handmade by stefanie

It's been over a year since I did my reader survey, and believe it or not, I am still getting around to writing about some of the suggested topics! Knitting-related apps were requested by several readers, and after looking over all of  my previous app reviews , it's become clear that this is a topic that is worth revisiting. Nearly all of those reviews were written before I switched from Android to iPhone (and that happened over 5 years ago!). Obviously, I'm not an early adopter. In fact, you could say I'm pretty old school: I still don't own a microwave, and I never stopped buying vinyl (in fact, the number of records in our house far outnumbers the amount of CDs we still own). And when it comes to knitting, I have always preferred print copies of patterns, even the ones I buy digitally. But my recent craft room #konmari excercise was eye-opening: I discovered a huge pile of printed PDFs I've amassed over the years. Some were pristine and clearly never u...

I was recently sent a project kit from Skeino for review on my blog, and you have probably seen my WIP photos of the Aloha Hat & Scarf kit over on Instagram as well as here on the last couple of Wednesdays. In addition to sending me a free project kit, the Skeino folks were also kind enough to create a coupon code for my readers (found at the end of this post)! Aloha Hat-Scarf Kit in Hapuna I was pretty excited to give this kit a try because I don't knit many entrelac projects, so it's nice to have a reason to revisit this technique, which I learned via a Craftsy course I took 3 or 4 years ago. Since then, I've knit a handful of entrelac projects here and there, and while I don't really keep that skill set sharpened, it's pretty easy to jump back in whenever I need to. Sometimes I'll re-watch the Craftsy class videos to get a refresher, although there are some really great free tutorials online which will do the trick if you don't want to pay f...

I finally upgraded my smartphone, after three years using my trusty (and durable!) HTC G2. It was my first smart phone, and it served me well - I'm not normally into "techie" stuff, but I had really grown attached to my phone and was reticent to part with it. However, I could no longer deny that it was past its prime - several apps I wanted to try out weren't compatible with my outdated Android OS, not to mention it had grown sluggish in recent months. It was time to bite the bullet and pick out a new phone. After a little research, I decided to go with the HTC Sense....and I wish I had done so sooner! Seriously, I didn't think I could like a phone more than my last one, but I'm already in love. Better camera, better interface, and I can finally download Vine!  I suppose all of this back story isn't necessary for my review, but when I was configuring my new phone, I decided to treat myself to a few paid apps, too. First, I purchased Ravul...

The developers for a paid Ravelry app for iPad and iPhone called Stash 2 Go contacted me earlier this year to see if I was interested in writing a review or their app on their blog. While I don't own an iPad or iPhone, I was able to gift a download to a knitting friend who had an iPad and was willing to let me play around with it for the purposes of this review! This is the first time I've ever accessed Ravelry via an app (on my Android phone, I typically use the m.ravelry.com site), and I found most of it to be easy to use. Some of the features weren’t intuitive to me at first, but once I got the hang of the idiosyncracies, it was smooth sailing. Stash 2 Go makes the most of API functions Ravelry has opened up to developers (there are still several areas which have yet to be completed in the Ravelry programming interface, so developers can only implement what is available through www.ravelry.com/api ). Most of the app's functionality allows the user to view the ...

Wooly App I was first introduced to the Wooly App when I was researching an article for Yarn Market News ; shortly thereafter, I ran into them at YarnCon here in Chicago, though I was in such a daze from all of the pretty yarns and fibers, I didn't spend much time in their booth. Recently, I came across their Kickstarter campaign to create a juiced-up new version of the app for iOS users (think iPhone and iPad), with the possibility of creating an Android version, too! John Stys (one of the developers) lives here in Chicago, and we met up earlier this week to talk more about the Wooly app and their Kickstarter campaign , which is getting very close to their funding goal with 13 days to go! John showed me the current version of the app, which is a reader for the notebook section of the user's account and also features a nifty photo editor that allows you to take and edit photos to upload directly to your Ravelry account. It's got a great look and feel - you'd ...

Having just under 2 years of self-employment under my belt, I am still refining my day-to-day workflow for maximum efficiency. Whether you're self-employed or otherwise, it can be tough managing all of the day-to-day tasks that life demands. My productivity as of yesterday! Personally, I hate feeling like I'm forgetting to do something important, but an even worse feeling is realizing that I actually DID forget to do something important! I have a hard time with the concept of a 'paperless' office (though I like the ecological implications, some part of me needs to have a hand-written list or see the words printed on a piece of paper). I'm old school; I actually sit down at the beginning of each work-week with six pieces of paper (one for each weekday and the sixth for Saturday and Sunday combined), portioning out the week's tasks so that each day has just a few "big" to-do's coupled with a few smaller tasks....with plenty of space for all o...

For Malabrigo March , I bought a beautiful skein of Arroyo in Plomo that was begging to become a sweater of some sort. Of course, I only purchased one skein, so that means I'll be making a cropped cardigan or shrug of some sort. After scouring Ravelry for something that matched what was in my head, I decided that I needed to DIY it. As luck would have it, I was researching apps for an article that will soon be published, and came across Raglanify from ShhStudios , a knitting pattern generator for making top-down sweaters with raglan shaping, as the name would imply. I purchased this app from the Google Play store for $0.99 (there is also an iPhone/iPad version for the same price) and immediately fired it up!  The screenshots provided in the app store are pretty much exactly what you get: after choosing your design elements and gauge information, you simply input your measurements and written instructions are generated. A lot of reviews mention the fact that it doesn'...