handmade by stefanie

I already shared my individual results, but since the winner of Spinzilla won't be announced until October 23 (?!?) I wanted to share the accomplishments of my awesome team, the spinners of #TeamLouetNA. This year, we had a lot of familiar faces from previous years, plus some new-to-us spinners. Everyone was super excited for the event, and our team thread on Ravelry was filled with lots of chatter - sharing fiber prep tips, updating everyone on their spinning progress during the week of Spinzilla, and cheering one another on. It's such a great group of people, I feel lucky to be their captain. For the first time ever, we had 100% participation from all 25 spinners (in previous years, there has always been one or two who drop off and forget to send in their yardage, despite my persistent harassment!). Just look at all of these beautiful handspun singles and skeins: You might be wondering how this year's total yardage compares to that of years past - but fear not!...

The Tour de Fleece may be over, but I am still spinning through the Louet Spinzilla July Fiber Pack I received earlier this month! Each month between now and Spinzilla , a new discounted fiber pack will be available at louet.com - and if you are coveting this particular assortment of fabulous fibers, you are in luck: there are still some July Fiber packs available here . You may recall when I shared this photo a few weeks ago: From top to bottom: 1/2 lb Optim 100% Merino Top, 1/2 lb Wool/Linen 60/40 Top, 2 oz 100% Cashmere, 1/2 lb Dyed Merino Top in Tawny Gold, 1/2 lb Super Fine Flax Top, 1 lb Grey Gotland Sliver & 1/2 lb Dark Coopworth. Since then, I've spun through about half of the fiber at this point (1.5 lbs, to be exact), and I can honestly say that I've enjoyed each selection so far. I started with a really easy-spinning fiber, the Dark Coopworth (below, middle). It was very light, lofty and a total breeze to work with. My next pick was the wool/linen top (...

The Tour de Fleece ends this Sunday, and I'm hoping to get a few more spinning projects finished up this weekend. However, I have a LOT of new skeins to share since last Friday's post, starting with the Quick's Point fiber from Cloudlover. It's a generous 360 yards of a two-ply sport weight....and I'm thinking it wants to be SOCKS! Last weekend, I plied the Coopworth into a really lovely two-ply worsted, and I am pretty sure it will want to be a cowl or some fingerless gloves: Yesterday was the "challenge day" for the tour, and since I had a pretty big queue for plying, I decided to see how many singles I could work through in just one day. I started with the Museum Grudge Match singles, since that project had been in progress the longest. Then I quickly plied the wool/flax singles : After that, I ran out of steam. I could have started the dyed merino , but I decided to save it til today. When I'm done with work for the day, I plan on pl...

Last weekend, I put the finishing touches on my Thrummed Mittens , then gave them a nice blocking in Wrapture  (I could still smell the lingering jasmine during this photo shoot)! As luck would have it, my husband got a very fancy digital camera as an early birthday present from his parents, and he took some really great photos of my finished mittens...a process I apparently didn't enjoy. Consequently, he's now going to be doing a LOT more photos for my patterns and blog posts! I mean, it's night and day, the difference between these photos and the photos I've been using from our much-older digital camera (or my cell phone...or instagram...). You can get all the details on the yarn and fiber used in this project on my Ravelry project page . I used to pattern and video instructions from Marly Bird's excellent Craftsy class, Mittens and Gloves Galore ( click here for a full review and a special discounted link for my blog readers)! I am so excited to bu...

It's the last FO Friday of April, and I'm psyched to share my latest finished project with you, my ready-for-spring cropped cardigan ! Now that all the ends are woven in and it's been blocked, I just need to find the perfect buttons. This was a pretty quick knit (I am a historically slow sweater knitter, even for cropped cardis and such); on April 4 I cast on and ended up ripping out my work and starting again from scratch mid-month because I am OCD . I'm glad I did, because the finished product is perfect! Once I sew on some buttons, I'll have my husband take a photo of me wearing it, but for now, here's my latest FO: Pattern: Breezy Bolero by Marly Bird Yarn: Roslyn , a fingering weight cotton/cashmere blend from Bijou Basin Ranch Notes: My size called for 4 balls of yarn; but because I had to go down a needle size to get gauge, I ended up using only a tiny bit of that fourth ball! I probably have enough to make some fingerless mitts or a hat; perhaps i...

Last week, I discovered that my blog readership was comprised mostly of enablers! Not that I'm complaining, since I rather liked the encouragement to work on as many projects as I like. I haven't been allowing myself too much freedom in that regard, but the gloves came off last weekend and I have to thank my blog readers for that! First, I started a very simple baby hat while on the bus; you may recognize it from last week's post , though I ended up not following a pattern after all (I didn't want to consult a chart while on-the-go). A few days later, I was done with my Cutie Patootie KAL/CAL baby hat! I used Cotton Comfort from the Green Mountain Spinnery , and I probably have enough left over to make another baby hat, or perhaps some matching booties! Over the weekend, I also started crocheting a retro mushroom potholder (available for free on the Lion Brand Website ). I never thought I'd be the type to make a potholder, but I couldn't resist this aweso...

My Panoramic Stole is done, and ahead of schedule, too; I wanted to finish by the end of this month at the latest, though my real goal was to bind off at the close of this coming weekend. I did end up omitting a panel, as I was running out of yarn: I have 14g left over, which is definitely not enough to make it through another mesh panel, let alone the short-row garter section. I was a little worried about cutting things short, so to speak, but everything ended up just fine - my shawl is very close to the 80" length listed in the pattern, in fact. I'm sure that if I wanted to block to the specific dimensions given, I could easily hit those marks! Here's a shot of it blocking in my yarn room. Once it's dry, I'll be sure to take an "action" shot of me lounging around the house in my pretty new shawl! The pattern is from Coastal Knits , which my husband got me for Christmas, and I used two skeins of Malabrigo Sock in Chocolate Amargo. In other exci...

In this free Craftsy class by Deb Robson, co-author of the Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook, you'll learn how to pay attention to the fiber content of the skein of yarn you're holding. As Deb notes in the introduction, lovely-hued yarns can often distract us from the characteristics of the yarn's fiber.  If you want to be satisfied with your finished project (not to mention have it last a long time), it's important to examine the fiber beneath the color. In the introduction, Deb covers the basics, sharing the four categories she uses to approach any new wool she comes across (fine, medium, long and double-coated). There are thousands of breeds and types of sheep; when working on her book with Carol Eckarius, they identified 125 breeds of sheep 'reasonably available" to english-speaking fiber folk alone...the book itself contains more than 200 breeds, but if they had keep going from there, it would have never been completed! Following the comprehensive int...

She's a Carnival Just under the wire - I've added a few new grab bags to the mini skein shop - She's a Carnival and Red Apple Falls for your hexipuffing pleasure!  As always - free shipping to the US, fun surprises in every package, and lovely yarns from a variety of quality sources.  Thanks for looking (be sure to bookmark my mini skein shop - fresh listings weekly!) In knitting news, I'm very close to finishing my Metheglin Cowl - a few more rounds and I'll be ready to bind off!  I think I may have skipped a few rows....I did the bulk of the work on Tuesday night, when I was knitting at the bar....and well, these things happen when I've had many beers.  Oops.  Metheglin Tyler's sweater is starting to really shape up - the sleeves are just about elbow-length now!  The rounds are coming faster, and the closer I get to the end, the more excited I get.  I'll be over the moon if this is done by the end of next weekend, but perhaps a more do-...