handmade by stefanie

One year and five months after starting my worsted weight Cozy Memories Blanket , it is officially in the "done" category! It's such a huge relief to have this project done, and I love the results. Of course, it could have been done much sooner if I had worked on it more consistently, but that's neither here nor there. The point is: it's done, I love it, and it looks great on our new couch! The finished blanket is 9x13 squares for a grand total of 117. I used this free pattern from Ravelry to knit modular mitered squares with all of my scrap yarn. I made a point to spend some time weaving in ends every so often so that I didn't cross the knitting finish line, only to have a nightmare of ends to weave in all at once. Clearly, Tilly appreciates the effort, and I was pretty happy to realize that I only had two rows with ends to weave in when I reached the finish line. Now I'm fighting the mad urge not to start a new scrap yarn blanket project, if you c...

I've gotten several projects off the needles recently, which means - yay! - I get to start new projects. This week, I cast on for the Chibi Maruko cowl by Mari Chiba using the skein of Baa Ram Ewe Dovestone DK that I got at TNNA earlier this month. Of course, I still have ALL THE SOCKS on the needles and am trying to work on them a little bit as I am able (the arm issue is still a thing, though not as bad as it was previously). And I recently realized that I am VERY close to the finish line for my Cozy Memories Blanket - it's amazing what you can accomplish if you actually work on a project regularly . I know, I know. This could have been finished months ago, but instead I set it aside and ignored it for reasons unknown. Anyway, now that I can see the finish line, I am super-motivated to get this off the needles. I am now a mere 9 squares away from being done! And side note, I am so glad that I spent an afternoon weaving in ends a while back, because now I just have a...

June is here, and it's off to a pretty crazy start (see: TNNA recap from earlier this week). First, I should probably take stock of how I did with my fairly modest May goals (or so I thought). This one's gonna hurt! MAY GOALS:  1. Finish my  Lake Michigan Tee . NOPE. 2. Spinning Project: finish the one I started last month, 8 oz of BFL from New Zealand. Success! Blogged here.   3.  Finish & release a   new design  in  Baah Yarn  before TNNA. Also nope. 4.  Finish my  practice Tunisian crochet scarf  so I can   start  this project  for realsies. OMG, that's a BIG nope. 5.  Complete 12 squares (3 each week) on my  scrap yarn blanket . I got halfway there, but still nope.  Seriously, one (and a half?) of of five goals?! Wow, that's dismal! In my defense, I did have a lot of extra work due to the trade show, and I was also training to be a tech editor and working on my first pattern c...

I had quite the productive weekend, wherein I finished 2 out of 3 secret projects (and the third is now in the final stages of done-ness)! That meant I had plenty of time to to spend on my other WIPs and March Goals . My first order of business was finishing my Celery Slouch KAL project (more on that this Friday), deciding on a spinning project for March (more on that....eventually), and dusting off my Block Island Pullover , which has been rather lonely in the knitting basket of late.  On Monday night, I finished the first sleeve, and instead of diving into sleeve #2 right away, I decided to take some time to weave in all of the many  ends hiding on the inside of the sweater. It's not terribly exciting stuff, but I'll be glad I did it later on. Probably.  I also added several squares to my destash memory blanket ...in fact, I've already exceeded my modest goal of adding 2 squares each week (for a total of 8)! I'm getting totally addicted to picking out ...

Since two of my WIPS are top secret, today is going to be a very short post! I did manage to add a few more rounds to the first sleeve on my Block Island Pullover : Sadly, I didn't work very much on my Caesious Shawl in the last week, so my only other shareable project is my scrap yarn blanket - look at how much it's grown since last week! When I'm ready to start a new section of squares, I've taken to laying it all out beforehand to see how everything looks together, then taking a reference shot to work from. How's that for short, sweet & to the point?! See you back here on Friday, when I evaluate my February Goals !