handmade by stefanie

A few weeks ago, I shared my my new hat pattern, A Most Addictive Slipped Stitch Hat , here on this blog. It's gotten such a great reception (yay!) that I've teamed up with the folks at Bijou Basin Branch to bring you a fun KAL for this project kit! If you were thinking about making this hat but haven't gotten the kit just yet, now is the perfect time, because there is a pretty sweet grand prize drawing for everyone who posts a photo of their finished hat in this Ravelry thread ! You can snag your discounted project kit here ; I'll also be knitting along because I didn't get to keep the samples pictured in the photos. Here are the colors I'll be making mine in, Scarlet and Natural Brown: I can't wait to see what everyone else chooses for their project! Besides joining the conversation here on Ravelry , you can also share your photos on Instagram using #bijoubasinranch in your post.

My WIPS have multiplied! I went a little crazy and started several new projects since last week. First, I needed an easier on-the-go-project, so I grabbed some yarn from my stash and started a simple bias striped scarf ...with lace weight yarn?! Clearly, it was a moment of insanity, but I really love the yarn - - Seraphim from Bijou Basin Ranch, a really soft angora with a hint of viscose. Speaking of Bijou Basin Ranch, I have a new cowl pattern out this week which uses another one of their lovely yarns, a yak/bamboo blend called Lhasa Wilderness. Here's my KAL project which I started on Monday; there is plenty of time to join our KAL, and you can find more details here if you are so inclined.  The sock project I shared last week did indeed end up getting frogged so that I could knit a different type of heel. After much thought, I decided to cross something off of my knitting bucket list by trying out the Fish Lips Kiss heel, and I'm so glad I did! I think t...

I'm so excited that fall is just around the corner - it's my favorite season, so I wanted to put out a new pattern to celebrate the arrival of September. Rather than my usual Ravelry release, however, I have partnered up with the folks at Bijou Basin Ranch to offer not just the pattern PDF for sale, but a discounted project kit so that you can get a skein of the luxurious Lhasa Wilderness yarn AND the pattern, too!   The Pattern Meet the  Molten Metal Cowl , which you can knit with just 1 skein of Lhasa Wilderness, shown here in the Mango Salsa colorway from Bijou Basin Ranch's indie dyer series. It uses two different stitch patterns (which are both written and charted) to create a fun-to-knit cowl you can knit using both variegated and semi-solid hand-dyed colorways. I love working with this soft, lustrous yarn, especially since I know that the finished project will look great for years to come - the strength of the bamboo is the perfect complement to the y...

I just can't stop knitting hats! It's like they're the new cowls...or something. I've recently completed 2 more hat projects; the first is a squishy beanie in Ancient Arts MCN DK - I couldn't resist this pretty colorway, Beaujolais: I used a free pattern from Ravelry, Violet Waffles (which I kept misreading as Violent Waffles  for some reason...it's just how I roll), which had a really easy-to-memorize stitch pattern that was perfect for on-the-go knitting (or end-of-day-my-brain-hurts-knitting, for that matter). The yarn is luscious and squishy, perfect for pretty much any stitch pattern you could throw at it: My next hat was knit with some of my handspun yarn, I believe this is one of my first projects spun from rolags made on my Louet blending board, in fact! The pattern is the Hishigata Hat , which can be purchased at a discount right now during the Knitter's Pride Spring KAL with Angela Tong ( details here) . I really liked knitting this patt...

The Countdown to YarnCon Gnome Gnitalong is in full swing here on Ravelry ! Now that I have finished both of my secret knitting projects which are due this month, I am free to break out the DPNs and have myself a Gnome Party! I am using leftover bits of worsted weight yarn and my new favorite DPNs from Knitter's Pride, Marblz, to knit slightly-less-tiny versions of Anna Hrachovec's Tiny Gnome pattern. My goal is to make a gnome rainbow to send to Seoul, and they are so fast to knit that I'm already off to a good start. If you want to join in the fun, the Tiny Gnome pattern is available in a few places: Anna's book, Teeny Tiny MochiMochi ; the Tiny Gnome Kit ; and the Tiny Things Collection 3 which you can purchase for $3 off the regular price now through April 15, 2015 - just enter  GNOMEDIPLOMACY at checkout. I'm really excited to contribute a few gnomes to this project, and I can't wait to see how it turns out. Plus, I'll be entered into a prize ...

Thanks so much to everyone who entered my Stripey Fine Giveaway ! The lucky winner is PamfromNOLA. I will get in touch with you to arrange for the delivery of the prize - congratulations! Today, I have a quick FO to share with you: my project for the Celery Slouch KAL , which is happening now through April 30 here in the Blue Sky Alpacas Ravelry group . There is a pretty awesome prize up for grabs, and all you have to do is knit this simple slouchy hat in any Blue Sky Alpacas yarn! Also, you get multiple drawing entries the more hats you knit & share in the group, which is a pretty sweet deal.  It was the perfect conversation knitting project, and I ended up stashing it in my bag so that I could knit a few rounds wherever I happened to be - on the bus, at the salon, or at a party. The yarn is really soft, and it blocked out beautifully over a plate. I'm planning to donate it to charity, but it was fun to wear it for the photo shoot! Have a crafty weekend!

Living in Chicago, I am quite spoiled for awesome fiber-related events in my neck of the woods. However, YarnCon is hand-down my fave: it kicks off the fiber show season every April and attracts some really amazing indie dyers and makers. I'm thrilled to help spread the word about an exciting KAL called Project Gnome Diplomacy , which is a gnometastic partnership with the folks who put on YarnCon & Anna Hrachovec of Mochimochi Land ! I can't think of a better way to count down the days til YarnCon (which takes place on April 18-19, 2015) than by helping Anna collect all of the tiny gnomes she'll need to complete her upcoming art installation is Seoul, South Korea. Here are the details: Mochimochi Land is going to Korea in May, and we want YOUR tiny gnomes to be our ambassadors! In the spirit of craft and community, these gnomes will be unique creations gathered together in a delightfully diverse group of beards and hats for the public to see and be i...

After seeing my list of March goals which I posted on Monday, it may seem strange that I have a new WIP - perhaps even insane! Luckily, it's a quick project which I can wok on outside of the house, which comes in handy since the designs-in-progress are very much stay-at-home projects at this point. Clearly, I can justify just about anything! I heard about the Spring KAL happening in the Blue Sky Alpacas Ravelry group which was announced last week, and you know how I can't resist a KAL...especially when there is a totally awesome prize up for grabs . Over the weekend, I wound off my yarn (3 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas sport in the color used for the pattern, Celery) and I cast on Sunday night...after I'd safely reached my design knitting goals for the day, of course! The Celery Slouch KAL comes along at just the perfect time for me, as my knitting group is collecting hats for women who are currently battling cancer. I have a modest pile of hats ready to donate, and...

I finished my Foliage Cowl last Friday night, talk about speedy - it only took four days from start to finish! This project was super-easy and the epitome of instant-gratification. It's also a stellar example of the importance of blocking a finished project. Here is Exhibit A, my unblocked cowl: ...and now, Exhibit B, post-blocking:  I think the lace looks especially nice: I haven't had a chance to get any modeled shots since sunny days are hard to come by right now, but trust me, it's a nice chunky knit to snuggle up in this winter!  There are lots of great prizes up for grabs during the Holla Knits KAL , and there is plenty of time to join in the fun! The KAL runs through May 1, 2015, so grab some yarn and start your favorite Holla Knits design so you can win free patterns and maybe even some awesome goodies, too! Also, Craftsy is having a Valentine's sale this weekend, so if there were any classes you had your eye on, now is the t...

Over the weekend, I finished the front piece of my Block Island pullover - I am now just two sleeves away from a finished sweater!  Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to starting one of those sleeves, because most of my crafting time has been spent swatching for some upcoming designs. I did manage to squeeze in a little spinning time over the weekend, since I couldn't resist diving into the merino/alpaca fiber I'd recently dyed . This single spun like a dream, there was hardly any vege matter or guard hairs to slow me down. I'm now debating whether or not I want to N-ply it, or split it between two bobbins for a 2-ply. The fiber is HANDSPIN , which is new from Blue Sky Alapcas. It's definitely worth checking out!  I did make a little bit of progress on my Caesious , though it's probably hard to tell at this point:  That pretty much wraps it up for WIPs this week - thanks for stopping by!

Last weekend, I finished my Polar Hat for the Bulky Hat KAL that's happening right now over on Ravelry ! This hat was a fast knit, and you might think that attaching all of that fluffy fringe was a painstaking process - but it was actually quite easy & fun!  This is a crazy warm hat, one which I will be donning on those subzero days which are sure to come.  ...and of course, today is  Black Friday, which really isn't my thing. I am neither participating in the madness, nor am I officially participating (unless you count taking a field trip to the 3 Floyds brewery as participating), but if you are looking for some deals you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home, there does happen to be a something special for listeners of the Prairie Girls Knit & Spin podcast which coincides with today:  Click here to listen to their most recent episode to get a 25% off coupon code good towards my Conversation Socks ebook! It's mentioned right at the begin...

It's that time of year when I can't share all of my WIPs publicly - thank goodness I have two KALs I'm participating in to keep things interesting! Over the weekend, I finished the knitting portion for my Polar Hat, which is part of the Bulky Knit Hats KAL : As you can see, I have no cut out many pieces of fringe (over 100!) which are to be affixed to the brim of the hat, and I've also made a ginormous pom pom which will grace the top of said hat! This might be a project I save for this coming weekend; I kind of like to do tasks such as this all in one sitting, which I know isn't possible during the work week. My other project is for the WEBS' Snow Family KAL, which I am not doing a great job of keeping up with, truth be told! You can click here to read about Week 3 on the WEBS blog ; so far, all I have finished is one small tree and the body of a Snow Person (with half of a hat in progress): Also, the window for snagging patterns for 25% off clo...

I went a little crazy over the last week and have been indulging my startitis. It didn't seem like I was starting that many projects at the time....until I began to list them out! Over the weekend, I started a worsted-weight version of the Hot Chocolate Run Polar Bear , which is turning out to be quite plump (I may have gotten a little overzealous with the stuffing): I also started a tree for the Snow Family & Evergreens KAL which is happening right now on the WEBS blog : It would seem as though not much progress has occurred with my fingering-weight baby sweater, but that's only because I ended up frogging all of my work so that I could restart, making a smaller size so that I didn't have to worry about ending out of yarn. Oh, and then I promptly ignored this project in favor of starting new ones - as one does. Case in point: just this morning I cast on for a mini sweater for the Pins and Needles Challenge using some destash yarn ( click here for more detail...

The panic has started to set in....Christmas is less than two months away, and since we aren't traveling to Kansas City for the holidays, I have to make sure all of my gifts are done with plenty of time to ship them out. GULP! To free up my crafting time, I spent most of the weekend working like mad to finish the top-secret test knitting project I've been working on since September, and I'm just about ready to bind off the final section - most likely, that will happen tonight. That means it's time to shift my gift-making into full gear, and unfortunately, a lot of those projects won't be shareable on this blog til after they are gifted. As a result, this is when I start to trot out the "decoy" projects to keep things interesting - these are projects for recipients who either don't read my blog, or won't realize it's for them if they do (I hope!).  Last night, I started the first such project - last month's FreshStitches Kit Club shipmen...

On the Amtrak train back to Chicago, I was able to finish my project for this month's KAL in the Knitter's Pride group ! I'm also double-dipping, so these socks are my project for the Seasonal Sock Syndrome KAL in the Delusional Knitter group as well. Best of all....they are DONE! I used my own Chittery Chattery sock pattern from Conversation Socks and knit this version in two different colors of GEMS Sport , Teal and Willow. As you can see, Tyler is the model for the socks. After the photo shoot was done, he actually asked me if they were sport weight socks - yes, he knew there was something different from the fingering-weight socks that I usually knit. Turns out, he likes the sport weight socks better because he felt like they were softer and breathed easier. He actually refused to take them off post-photo shoot. I guess they're his now! If you want to see more projects from the Conversation Socks ebook, click here . This is the last day to get $2 ...

Knitting socks with a cotton yarn may cause you to exclaim “Say What?!” - but the uniqueness of SilverSpun is well-suited to the task! Featuring combed cotton with a touch of lycra, the resulting yarn is incredibly stretchy. The addition of pure silver adds a variety of benefits: silver inhibits the growth of odor-causing bacteria and also has excellent thermal properties (read more about this unique yarn here ). Say What? Socks  in SilverSpun yarn While the conductive properties of the yarn make it excellent for gloves or mittens, you’re sure to love these textured, cabled socks for year-round use. SilverSpun yarn is made from cotton which is raised and spun in North Carolina; it is a finalist for the Martha Stewart American Made Craft Awards , and I highly recommend you click here to cast your vote! The cabled panel gives a faux knotted look (without having to cut any yarn!), and it is complemented by a background of simple seed stitch. The Say What? socks ar...