handmade by stefanie

Before we launch into today's Take 5 guest blog post, I want to announce the winner of this month's giveaway: congratulations are in order for SaraMCrafts, whose comment was randomly selected to win the Adventures in Mochimochi Land prize pack! I'll get in touch with you on Ravelry to arrange for the delivery of your prize. Thanks to everyone who entered this giveaway!  Jac & Megan-Anne of the  Lattes & Llamas blog . Today's Take 5 Guest Post is something I'm pretty sure everyone can relate to: Megan-Anne Llama from the Lattes & Llamas blog shares the top 5 times her FO project was massively under-appreciated. And she's got some doozies for you - I had to pick my jaw up off the floor multiple times while reading these stories! It's a bit like Festivus with the airing of the grievances (but perhaps minus the feats of strength?), and I encourage you to share your own tales of woe in the comments so that we can all sympathize. This is a s...

Welcome back to another guest post from the Take 5 Blog Series ! Today's blogger is the top spinner for #TeamLouet for the past 2 years of Spinzilla; last year, she was among the overall Top 5 spinners for the entire event, clocking in at 26,384 yards! She definitely played a huge role in our team's third place finish last year, and I consider Alexis to be our not-so-secret weapon. I asked her to share some of her tips for spinning at maximum speed with my blog readers this week. Enjoy! If you’re thinking ahead, July's Tour de Fleece  can be a great warm up for Spinzilla , a time to try new techniques and fibres and maybe even time yourself to discover how to maximize yardage in your available spinning time. Of course there are other times one might give a thought to speedy spinning…...winter fast approaching, dire need of a new sweater? Or perhaps a sheep to shawl competition (I’ve never participated in one but I would love to)?  Fibre stash threatening to take over yo...

Welcome back to the Take 5 Blog Series , where I ask my fellow designer, bloggers and other fiber folks to share their top five lists - completely unfiltered! Today, the editor of Holla Knits (and blogger/designer extraordinaire) Allyson Dykhuizen shares some of her favorite knitting trends for this summer. This post is also part of the Holla Knits Blog Tour which kicked off last month and lasts through June 9th. I hope this inspires you to keep knitting all summer long, and don't forget to click here to get caught up on past Take 5 blog posts ! Summer knitting is upon us, and while some knitters abandon their needles for lighter, more summery crafts, I reach for my needles even more during summer! There are so many fun trends that pop up in summer that I can’t wait to make a knit version of. So when Stefanie asked me to write about some knitting trends I love, I thought I’d write about what I’m excited about this summer, and share my styling tips, as well as some grea...

It's been a while since I've had a Take 5 blog post to share, so today I'm writing one of my own (and don't worry, I have a few planned for next month!). Since finally making the switch from Android to iPhone, I have enjoyed having more apps to explore on the iOS. Today, I'll be sharing my favorite non-knitting apps which are available for FREE from the app store. 1. Untappd - if you are into craft beer, you can't afford NOT to use this app! It can be a bit sobering (pun intended) to see how much beer you consume, but I have discovered some really cool beers via this app. It also has a really handy function which allows you to track down specific beers, which I have used for those harder-to-come-by brews which are on my beer bucket list. There is a social element to this app, plus you get to earn badges based on what you drink (my husband and I are a touch competitive when it comes to Untappd badges!). Bonus: this app is also available to Android users an...

Welcome back to another episode of the  Take 5  blog series! This week, Alicia Morandi of Woolen Diversions and The Sweet Sheep Body Shoppe , who is an avid knitter and spinner who calls Rhode Island home. Today, she shares her top five methods of procrast-knitting while still actually doing things which relate to the craft.  Click here  to get caught up past Take 5 blog posts; I'll let Alicia take it from here:  When I first heard the term 'procrasti-knitting', I figured it referred to all of the times that we knit instead of doing something else we ought to be doing. Then I realized that, due to a combination of Type A neuroses, day job, knitting blog , and lotion business , that definition would encompass pretty much every time I sat down to knit at home. There seem to be countless tasks I ought to be doing besides playing with yarn, but listing off 5 things like laundry, dishes, and account balancing would make for a rather mundane blog post. Ins...

Welcome back to another episode of the Take 5 blog series! This week, we are joined by one of my colleagues and virtual knitting friends, Rebecca Huben of NutmegKnitter.com ! Rebecca is a prolific knitter (and crocheter and spinnner) who wears many hats: in addition to working with me at Stitchcraft Marketing , Rebecca is a full-time Mom, a test knitter/sample knitter, and she blogs even more than I do!  Click here to get caught up past Take 5 blog posts ; I hope you enjoy today's post which is full of great ways to make fiber friends and engage in our wonderful community!  Hi there, I’m Becca! I blog from Connecticut, the Nutmeg state, which is how I picked my blog / Ravelry / all over social media name:  Nutmegknitter . Here are my top 5 events or classes: Your Local Yarn Festival! For me, this means the bigger  New York Sheep and Wool Festival  (aka Rhinebeck) and the smaller  CT Sheep and Wool Festival . A yarn festival has a feel similar to a...

Welcome back to another episode of the Take 5 blog series! This week, we have a special treat - a double-header by a fellow Chicagoan, Lucia Pane! She also shared her favorite knitting-related meme, which seems to be an unspoken tradition for Take 5 guest posters.  Click here to get caught up past Take 5 blog posts; I'll let Lucia introduce herself in her own words:  Aloha, my name is Lucia and I am originally from Hawaii but now I live in the Chicago area. I host the Knitted Paradise video podcast and I’m the owner/designer/creator behind Pearl of the Pacific . Here is my list of top 5 notions that I keep in my kit at all times and my list of top 5 knitting tools that turned me from a casual to a serious knitter. Top 5 Notions: Yarn needle and threader . For weaving in all the ends and my new favorite, the invisible ribbed bind-off. The needle threader I have is designed specifically for yarn (it’s one solid piece with large holes) which is more durable than the...

Knitting Sarah A few weeks ago, I introduced the Take 5 series, which is where I ask fiber-loving folks to share top five lists on a variety of topics ( click here to get caught up ). This week, I asked one of my favorite midwestern bloggers, Knitting Sarah , to share a list which could stop cold sheepers in their tracks...or, at the very least, make those of us with lesser resolve feel better about our frequent bouts of stash enhancement. Presenting.... Knitting Sarah’s Top 5 Excuses to Buy More Yarn Yarn doesn’t go bad. As long as it’s stored properly, yarn will happily sit in your stash for years waiting for you to find just the right pattern and moment to knit it (trust me, I’ve personally tested that theory). So really, why not add to it? Incentive. Sometimes we all need an extra push to finish up a certain work in progress. I find that the promise of new yarn on the way or new yarn upon completion of said WIP often helps me cross the finish line. I think it’s...