handmade by stefanie

I used to think of duplicate stitch simply as a way to avoid intarsia, but it's also a great technique for weaving in your ends invisibly, especially in colorwork projects. Earlier in the year, I knit the Very Important Villager hat in two naturally-dyed colors of Rambouillet yarn from Shepherd's Lamb . This breed-specific wool yarn has great stitch definition and lends itself well to colorwork: Fun fact: if you consistently hold one color below the other as you work, the colorwork motif will look crisper (this is known as color dominance ). Plus, the wrong side will look just as lovely as the right! If you're new to duplicate stitch, here is a great tutorial video from Very Pink Knits . I think of it as a 3-step process: you start by bringing your yarn up in the middle of the stitch BELOW the one you want to duplicate, then behind both bars of the stitch ABOVE the stitch you are duplicating. You return the yarn through to the wrong side the same way you starte...

Over the weekend, I finished knitting the Snowflake Cowl that's been on my needles since before Christmas! Honestly, I probably could have finished it faster if I hadn't had the CRAZIEST month of work in January. Also, I was sorely out of practice for stranded colorwork and it took a while to get my head back into the game - but once I did, it started to move at a much faster pace (if you missed this post last week, I shared some of my tips which helped me with this project). Blocking in Allure , which is also by Bijou Basin Ranch. Once I finished the knitting part, it was time to undo the provisional cast-on, put alllllll of those stitches back on a needle, and begin to graft both ends together. EEP! It was a quite a long process, needless to say - but totally, completely worth it. Just look at the resulting cowl:  If I haven't mentioned it before, the yarn I used is the most luxurious 100% cashmere yarn ever - Xanadu from Bijou Basin Ranch. Now imagine flu...

After knitting a Force Awakens hat for my husband Tyler, I thought I'd take a crack at making a baby-sized version using fingering weight yarn and smaller needles - and I'm happy to report that it worked out quite well! I used the same number of cast on stitches specified in the pattern to make this pint-sized version using three different fingering weight yarns in my stash. Here is Tyler's hat to give you a sense of scale: ICYMI, the Force Awakens hat is a free pattern here on Ravelry . May the Force be with you!

Last month, I cast on for a really beautiful stranded colorwork project (the Xanadu Snowflake Cowl by Julie Crawford ) using a buttery sock cashmere yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch. Having knit several colorwork projects before, I really thought this would be a piece of cake, but I ended up struggling with it quite a bit at first, and progress was frustratingly slow until just recently. I think my main issue was that I had taken a fairly long break from stranded colorwork, and I was sorely out of practice. I couldn't quite get into the rhythm of the project, and I also wasn't able to spot mistakes until I had knit several stitches (and sometimes even rows  ahead), which made for a lot of frogging and maybe even some cursing here and there. But I stuck with it, and the more I kept working at it, the easier it got. And once I started getting the hang of the chart and working with the two yarns, things moved along just a little bit quicker. I also have three little "tricks...

The results from Spinzilla 2014 are in! Congratulations to Team Fancy Tiger Crafts, who defended their title well and won the golden niddy noddy for the second year in a row with a total of 171,492.6 yards. I'm pleased to say that Team Louet came in third place with a total of 156,852.920 yards. My own total turned out to be 3,404 once I'd added in the leftover singles from all of my Spinzilla projects, putting me in the Monster Mile club along with 881 other spinners; you can see all of my finished Spinzilla yarns  here on last week's post . Click here to check out the rest of this year's Spinzilla results! Yesterday I came down with a bug and was out of commission for most of the day, and now I'm scrambling to get caught up on work and chores before I head to KC for a friend's wedding this weekend. It's amazing how much losing just one day can throw things off! I thought about not posting a blog today at all, but in the end decided I could spare ...

I feel like there's hardly been any progress since last week's WIP Wednesday post, but sometimes that's just the nature of crafting, isn't it? I actually had  made some progress on my 30 Day Sweater - on Friday night I took off for the sleeves and got a few inches of the body knit on Saturday before I decided I needed to rip back and add a few more raglan increases. As you can see, I've caught up to where I'd been pre-frog (and maybe even gotten a little further!), though I feel like I've made very little progress on this project. My only other WIP this week is the slow-but-steady Robots vs. Downtown mittens: Hey, look! That's most of a robot! I must be the world's slowest mitten knitter, because it's taken me three weeks to get to this point. I really need to pick up the pace, because I have a lot of KALs and design work which will need to get done in the weeks to come...and I hate to leave these mittens languishing in hibernation! ...

I managed to make some modest progress on my robot mittens even though I didn't work on them all weekend long due to (another) stupid cold. Most of the progress since last week was made on Monday night, when I took off for the thumb and really started blazing through the chart! On a related note, something kind of exciting happened last week - the designer of the Robots vs. Downtown pattern commented on my project ! In other news, Stacey Trock's new book Modern Baby Crochet arrived last Friday! I spent the weekend crocheting a few of the smaller projects, starting with the Sweet Tweeters (which I'll be sharing on Friday) and Zabby the Giggle Monster , which is currently just a collection of random crocheted shapes: I'd been saving this skein of Three Irish Girls Lindon Merino for the right project; the colorway just happens to share a name with one of my nephews (Rhys), so I couldn't resist starting a cute little monster with it! I made a wee bit mor...

Now that my holiday gift knitting is complete, I've started a few projects for myself. The first is something that has been in my queue for a while now: Robots vs. Downtown. I'm using a skein each of ShiBui Sock in Peacock and Wasabi - one of my favorite color combinations! I'd like to knit myself more colorwork mittens as a general rule (especially since I already have some really excellent books), and I had already picked out some yarn from my stash to make these mittens. I purchased the pattern back in November when it was on sale as part of the Indie Designer Gift-Along . Though I didn't end up participating, I really liked the concept and hope they do the event again this year so I can actually take part this time! My other WIP is a sweater I started over the weekend using Canopy Fingering from the Fibre Company. I'm using the 30-Day Sweater framework to design it as I go; I'm not sure if it will actually be done in 30 days, but I am looking f...

Though I still buy a lot of yarn, I do try to focus on shopping from my own stash before making a purchase, and it feels pretty good to finish a project that has put my stash yarn to good use. Of course, sometimes a stash-busting project necessitates the purchase of more  yarn in order to finish it, which pretty much negates the whole concept. Be that as it may, this is what happened with my Destash Dolman , which I started in January of this year, hibernated in February when I realized I was going to run out of yarn, and then picked back up to finish recently when I was able to locate some Anzula Squishy to finish the job.  I honestly thought that I'd have enough of the green and taupe colors - after all, I used a third contrast color for the ribbed edges, right? Such is my flawed logic, and I can't say I swatched for this sweater, either - it's got so much positive ease, it really didn't seem necessary at the time (logic flaw #2). I'm lucky this fits quite w...

I bought Susan Anderson Freed's book, Nordic Knitting Traditions , on a whim a few weeks ago, when I needed to add something to my Amazon cart to get free shipping (of course, when you put in something that would have cost the same amount as shipping the one item you were originally buying, is free shipping really free? That is probably a blog entry for a different day, however!) - it wasn't listed on Ravelry yet and it had just been released earlier this month. It's safe to say I had no expectations going in, I literally just thought "oh, cool, a new colorwork book!" and checked out. I don't have any dedicated fair isle books, so I can't say I have a frame of reference, but here are the things I really like about this book: first, the graphic design is stellar. It's a beautiful book to flip through. Each chapter's graphics are color-coded, and there are delightful line drawings that appear throughout the book as well. The book assumes you know...

Ever since I snagged Whimsical Little Knits 3, I've been dying to make this colorwork hat. I bought the yarn back in July during Bijou Basin Ranch 's Fourth of July flash sale, but didn't cast on til mid-August. It's a nice, easy-knitting colorwork hat and I'm really thrilled with how it turned out. Both colors are hand-dyed, but as you can see the Cadet blue color has a lot more variation within the skein, producing a kind of trippy effect! The yak/cormo blend yarn ( Bijou Bliss ) feels sturdy yet soft when you knit with it, but the real treat is what happens after you give it a good blocking: the yarn relaxes and blooms, becoming even softer than before! My hat actually grew in size to a slouchier version of a beanie. These are the kinds of surprises you get when you throw caution to the wind and don't gauge, but at least this time it was a pleasant  surprise. I'm hoping to wear this tomorrow, when I head up to the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool festi...

Oh, startitis, we meet again. For a while, I was able to keep my WIPs within a manageable 3-project maximum. Best-laid plans are no match for my weak resistance to the siren call of starting a new project, however. First, I had to start a secret something for my nephew's upcoming birthday (not pictured). I also decided to participate in this KAL and ordered yarn to make the Jelly Beans Socks : While waiting for said KAL yarn, I was tempted by the latest Cookie A sock pattern and consequently cast on for a pair: And, still bitten by the colorwork bug, I started a Hendreary Hat with the Bijou Bliss I ordered during their Fourth of July flash sale:  Naturally, this is all at the expense of completely ignoring my Rockefeller Shawl . Oh, and I also finished knitting a new sock pattern that's been in the works for far too long (not pictured). Now I just have to get the pattern ready to go...which hopefully will be a much quicker process. All in all, it was a produ...

My Narwhal Mittens have been done for several weeks - they turned out so well! I used Lhasa Wilderness from Bijou Basin Ranch - I love the way the hand-dyed goldenrod looks agains the natural brown color. They are sooooo incredibly soft, too - the yak/bamboo blend is nothing short of heavenly. These will be my extra-warm mittens of choice this winter - yak fiber is very warm and insulating, plus the colorwork provides a thicker fabric, all the better to keep my hands toasty in the sub-zero winter months. Pattern: Narwhal Mittens by Ysolda Teague Yarn: Lhasa Wilderness in Goldenrod and Natural Brown Needles: Knitter's Pride US #3 Dreamz DPNs Modifications: No inner lining....I like to live dangerously.

It's been a while since I've shared what's on my needles - and with so many finished projects of late, that means that I've started just as many new ones! My colorwork craze continues with Ysolda Teague's Hendreary Hat in Bijou Bliss: I also started a new pair of socks using some yarn I recently scored via Craftsy's Daily Deals - the pattern is hot off the press from Cookie A's new design collection . I couldn't resist the simplicity of the Lateral Socks . What better way to show off the gradient colorway of my yarn choice? Finally, my Rockefeller Shawl is chugging along. Yes, it's been several weeks since the completion of the WestKnits 2012 Mystery KAl, but I have been struck with Second Side Syndrome, apparently. I've officially moved this project to "slow-burner status" (i.e., it's the project I pick up when feeding the cats in the morning and evening), and it will be done...eventually. Still haven't gotten yo...

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...