn: Leftover yarn from sweater + Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted Rest assured, there will be more cute baby knits to share in the new year! 

Last weekend, I put the finishing touches on my Thrummed Mittens , then gave them a nice blocking in Wrapture  (I could still smell the lingering jasmine during this photo shoot)! As luck would have it, my husband got a very fancy digital camera as an early birthday present from his parents, and he took some really great photos of my finished mittens...a process I apparently didn't enjoy. Consequently, he's now going to be doing a LOT more photos for my patterns and blog posts! I mean, it's night and day, the difference between these photos and the photos I've been using from our much-older digital camera (or my cell phone...or instagram...). You can get all the details on the yarn and fiber used in this project on my Ravelry project page . I used to pattern and video instructions from Marly Bird's excellent Craftsy class, Mittens and Gloves Galore ( click here for a full review and a special discounted link for my blog readers)! I am so excited to bu...

I've got two FO's to share this week! The first is my finished monkey for my newest nephew, Ethan: The yarn is Green Mountain Spinnery's  Wonderfully Woolly  (now discontinued) in Turquoise and a little bit of  Malabrigo Worsted  in Pigeon. Once again, I used Rebecca Danger's excellent  Jerry the Musical Monkey  pattern. I also bound off for my scrap yarn scarf last weekend and have been wearing it ever since! It's nice and soft and a good length; I used the Snippet Scarf pattern (available for free on Ravelry) as a guide, though I used smaller needles and cast on more stitches. Some of the yarns used are:  Malabrigo Finito, Dream in Color Smooshy,The Uncommon Thread Heavenly Fingering, Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, and The Fibre Company Canopy Fingering. Celebrate FO Friday by checking out more posts over on the  Tami's Amis blog ! Have a crafty weekend!

Happy FO Friday! I finished my finito mittens for Malabrigo March and have been wearing them all week! They are so soft and warm, and it was surprisingly easy to convert the Waiting for Spring fingerless mitt pattern to mittens (and I still only used one skein of Finito !). I also made some yoga socks over the weekend - these have been in my queue for quite some time, and I can't believe I waited so long to make them. The pattern is from one of my favorite books,  Knitted Socks East and West  by the late Judy Sumner. I used the  Obi  pattern with just a few minor modifications to whip these up! They were a great way to destash some mystery yarn, too; I'm 98% certain this was a skein of alpaca yarn from Blue Sky, but of course the label is long gone. I split the skein by weight and used the whole thing up, save a few yards. I'm excited to test them out; it's been way too long since I've dusted off the yoga mat, in part because our living room is a bit drafty in...