handmade by stefanie

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...

The Countdown to YarnCon Gnome Gnitalong is in full swing here on Ravelry ! Now that I have finished both of my secret knitting projects which are due this month, I am free to break out the DPNs and have myself a Gnome Party! I am using leftover bits of worsted weight yarn and my new favorite DPNs from Knitter's Pride, Marblz, to knit slightly-less-tiny versions of Anna Hrachovec's Tiny Gnome pattern. My goal is to make a gnome rainbow to send to Seoul, and they are so fast to knit that I'm already off to a good start. If you want to join in the fun, the Tiny Gnome pattern is available in a few places: Anna's book, Teeny Tiny MochiMochi ; the Tiny Gnome Kit ; and the Tiny Things Collection 3 which you can purchase for $3 off the regular price now through April 15, 2015 - just enter  GNOMEDIPLOMACY at checkout. I'm really excited to contribute a few gnomes to this project, and I can't wait to see how it turns out. Plus, I'll be entered into a prize ...

Living in Chicago, I am quite spoiled for awesome fiber-related events in my neck of the woods. However, YarnCon is hand-down my fave: it kicks off the fiber show season every April and attracts some really amazing indie dyers and makers. I'm thrilled to help spread the word about an exciting KAL called Project Gnome Diplomacy , which is a gnometastic partnership with the folks who put on YarnCon & Anna Hrachovec of Mochimochi Land ! I can't think of a better way to count down the days til YarnCon (which takes place on April 18-19, 2015) than by helping Anna collect all of the tiny gnomes she'll need to complete her upcoming art installation is Seoul, South Korea. Here are the details: Mochimochi Land is going to Korea in May, and we want YOUR tiny gnomes to be our ambassadors! In the spirit of craft and community, these gnomes will be unique creations gathered together in a delightfully diverse group of beards and hats for the public to see and be i...

My gnome is done and he's already causing trouble! Well, maybe not trouble , but he's definitely having adventures. For instance, he decided to hang out in the free library to surprise anyone who might be looking for a book to read! Then he climbed some more trees.... ...after which he tried to mail himself to Abu Dhabi. I destashed several worsted-weight yarns to knit my gnome using the Jumbo Gnome pattern from Mochimochiland! Also, I just received word that individual pattern downloads for the Forever Linked Hat & Mitts are now available on Ravelry  and  Craftsy , or you can purchase a discounted project kit containing the yarn and pattern from the Bijou Basin Ranch website!!

I decided to make a destash version of the turtle I made last month on my Zoom Loom! This project is part of the Zoom Loom-along which is happening right now in the Woolery Ravelry group ; I am using the instructions I received with the Turtle Critter Kit and various leftover bits of yarn to weave my squares. I might make more than the pattern calls for so that I can give different color combinations a try when it comes time to put everything together! As I mentioned in my Stitches Midwest recap on Monday, I cast on for the Lory Shawl from Knitscene using one of my favorite yarns from Bijou Basin Ranch, Himalayan Trail . As you can see, I'm not very far along - the shawl is knit long ways and I just finished the first ridge row, which took me a LONG time! It's been a while since I've used my Karbonz needles, so I was glad I could bust them out for this project. I've also finished the first side of my Admiralty pillow for the Holla Knits KAL that...

I finished my second May KAL project this week, the Fir Trees Cowl by Marly Bird.  It's blocked and ready for seaming this weekend - all in all, it turned out pretty well!  I had a few false starts and some bumps along the way, yet somehow my mistakes are not as visible as I feared they'd be.  Not that I'm complaining!  This was my first time knitting with angora yarn ( Seraphim from Bijou Basin Ranch) - it was incredibly soft and held up quite well to multiple froggings.  The Fir Trees Cowl is classic example of a deceptively simple pattern that I just can't seem to stop messing up - I think my final count for re-starts was 4. Even though it's going to be quite hot this weekend, I'm looking forward to wearing my pretty new cowl since I worked so hard on it.  And it was worth it! I also whipped up a trio of Tiny Gnomes from Teeny-Tiny Mochi Mochi  this week.  A simple, fast knit - the perfect project to start after finishing a lace pr...