handmade by stefanie

I'm way too excited about this week's FOs! The first is the Pokemon Card Deck Bag I made for my nephew's birthday, which was earlier this week! I ended up making up my own design, though it was heavily inspired by this free pattern on Ravelry . However, I wanted to construct mine a bit differently and crochet it in the round, so that necessitated a lot of changes; factor in my crazy-loose style of crochet, and I ended up starting from ground zero, more or less. The second FO for this week might be a bit of a spoiler, though I hope it's not - I just can't wait another week to blog about it! I finished my FreshStitches Mystery CAL project, and it turned out to be a super-cute puppy! Also, if you're just now tuning in, I have a new sport-weight sock design that came out this week! Air Quotes are the second-to-last design from my Conversation Socks ebook, and you can read more about them here ! Thanks for joining me this week. Have a crafty wee...

Though I failed to finish my Holla Knits KAL project for last month's event, I am  pleased to say that I made some major progress on the Admiralty pillow - the second pillow piece is done! Blocking it gave me an opportunity to test out a new product from Knitter's Pride which I had seen at TNNA earlier this year and was anxiously awaiting: These new Knit Blockers are the most ingenious blocking tool I think I've ever come across. Having spent a good 15-20 minutes blocking the first pillow side with a ton of T-pins, I found myself wondering where the Knit Blockers had been all my life....because using them to block the second side took UNDER FIVE MINUTES! Needless to say, I am incredibly excited to bust them out whenever I happen to finish the Lory Shawl . I was really hoping this project would be done before the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival this coming weekend, but I am not sure that's a reasonable expectation at this point. However, I am reeeeeaaallly ...

The exciting news of this week is that the Lory Shawl is finally starting to look like something. Specifically, a shawl! I haven't done much on my Admiralty pillow, however. As you can see, I've only added one intarsia spoke section since last week: This week is kind of a project limbo, as I am preparing for some events which start September 1, the first one being the FreshStitches Mystery CAL . I went stash diving for my CAL yarn: I've also been prepping for next month's Chill Chaser Cardigan KAL by swatching....and swatching....and swatching some more: Spud & Chloe Sweater in Manatee As you can see, I had to go up a few needle sizes on my Nova Cubics needles before I achieved the correct gauge for this sweater with US #9 needles (the pattern calls for US#7, but I am kind of a tight knitter!). Louet GEMS Worsted in Pewter & new Trendz needles from Knitter's Pride! In addition to two big projects which I'll be starting next...