handmade by stefanie

Giftmas is almost here! This year, my gift guide does double duty, as many of the products can reasonably be gifted to someone outside of the fiber arts world - but don't worry, there are still some great ideas specifically for the knitter or spinner in your life...or maybe you!Make sure your wish list has plenty of options for last-minute shopping with my top picks...and be sure to check out my awesome giveaway for you chance to win some fun goodies as my gift to YOU this holiday season! Allure Sampler Pack Every fiber artist needs a good wool wash, but so do regular folks! A no-rinse wool wash such as Allure saves time, water, and also money, because it allows you to wash tons of items that you would otherwise pay to dry clean. Allure is specially formulated to leave absolutely no residue behind, so those fancy fibers such as silk, cashmere, yak, qiviut, and alpaca benefit especially. The sampler pack allows you to try all 3 scents for less than $15, which is a pretty sweet...

Merry whatever-you-celebrate! For the second year in a row, my husband and I made our holiday cards from scratch. I drew the design onto a piece of acetate, which he then burned to a screen - here's a shot of him rinsing the screen after completing this first step: Then, with the help of tiny elf of course, he printed the design onto card stock: Our original plan was to use silver ink on the red cards, but we had to do an 11th hour substitution when the jar of silver ink we thought we had on hand was nowhere to be found. Hence, our holiday cards became a bit more pyschedelic than originally intended; seeing them all in a row like this kind of makes me cross-eyed! All in all, I'm happy with the finished product, and it was MUCH easier to pull together than last year's ambitious four-color design (which you can see here ).

File under: better late than never?! Over the weekend, I finally picked up this project and set to finishing it...of course, the official Snow Family KAL has long since finished. Once I decided what I was going to use to weight down the snowmen, the rest came easily! The pattern calls for balloons filled with beans or plastic pellets, but I ended up some empty round containers that used to contain some sort of lotion or potion; I filled them with beans and then some yarn scraps to prevent excess rattling once inside the snowman. They did the trick and my little guys stand upright with no problems! I also decided to knit two sizes of the trees which I stacked to make one big one; my fake snow is once again provided by some lovely Louet spinning fiber !

Renegade Holiday Fair, Circa 2012 Photo by Dan Grzeca Ack! It's December, and I'm hitting the panic button for my holiday gift-making! This is the point at which I have to be honest with myself and decide whether or not it's possible for me to finish all of the knit and crochet projects on my to-do list; it may be time to admit defeat and purchase some gifts! Today being Cyber Monday, this is a great time to snap up some deals online to make your life easier. If you are in the market for some knitterly gifts, Marly Bird has an extensive list of Cyber Monday deals here on her website! This is also a fantastic time of year to support other  makers, either via Etsy or by going to a holiday craft fair. I'm fortunate to live in Chicago, where we have tons of holiday craft fairs this time of year - anything from larger affairs such as the DIY Trunkshow and the Renegade Craft Fair December Market to smaller shows such as the Handmade Market or Revolution Craft Show ....

The panic has started to set in....Christmas is less than two months away, and since we aren't traveling to Kansas City for the holidays, I have to make sure all of my gifts are done with plenty of time to ship them out. GULP! To free up my crafting time, I spent most of the weekend working like mad to finish the top-secret test knitting project I've been working on since September, and I'm just about ready to bind off the final section - most likely, that will happen tonight. That means it's time to shift my gift-making into full gear, and unfortunately, a lot of those projects won't be shareable on this blog til after they are gifted. As a result, this is when I start to trot out the "decoy" projects to keep things interesting - these are projects for recipients who either don't read my blog, or won't realize it's for them if they do (I hope!).  Last night, I started the first such project - last month's FreshStitches Kit Club shipmen...

To those who celebrate the holiday today, Merry Christmas! Here is the holiday card my husband designed and silkscreened this year: It was his first year being in charge of the holiday cards, and his ambitious design took more than a little doing to come to fruition. You can bet next year's card won't be a four-color process, but I love how they turned out and it was well worth spending an entire snowy day printing. Here are some of the process photos I instagrammed along the way; it is typically my job to document the process as well as assist in any way I can: grabbing a clean cloth if Tyler gets ink on his hands, running freshly-printed cards to the next room to dry (which is always a challenge since the cats always try to follow me in....Tilly LOVES trying to walk through the drying cards). Whatever holiday you choose to celebrate, I hope it's wonderful!

It's that time of year when I can't share many of my actual WIPs for fear of the recipient taking note and spoiling the surprise. Luckily, I can't seem to resist starting projects for myself, so hopefully that will keep things marginally interesting between now and Christmas. First, I've made some noticeable progress on my Marin Shawl : I'm also participating in the FreshStitches Snowman CAL that started last week. I've already finished five pieces: the head and body, carrot nose, scarf and and hat! I am using various colors of Drops Nepal, which I ordered from the Nordic Mart . It's become my favorite amigurumi yarn because the colors are lovely, it's easy to work with, and the price is nice, too! Their shipping is also super-fast; I ordered the yarn last Wednesday and had it in my hot little hands a mere two days later. Now that, I really  like! Finally, happy Thanksgiving to those of you who will be celebrating tomorrow! I plan to cook a lo...

While most of the socks I knit for gifts this year I could sneakily share on my blog by pretending they were for myself, there was one pair of socks that I didn't dare risk sharing: the ones for my mother. I know that she occasionally reads my blog, and this year she had made a special request for a pair of chocolate brown socks. It would have been a dead giveaway! Mom's socks were knit with Cascade Heritage using a pattern from Around the World in Knitted Socks  by Stephanie Van Der Linder,  It's Tea Time . The only modification I made was to make a slip-stitch heel flap rather than continuing the pattern on said flap; I've found that whenever I do that, the socks tend to spring a hole rather quickly, so I'd rather sacrifice a little style for a heel that is extra sturdy. The other pair of socks which haven't been shared on this blog were knit for my grandfather. He has really large feet and prefers basic stuff, so I freestyled a pattern that was in...

In today's post, I'll be sharing the toys I made for holiday gifting this year, starting with the  Fraternal Twin Monkeys I made for our friends in Portland who were expecting twins next month. However, they got an early Christmas gift this year with the early arrival of said twins on Christmas Eve! The pattern is Rebecca Danger's Jerry the Musical Monkey , and I used some Cascade 220 that I got on closeout from Doodlebug Yarn earlier this year. It was so hard to send them away to their new home, but I know they will be well-loved. Early last week, I decided to crochet two patterns from the book I got for my birthday, Stacey Trock's Crocheted Softies ; one for my friend Ellen and one to add to Tyler's stocking. For Ellen, I thought that Milton the Slowpoke Snail would be really awesome with a Zombie BBQ shell (and I just happened to have a partial skein of Shepherd Worsted in my stash in that particular colorway!). Who doesn't need a Christmas snail ?...

My first holiday knitting FO to share while I'm on vacation is these these two Pokeball Hats  that I knit for my nephews in Portland, who are both Pokemon fans, needless to say. It's a free pattern I found on Ravelry and I was able to hone my duplicate-stitch skills in the process. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out! They are knit with one of my favorite superwash yarns, Berrocco Vintage.

I can't believe that Christmas is tomorrow - it's amazing how much faster this month goes by when you're an adult (or pretending to be one). Tyler and I are staying in Chicago for the actual holiday, then heading down to see our families in Kansas City on the 27th. How will we be starting out 2013, you ask? Why, we'll be up bright and early to catch the Amtrak train back to Chicago! I can only imagine how that train ride will go, considering the train begins in LA and many of those passengers will have spent New Year's Eve on said train. Should be interesting.  At any rate, I'll be pre-scheduling blog posts to share all of my secret gift-knitting (and crocheting!) projects while I'm away on vacation. Whatever holiday you celebrate, I hope it's wonderful! Reinbeers! I saw several versions of this on Pinterest and couldn't resist making a six-pack for our upstairs neighbors! 

Last week I received the final clue for the Fresh Stitches Mystery CAL , but it wasn't until this week that I had enough time to sit down and assemble my mystery stuffie. Now I have this super-adorable puppy to keep me company! I also received an early Christmas present from my fiber friend Leanne - a Schacht Ladybug Wheel ! Holy moly, I sure didn't see that coming, so you can imagine the look on my face when the UPS guy showed up on my doorstep with a ginormous box from The Woolery (one of our clients!). Woo hoo! Don't get me wrong, I've loved my Heavely Handspinning wheel - it's served me well these past three years. However, I've been wanting to upgrade for a while now, and even though I've only just set up my new wheel and tinkered a bit, I am already in love with my Ladybug. It's so smooth (and quiet!), not to mention adorable...I can't wait to spin my first project on it! I have a big ol' container of fiber that is ready to be...

Are there seriously only two weeks left to finish my holiday gift projects?! Now would be the time to start panicking, but I made a lot of progress on my remaining two 'big' gift projects over the weekend. I still have a few things that may or may not get done in time, but I'm much further along than I was around this time last year, plus I have a few days' extension since we aren't heading down to KC til December 27. If anything, that seven hour train ride will be the perfect time to finish things up! Lately, it seems like I am glued to Pinterest (downloading the Android app certainly didn't help with my obsession) - there are so many great holiday craft ideas on there...far more than I could ever hope to accomplish, though sometimes I entertain the delusion that I might spend an afternoon making a pom pon wreath or crocheting some cute little garland for our tree . Maybe next year, but for now I need to stay on task! I still haven't assembled my Fresh...

Our Kickstarter project 's funding deadline was 11 AM this past Friday; I'm pleased to report that we reached our goal! It was a bit of a nail-biter, but it all ended well. I cannot tell you what a huge relief it is to have that phase of the project complete. It was hard work, but will definitely be worth it - we've already started phase II, wherein we begin pressing the first single! Since Tyler made the video and set up the project, I was in charge of the promotion. I'm certainly glad that I had the help of our friends and family, who shared our updates and project page to help get the word out. It's nice to know we have so much support! I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that only one of our four former strings players took the time to share the project with their friends and family. Even though they are no longer in the band and we don't see them socially, it would have been nice if everyone could have pitched in and at least posted the link ...

I can only share a few of my WIPs today, as we're rolling into that time of year when secrecy is of the utmost importance. As far as projects I am  at liberty to talk about goes....I haven't gotten much work done on my Shangri-La top , so I'm not sure it's worth a photo update. However, I have become addicted to making Grandma Trees for my holiday decor this year - they are so quick to crochet! I made five on my birthday and have been whipping up more whenever I have a few free moments. I am also making progress on the Fresh Stitches Archer Mystery CAL , but I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone who is just now joining the party - so click here to view my progress shots on Ravelry! I have come across some fairly hilarious turkey-themed patterns of late - so I thought I'd do something a little different today and share some of my favorites: Turkey Coasters by Joanne Loh  (free!) Thanksgiving Softies by Gari Lynn Turkey Hat by Kristin Han...

At least, not for us.  We are heading down to Kansas City next week to celebrate with our families, since Tyler couldn't get time off over any of the three holidays this year: Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.  That's the way it goes in the hospitality industry.  We had a nice, quiet Christmas yesterday - curiously, they gave him yesterday off (of course, we didn't find out about it til 2 days prior, but I'll take what I can get)!  We made pancakes in the morning, opened presents and stockings, and spent the rest of the day eating food, drinking beer, and watching DVDs.  Works for me!  We also had a great Christmas Eve with our friends & landlords who invited us upstairs for a pizza party.  Tyler got off work in time to join us for board games and present-opening, and we managed to squeeze in the traditional Christmas Eve Ritter Family Stocking Shopping that evening!  There are only two projects I can share with you so far - for La...

Huron Mountain Socks In the last few weeks, I've finished two pairs of socks (both holiday gifts) and two of four proposed striped stockings.  Unfortunately, I've managed to add to my holiday gift-knitting list exponentially since the completion of these projects.  What compels me?  Do I just like the challenge, beat-the-clock style?  I'm guessing that's the case, although some of it might also be related to being on a shoestring budget.  I've noticed there's a huge uptick in gift knitting this season, so I can only conclude that at least I'm not alone in this boat!  I've been pretty good about shopping from my stash, so the yarn's already paid for, I just have to find the time to get everything done! Gentleman's Fancy Sock Indeed, there is much more holiday knitting to be done.  On the bright side of things, I have a bit of a deadline extension this year because we aren't heading down to KC 'til January.  The coffee shop where Ty...