handmade by stefanie

I've kind of been in a funny place with knitting lately; either I'm slooowly knitting myself a sweater (or two!), or I'm looking for an instant-gratification project like a hat or cowl. But when I had a chance to try out Drama, a new variegated colorway dyed from Bijou Basin Ranch's Emotions Color series , I wanted to make something a little bigger than a hat or cowl. The Emotions Collection on Lhasa Wilderness (yak/bamboo blend) features hand-dyed colorways from MJ Yarns! A few weekends ago, I went through all of the printed patterns I've accrued over the years and rediscovered a lot of great patterns I'd forgotten about! One of them just happened to be the Gradient Serendipity shawl , which was designed especially for this yarn, but with a catch: back then, the skeins were much smaller. The pattern originally calls for two 180-yard hanks of Lhasa Wilderness to make the smallest size; since then, they have bumped up the yardage in Lhasa Wilderness...

Last week, the Canyon Steps Cowl KAL came to an end, and I just barely finished my project in time! This is my second time knitting this pattern because it's my own design for Bijou Basin Ranch, and the first one I made is now a display piece in their booth! This time around, I chose the Aasgard colorway from their collection of Valkyrie-inspired colorways (or Thor, if you'd rather!) that are dye on  Gobi  fingering yarn. Baby camel and silk is soooo divine (how could it not be?!), and I love the way the hand-dyed colors shimmer on this blend. The variegated color kind of hides the stitch pattern, but it's so darn pretty that I don't mind if the pattern gets a bit upstaged by the yarn color. It was still fun to knit and I'm super excited to keep this one for myself! Even though the KAL is over, you can still  get project kits here  if you are so inclined. I'd love to see your project if you do, so make sure to share it on Instagram with the #bijoubasi...

Fun fact: my husband and I are almost exactly 6 months apart in age (my half birthday is the day before his actual birthday later this month). I thought it would be fun to celebrate both with a little sale on Ravelry and Etsy! Ravelry Pattern Sale Enter HALFBDAY at checkout to get 50% off all of my patterns on Ravelry - including the Conversation Socks ebook! - now through May 18. Click here to visit my Ravelry pattern store! Etsy Shop Sale On Etsy, you can choose your discount below, good towards any of my current listings for mini skeins, hand dyed yarns, and handspun yarns. Plus, all US orders (still) ship FREE! Spend $10, get 10% off when you enter SPEND10 at checkout. Spend $20, get 20% off when you enter SPEND20 at checkout. Spend $30, get 30% off when you enter SPEND30 at checkout. All offers expire at Midnight MDT on Friday, May 18. Click here to visit my Etsy Shop!

My favorite yarn/fiber event took place here in Chicago last weekend - YarnCon ! I went with a friend to shop the marketplace for a few hours on Saturday afternoon and managed to make only 1 purchase: 4 skeins of gorgeous hand-dyed yarn from Black Cat Fibers , which I plan to use for another So Faded Sweater : R-L: Vamp, Alchemy, Dirt Nap and Quarry I don't think I've ever knit a sweater twice, but I really like how my first one turned out, and it fits me perfectly (especially now that I put a collar on it - no more Flash Dance sweater!). I still have the pattern with the numbers for my size circled, so I doubt it'll be long til I cast on....never mind that I am also currently working on a Comfort Fade cardi in some OOAK hand-dyed colors of Lhasa Wilderness . 2018 is the Year of the Sweater after all, right?! As you can see, the YarnCon marketplace was full of temptation - it took quite a bit of willpower not to bring everything home with me. Thankfully, my r...

A few months ago when I was visiting one of my LYSes ( Firefly Fiber Arts ), I couldn't resist picking up a skein of Smitten from Why Knot Fibers . The rich red of the Red Spire totally drew me in, and once I felt the lovely squish of Finn wool and Alpaca fibers, I knew it would be coming home with me! This skein of yarn has a pretty interesting story, too: the fibers were all raised, processed and dyed in Michigan. I'm guessing most of you are well-versed in the ways of alpaca fibers, but perhaps Finn fiber is new to you. Finnsheep (or Finn for short) are an ancient breed from Scandinavia, known for their soft & durable fleece that also feels a bit silky. These qualities really shine through in the yarn - Smitten is 70% Finn & 30% Alpaca - and since alpaca fiber is fairly similar, it's a great matchup overall. Why Knot take this yarn for a spin? Sometimes, choosing a pattern for such a special skein of yarn can be tough. I struggled with indecision for...

I've been working on this project since the middle of November, and it feels good to finally have it off the needles: presenting my finished Purlbreak shawl! Obviously, I'm thrilled to have this off the needles. I knit this project with 3 skeins of yarn that I was sent for review: Zen Yarn Garden Superfine Fingering , a blend of 90% superfine/superwash merino and 10% nylon which is milled in Italy and hand-dyed in Canada (I love knowing where my yarn comes from!). This is a super-squishy yarn that feels soft to the touch, but has enough twist to it that it's not splitty, and I doubt it will pill much with time. It withstood ripping back to fix mistakes and dropped stitches, as well as plenty of abuse from being stuffed in my bag for knitting at the tap room. Hello, lovelies! It was a total delight to work with, and choosing 3 coordinating colors was super-easy because of how they are grouped as part of the Magic Dye Pot Series: each group has a letter (A thro...

I finished my third woven project! Carl at Bijou Basin Ranch asked me to weave a sample to be displayed in their booth at the Intermountain Weaving Conference in July, and I couldn't resist the change to try weaving with this luxurious yarn! Since I'm still a total novice, we agreed upon a very simple scarf using two skeins of Lhasa Wilderness in one of my favorite new colorways, Joseph. I'm still really nervous to have my weaving work on display for Real Weavers to look at (gulp!), but at least I won't be there to hear them remark on my still-figuring-it-out selvedges. This is what I tell myself, anyway! I loved weaving with this yarn - it's a yak/bamboo blend that is a bit slippery, so it did take some getting used to. In my sample, you can totally see where I started to get the hang of it: Thankfully, my finished scarf looks a lot better than the above swatch. If you want to try weaving this scarf project, I've shared my calcs and supply ...

I have a surprise FO this week: the socks I started last October are done! I used one of the skeins of sock yarn I bought in Berlin last year to knit these socks for Tyler - a blend of wool, bamboo and silk from Schoppel-wolle . Since they were my travel project, there's no fancy patterning, just a ribbed cuff, stockinette leg and foot, a Fish Lips Kiss Heel and a rounded toe. Easy peasy! Tyler is pretty psyched about them, as you can see... I bought myself a skein of sock yarn at the same store in Berlin, and at some point I will have to make myself a pair of Berlin socks to commemorate our trip ( click here if you missed the photo recap from last year ). For now, I really need to finish the various projects I have on the needles so that I can work on some sample knitting and new designs (gasp!) in the next couple of months. Thanks for stopping by, have a crafty weekend!

Last weekend, I finished the sample shawl I was knitting for Bijou Basin Ranch : The Culebra Simple Shawlette was a pretty quick knit in Lhasa Wilderness yarn, especially once I got past the lace border. I think this photo does a pretty decent job of conveying just how long the finished shawlette is: I loved how this hand-dyed colorway knit up with virtually no pooling - it's Coastal Breeze , which is dyed for BBR by Lattes & Llamas . It will be on display in the Bijou Basin Ranch booth at various fiber events this fall, starting with my personal favorite, the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival next month!

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...