handmade by stefanie

This past weekend, I spent an afternoon at the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival with my fiber friend Lauren, which is one of our favorite regional shows to attend (second only to YarnCon in the spring). I had a specific shopping list in mind which somehow I managed to stick to: L-R: Cloudlover Spinning Fiber, Green Mountain Spinnery Weekend Wool, and Bijou Basin Ranch Tibetan Dream in Seaside, a limited-edition color dyed by Miss Babs. Besides shopping the vendor marketplace, I spent a lot of my time talking to people at the show - I ran into a friend I haven't seen in a while, met up with Sarah of the excellent Knitting Sarah blog, and chatted with a few of my clients who had booths at the show. As always, there was plenty of temptation, but I was somehow able to resist. We didn't get a chance to see the sheep shearing demonstration (though we caught it last year ), but I did get a chance to make some sheepy friends and snap a few shots. We also...

Wooly App I was first introduced to the Wooly App when I was researching an article for Yarn Market News ; shortly thereafter, I ran into them at YarnCon here in Chicago, though I was in such a daze from all of the pretty yarns and fibers, I didn't spend much time in their booth. Recently, I came across their Kickstarter campaign to create a juiced-up new version of the app for iOS users (think iPhone and iPad), with the possibility of creating an Android version, too! John Stys (one of the developers) lives here in Chicago, and we met up earlier this week to talk more about the Wooly app and their Kickstarter campaign , which is getting very close to their funding goal with 13 days to go! John showed me the current version of the app, which is a reader for the notebook section of the user's account and also features a nifty photo editor that allows you to take and edit photos to upload directly to your Ravelry account. It's got a great look and feel - you'd ...

Today's post will be a quick one - I just wanted to spread the news about my friend's Kickstarter project to launch a US/Canada tour of her soon-to-be world-famous Tractorloom. Yep, it's a tractor...it's a loom....it's a Tractorloom! Click  here  to view the details -you can weave and plow a field at the same time! It's super cool and even won "best of show" at the Naples Grape Festival. She's taken it to nearby farmers' markets, fiber festivals, etc. and it has gotten people really excited about weaving. She wants to visit schools and other public places to educate people not only about weaving, but a host of other topics as well - the nature of farming, where our food comes from, etc. She has a really big goal to meet in order to launch this tour; one of the major expenses will be purchasing a truck that can haul the tractorloom from spot to spot, and she's hoping to find a truck that runs on veggie oil to reduce her carbon footpr...

Ever since I pledged my first project on Kickstarter to help The Wool Dispensary get started, I've been hungry to find and fund more interesting projects via the site. Late last year, my band successfully raised funds to release the first two 7" vinyl singles in a 4-single series, so I know how hard people have to work to meet their funding goals - it's definitely not easy! Last year, I funded a project by my poster-making friends Nick and Nadine of Sonnenzimmer  to help them create and print a book of their work. It just arrived in the mail at the beginning of this month; it's so exciting to physically hold the finished product in your hands and know that you played a small part in that object becoming a reality. Last year, I also funded a local brewing start-up (which culminated in a beertastic brewery tour right before Christmas), a graphic novel called the Intrepid Girlbot , and a gorgeous quarterly magazine for crafty folk by Susan Gibbs and Jeannie Bloch c...

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  know it's not knitting-related, but I'd like to update everyone on my band's Kickstarter project which is coming down to the wire - as I write this, we have 51 hours to reach our funding goal (we're just $243 away). You can get the details on my initial blog post or even on our Kickstarter project page , but the long and short of it is that we wanted to do a series of 7" vinyl singles with really cool hand-drawn art. Each single will feature cover art by a different artist (my husband Tyler, a few of our friends, and me) and, let's face it, vinyl is just awesome. We'll also be offering MP3 versions of the songs for our fans that don't own record players (or just want to listen to them on their iPod). The songs are already recorded, mixed and mastered - we just need to raise the funds to press them to vinyl and release them!  Click here to make your pledge if you need some new music to knit to, especially if you need to find that transcendent...

There's not very many WIPs I can share on this blog as we come down to the wire for holiday gift knitting. Perhaps that was the reasoning behind starting this mesh top for myself using the Shangri-La I scored at VK Live? That, and I have no self-control. How many times have I sworn off laceweight at this point in my knitting life? Too many to count, I'm sure. Yet I'm still optimistic that this laceweight top will succeed. Stranger things have happened, I guess! Yarn: Shangri-La (50% yak, 50% silk) Pattern: Filtes Shetland Openwork Dolman by Michelle Porter And now for something a little different, though it is a project that is very near and dear to my heart! A few readers may already know that I'm in a band with my husband called shalloboi . Just last week, our Kickstarter project was approved, so I thought I'd share our musical work in progress on this blog, as it's something we've been working on for quite some time now. I know there are lots of ...

oh gauge swatch....you'll be a project someday. ...glorious fiber!  I know there are many yarny events to look forward to in Chicago over the next several months, but I am most eagerly anticipating Yarn Con on September 24th - which just happens to be when my friends will be launching their brand-new yarn company, The Wool Dispensary .  I know I blogged about their beautiful yarns a while back (see:  Oh! The Squishing! from April 11 of this year )... well, just wait til you see what they have in store for the fall.  I assure you, it will knock you hand-knit socks off. But! They can't get to Yarn Con without your help (there's always a 'but,' isn't there?!).  They're raising money the internet-savvy way, via a kickstarter.org fundraiser project .  You can pledge now (and get dibs on some truly great prizes - I myself couldn't resist the limited-edition silk-screened poster print!), but you won't be charged unless they reach their fundraising g...