handmade by stefanie

I haven't made many (or any) resolutions for 2018, but there is something I want to do more of: sweater knitting....for ME! Last year, I was a lot choosier with my knitting projects due to a busier work schedule and the addition of several new crafts which reduced my amount of knitting time. Additionally, there are some projects that I simply can't knit (or have to knit slooooowly) thanks to ongoing issues with my hands and arms. I have a ton of hats and cowls and unfortunately socks are on "knit sparingly" list, it finally dawned on me that I should focus on making myself a wardrobe of sweaters that match my existing wardrobe of mostly black and grey clothes AND actually fit me. The two sweaters I knit last year, the Rockling Cardigan and the So Faded Sweater (which I'll be sharing on a later post), made my realize how much I like to knit and wear the sweaters I make provided they actually fit me . And that is the hard part, because I have to do something a lot...

Over the last few weeks, a lot of knitting-related goodies have "accidentally" found their way into my house. First, I treated myself to a wrist ruler bracelet from I Love Handles after finding a 10% coupon code here . It's already come in handy when knitting while out and about! When I dug my Arwen Cardigan out of storage a few weeks ago, I realized that it could probably benefit from some sort of closure. Once upon a time, I'd sewn on a very tiny and ineffective hook and eye closure; it has since fallen off, and I will just be honest with you here: I'm too lazy to sew it back on. I've tried using shawl pins to keep it closed, and while they're effective, they look a little strange. Then I spotted this post on Instagram from one of my favorite bloggers, Miso Crafty Knits, where she used this closure from JUL on a sweater, and before I knew it, I'd ordered one for myself (act surprised, it's also black). What appeals to me is that it...

File Under: When will I learn? I went to Germany with the foolish notion that I would just bring home a few souvenir skeins of yarn and that would be that. I've shown a little restraint at the last few shows I've been to, but that wasn't the case for this trip. First, I happened upon a yarn shop in Berlin near where I was staying quite by accident - and while they didn't stock Wollmeise, they did have some very lovely handpainted yarns from Schoppenwolle and Austermann. These 3 came home with me (and I honestly thought that was IT for the yarn - pretty funny, right?!): Stash enhancement started innocently enough at H+H...but before I knew it, I had quite a ridiculous amount of skeins and other knitting-related items that I had to cram into my suitcase. First world problems, I know. Rather than (re)sharing the dimly lit photo I posted here on Instagram while still in Cologne, I've taken some nicer shots that really show everything off. First, I had a little blowo...

It's been such a busy week, I haven't had a chance to share all of the awesome stuff I bought at the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival last weekend! Being on a budget and having some very specific pre-Spinzilla needs, I made a list of what I was looking for at the show ahead of time. Believe it or not, this is me sticking to that list - really! My only yarn purchase was a skein of Xanadu  yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch. It's their new fingering weight cashmere and I had  to get my mitts on it. So soft! Are you surprised to see that I chose grey?? My next quest was to find some gradient roving for my yak cardigan because I want to use a handspun gradient for the yoke colorwork detail. I was 99% sure that I would find what I needed in the Fiber Optic booth - and I was right! I also wanted to get a fair amount of either grey or black alpaca fiber to blend with colorful bits of fiber on my new blending board. Naturally, I ended up coming home with both. Oops! The ...

Stitches booty! The fall yarn & fiber festival season kicked off (for me, anyway) at Stitches Midwest in Schaumburg this past weekend! I only attended the marketplace on Friday this time around; usually I go out for one or both weekend days, but to be honest, one day was totally enough since I wasn't signed up for any classes or events. I know I complain about this every year, but the drive to Schaumburg from the city is NOT fun, and since I don't have a car, I have to rely on the kindness of my knitting friends to get me out there since I'm not keen to repeat last year's Metra/shuttle experience . The marketplace seemed smaller this year, but a good mix overall (if you can excuse the three aloe/lotion vendors which were all in the same row, which seemed like an major oversight for whomever planned the vendor layout - maybe I'm the only person who notices or cares about such things?!) Anyway, there were a lot of the vendors I expected to see, and severa...

Wow, this week has been crazy! I've been logging extra hours for my day job, then spending most of my crafting time working on the Bijou Basin Ranch Shawl  like my life depended on it. I'm happy to report that it's off the needles and blocking as I type, though that also means that I've worked on very little else since last week's post . Pretty much the only project with noticeable progress is the Fine top: I know it's not much, but at least it's starting to look more like something wearable! The only other thing I have to share is a bit of enabling. I know that Alicia from Woolen Diversions and the Sweet Sheep Body Shoppe is a reader of my own blog (and vice versa), and I've been meaning to give her lotion bars and lip balms a try for quite some time. Well, I couldn't resist the free shipping offer for Knitted Bliss blog readers , and my order arrived over the weekend: I ordered Chamomile Bergamot and Blackberry Sage lotion bars & Lem...

I spent the entire weekend at YarnCon here in Chicago - man, I sure could use a weekend to recover from my weekend! Tiredness aside, it was totally worth making the trip down to the West Loop three days in a row (I helped out on set-up day last Friday and all weekend long in the Bijou Basin Ranch booth). I met some folks I've previously only known via Instagram or Ravelry (i.e. one of the most recent Take 5 bloggers, Lucia Pane ), saw many knitting friends, and came home with some awesome goodies. This year's event was even bigger than last year - the entire marketplace was full of every imaginable yarn and fiber, not to mention the project bags and other related accessories. On Saturday, I came home with a mondo skein (as in, 600+ yards) of BFL sock yarn from Leading Men Fiber Arts : Some gorgeous spinning fiber from Yarn Hollow and CJ Koho (the concept behind this is really cool, so I'll be sure to talk about that more in a future post): And these awesome bu...