handmade by stefanie

When you go yarn shopping, have you ever noticed that there are different shapes and sizes for the skeins of yarn on the shelf? Yarn for knitting or crocheting is most commonly sold in three different forms: balls, skeins, and hanks. As the name would imply, balls are a nice, round shape, and you can begin working with the yarn directly from them. Similarly, skeins also come ready to knit (or crochet); the yarn in a skein is more loosely wrapped than a ball, to create a more oblong shape. Hanks of yarn are wound into a large circle and then twisted; these yarns need to be wound into a ball before use. Left: mini skeins from October House Fiber Arts; Right: Katahdin from Miss Babs There are three ways to wind hanks of yarn into cakes which can be used for knitting or crocheting, and I'll give you an overview of each one on today's post! To get started, open the hank and remove any ties that might be securing the skein (these are often on hand-dyed yarns to pre...

Today is kindasortnotreally Festivus *, and to celebrate, I can finally share a project I've been working on for Tyler in secret, which is currently at HO status: Last night, we did our gift exchange and he was the proud recipient of one Christmas Barf-colored sock . WOO HOO! Now I am furiously knitting its mate in hopes that he can wear these socks on Christmas day. The pattern is one of my favorites for gift knitting, Lateral by Cookie A. I'm planning to start several new projects over the break, but for now the only other one I am working on the  Xanadu Snowflake Cowl , though I am not very far along and as you can see above, it really just looks like a mess of tiny, tiny stitches and yarn ends. Here's hoping a 14 hour train ride round trip will yield a more interesting WIP photo between now and next week! *if you are a nerd like me, you've watched the Seinfeld extras and know that the real holiday has no set date, which makes it all the more ominous!

I'm in the home stretch of my holiday gift-making; boxes have been shipped out to both Portland and Kansas City, and I have just a few gifts in progress for folks here in Chicago. I'm SO excited to be completely done so that I can start my reward projects! I've also been trying to steal a few moments here and there to get this forlorn sock yarn sweater off the needles. It's now just two sleeves away from being done, though - that's certainly progress!? Truth be told, I very nearly skipped writing this post since I'm sure everyone is as tired of seeing the glacial progress on the above project as I am....but then, these arrived on my doorstep: Aren't they pretty? It's this year's limited edition gift set from Knitter's Pride which features their fancy new Marblz needles (web search "limited edition marblz gift set" to find online retailers who still have the set in stock, or you can click here to purchase from WEBS ). The c...

A few weeks ago, I shared a post about blocking handmade gifts ; I thought I'd revisit the topic by sharing a few of my favorite time-saving tools to block finished projects with stellar results every time! This is by no means an exhaustive list of every useful item to have on hand - rather, it's a collection of my favorite blocking tools at the moment. Sock Blockers: Every now and again, I'm asked if it's necessary to invest in a pair of sock blockers. While they aren't exactly essential, it's undeniable that they make finished socks look extra-amazing (more about that here ). Not only do I use sock blockers on all of my hand knit socks for gifting, I also use them on my own every time I wash them!  Blocking Mats : It was years (as in, at least 10) before I got a set of blocking mats. I always figured that using towels and/or clean cardboard was every bit as good as a blocking mat, and couldn't justify the expense. Then, as I started to do more and ...

On the Amtrak train back to Chicago, I was able to finish my project for this month's KAL in the Knitter's Pride group ! I'm also double-dipping, so these socks are my project for the Seasonal Sock Syndrome KAL in the Delusional Knitter group as well. Best of all....they are DONE! I used my own Chittery Chattery sock pattern from Conversation Socks and knit this version in two different colors of GEMS Sport , Teal and Willow. As you can see, Tyler is the model for the socks. After the photo shoot was done, he actually asked me if they were sport weight socks - yes, he knew there was something different from the fingering-weight socks that I usually knit. Turns out, he likes the sport weight socks better because he felt like they were softer and breathed easier. He actually refused to take them off post-photo shoot. I guess they're his now! If you want to see more projects from the Conversation Socks ebook, click here . This is the last day to get $2 ...

Now that Spinzilla is officially over and I have double-checked my yardage calculations to include the leftover singles from my plied yarns for a total of 3404 yards, I am returning to the projects which have been forlorn in my knitting corner for the past week. Over the weekend, I finished the Chill Chaser sweater I had on the needles (spoiler alert for Friday!) and made some serious progress on my Chittery Chattery socks for various KALs which I'm participating in (more on those here ). I have only knit a few more rounds of my Wedge socks since last week's WIP Wednesday post, so it's probably not worth posting a photograph today. However, I did start something NEW as a reward for finishing a project over the weekend. For quite some time, I've been wanting to cast on for    Excelsior  from the  Holla Knits Home Collection , and the   Sweatshop of Love Fall KAL  which started at the beginning of this month is the perfect excuse! I'm using 3 color...

Win these needles in the Conversation Socks KAL ! How is it already October?! I feel like I've been saying this every month - and I probably have. At any rate, I'm excited that autumn is finally here: it's my favorite time of year, made better only by so many exciting things happening in the world of fiber. Next week is Spinzilla , but there are also a ton of KALs happening which I can't resist joining. Translation: I will be doing ALL OF THE THINGS and then some this month. The first KAL one that's near and dear to my heart, because it features my designs! The Conversation Socks KAL starts today, and it was officially announced last week here on the Knitter's Pride blog . Basically, you just have to knit any 1 of my 5 Conversation Socks  patterns during the month of October and tag your project with "KPConvoSocks" in your Ravelry notebook to be entered to win a Dreamz DPN Sock Set, generously provided by Knitter's Pride! While I'm thin...

I am beside myself this week: at long last, I have finished the  project I started back in August for the Holla Knits KAL (which has come and gone), the Admiralty pillow by Emily Ringelman! I won the yarn to make this project during a Holla Knits blog tour earlier this year, and it was a great motivator to actually making this project. Intarsia and I aren't friends, and to be honest, it's a technique I try to avoid whenever I can. However, knitting 12 intarsia pieces turned out to be a good way to become a bit  friendlier with the technique...although it's still not my favorite! I did modify this design to only use two colors in the intarsia panels rather than 3, because I knew I would lose my mind if I had to juggle 3 colors of yarn. That turned out to be a really good move, and while I think the third color definitely adds some definition to the finished object (which is probably why the designer did it in the first place!). If I had been smarter, I would have ...

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 ...

I'm so excited to share my newest pattern with you today, which also happens to be my first-ever crochet pattern! Ever since I got into crocheting amigurumi, I've been wanting to create a sister version of my knitted Button Bunnies pattern. After months (and maybe even years) of having this in my design queue, the Crochet Button Bunny is born! I used Maxima and Clasica yarns from Manos Del Uruguay , both of which are single-ply worsted weight yarns, which are ideal for crocheting - no splitting plies as you work. They're dyed in an array of beautiful colors at co-ops in Uruguay, and all Manos yarns are certified Fair Trade , which is pretty cool! Click here to get the FREE pattern on the Knitter's Pride blog!   My other FO this week is another Zoom Loom Turtle , which I made with destash yarn using the instructions from the DJE Handwovens Turtle Critter Kit . These fun kits were designed especially for use with Zoom Loom swatches, and there are several diff...

By popular request, I'd like to share a few more photos from last Tuesday's meeting - as you can see, there was quite a big turnout! We had a great time trying out various Knitter's Pride needles and new yarns from Berroco , Mrs. Crosby (a new hand-dyed yarn making its TNNA debut next month) and Classic Elite . I heard a lot of great feedback about the needles, especially the newest lines: Karbonz, Nova Cubics and Bamboo. As I mentioned in my presentation, Knitter's Pride is one of the many awesome companies I work with in my job with Stitchcraft Marketing , and I was really excited to share my favorite needles with everyone. When I talked about Pinterest, I mentioned that one of my favorite personal uses was to collect crafting tutorials for reference later: Another popular use for Pinterest in our industry is to create "mood boards" to guide designers' submissions for magazines, books and pattern collections:  I also talked a...

In the wake of finishing several WIPs over the weekend, I was on the prowl for a new project I could start in addition to the MANY top-secret projects which are currently on my needles. Yes, there are exciting things afoot (pun intended), and I can't wait til I get to share them with you! Alas, that won't be for a while...next month at the earliest, to be exact. Until then, I'll be ever-so-slowly knitting on my new WIP, the Spindleberry Shawl by Joanna Johnson. I'm using a skein of Skein Merino Cashmere Fingering in the Ochiba colorway; I realized that I didn't have a single grey shawl, and this just happened to be in my stash!  I was able to snag the pattern for free when it was first published thanks to my Ravulous Hot Right Now widget that I have on my phone ( click here to read my review ). I've never made anything with fringe, and it's not something I would normally be into....but for some reason I like it in this design. Bonus: the fringe ...