handmade by stefanie

Confession: I've never knit with a brushed mohair yarn. I'm not sure how this has never happened in the 15ish years I've been knitting, but it's true. Sure, I've used yarns with mohair blended in, but I've never used this type of yarn in a knitting project. So, I absolutely couldn't say no when I was offered a skein of Cabrito yarn from Manos del Uruguay, and my choice of a "companion yarn" if I so chose. Why two different types of yarn? Cabrito is a lace weight, fluffy yarn that plays well with others. When held with a different yarn base, Cabrito provides softness and a beautiful halo, while the companion yarn lends some strength and structure. The Fairmount Fibers design team has a lot of fabulous free patterns designed especially for Cabrito and other yarns from the line (if you're wondering, Fairmount Fibers is the North American distributor for Manos yarns), and I decided to knit the free Ambrose Hat Pattern , which calls for...

When you think of Uruguay, inevitably you think of yarn....at least, if you are a knitter! Every yarn I've touched from Manos del Uruguay has not disappointed. I've been fortunate to work with several over the years, but somehow a skein of Serena , their blend of 60% baby alpaca and 40% pima cotton, never found its way into my hands. Until now! The kind folks at Fairmount Fibers, the US Distributor for Manos yarns, recently sent me a skein of Serena in a new colorway called Ethereal. As soon as I felt how soft and squishy this skein was, I knew it wanted to be a lacy cowl of some sort. What I found interesting about this yarn is that it's labeled as a sport weight, but the site notes that it has a "versatile" gauge. I ended up using smaller needles than recommended to knit this project, but I have a little bit left over and may have to try knitting a swatch on US 6 or 7 out of sheer curiosity! This yarn was amazing to work with, and in fact, I forgot that ...

At the end of last year, my friend and colleague Mari asked if I would be willing to knit a sample of a new design of hers that would be coming out in Knitty in 2017 . The idea is that my project would combine commercially-spun yarn with a handspun (by me, of course!) accent. I'd get the yarn and fiber to spin and knit with, and could keep the resulting garment. Of course I said yes! We both picked out our yarn colors in the Fairmount Fibers/Manos del Uruguay booth at the January TNNA Trade show, and a few weeks later, a lovely box of yarn and fiber arrived on my doorstep. Originally, I think this sweater was supposed to be in worsted weight, but at some point it became a sport weight sweater, so I admit that I was a little nervous about finishing in time for our  photo shoot in early April - historically, I am a pretty slow sweater knitter ( see: chunky weight cardigan that's been on the needles since last August ). By some small miracle, I finished in time for our sch...

This week, I have an exciting Find your Fade update: I finally got to the the fourth color, a skein of stellina yarn that was gifted to me recently: I have an instagram buddy with whom I swap beer a few times a year, and we always include something yarny for each other; this skein of hand-dyed yarn from the Susquehanna Knitting Company seemed like the perfect thing to use for the middle color of this project (and I totally dig the color name,  Winter Waves ). I've also made it to the heel on my first Waterlilies sock , over the weekend I put in the placeholder yarn so that I can work an afterthought heel. You have to really squint to see the not-so-contrasty gray yarn I used, but I assure you it is there! Since there is some sample knitting in my future, I am trying to avoid starting new projects right now in favor of finishing current (and possibly languishing) WIPs. The yarn for one such sample arrived earlier this week - check out this luscious bundle of  Clara...

I have to say, I'm really enjoying the instant-gratification projects I've been working on lately. It's a nice balance to my currently longterm project that's on the needles, the Snowflake Cowl . I'm now about halfway through the fourth chart repeat and this is starting to look....like a cowl! I also joined the dark side (or maybe it's the light side??) and cast on for a Force Awakens hat for Tyler. He's pretty psyched for me to finish this one, I think. I ended up starting another hat project so that I could have something simple on the needles that I could work on outside of the house - colorwork and mass transit generally don't mix. So I cast on for a super simple hat with this pretty new skein of Manos Alegria that hopped into my shopping cart when I was buying some Cascade Eco+ on closeout with my Webs gift card. And that crocheted snowman wall hanging continues to elude me! I have a few more pieces this week, but I need to get him finis...

As I mentioned on Monday, I made my Holla Knits debut earlier this week with my SpringTastic Socks . This ankle-length sock combines easy eyelet lace with cables to create a fun-to-knit sock that is also quite fast - all the better so you can wear them right away! It's shown above in Manos del Uruguay Alegria , which is a hand-dyed superwash merino sock yarn from the Manos Co-ops. I chose this yarn specifically because I have been wanting to try it ever since it came out, and besides all of the pretty color combinations to choose from, the yarn also has an interesting story: it's Fair Trade ! Each yarn is signed by the artisan who dyed it, and it also tells you which co-op made your yarn. The coloway shown above is Periquito, and it's even more vibrant in real life! You can view all of the colorways here on the Fairmount Fibers website (they distribute the yarn in North America and provided yarn support for this design). Every Manos yarn I've tried has be...

Ever since Alegria was introduced from Manos del Uruguay, it's been on my must-knit list. It wasn't until just this month that the perfect opportunity presented itself: I'm working on a new design for an upcoming Holla Knits collection! I've enjoyed working with the other Manos yarns I've tried, and the fun colorways combined with a lovely base of superwash merino & polyamide made requesting Alegria for my design absolutely irresistible. Each yarn comes from a co-op in Uruguay and is certified Fair Trade, which means that your yarn purchase supports the livelihood of rural women, providing them with fair pay, good working conditions, health insurance, and more (you can read more here on the Fairmount Fibers blog ). Each yarn is signed by the artisan, telling you the name of the person who made your yarn and which co-op it came from: I can't wait to share my design with you when it comes out later this year. In the mean time, make sure that  Aleg...

I haven't really blogged about my craft goals for 2015, but one of them is to start and finish a spinning project each month (I supposed I'll get around to blogging about the rest of the goals at some  point!). Left: Two different dye lots of the Bramble colorway Right: The resulting singles, ready to ply on the new Schacht Lazy Kate I got for Christmas! I decided to start with some merino roving my husband gifted me for Christmas from Manos del Uruguay; through a series of unfortunate events beyond his control, he ended up receiving two very different dye lots of the same colorway (it was either that or wait til long after Christmas was over to get matching dye lots). Luckily, I am not one to be daunted by such things, and I rather liked each version of the colorway - it was kind of nice to see the full range of variations! Not only that, but I was sure that they would look just lovely spun into singles and plied together. Since it's been a while since I've du...

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...

Grey has always been one of my favorite colors. With my coloring, there are more than a few colors I simply can't wear, but grey has always been something I can fall back on (not to mention, it looks great with just about any color, much as black does). So I guess it's fitting that my first two finished projects to share in 2014 are grey: first, a cowl knit in Manos Maxima 's Foil colorway, and second, my first handspun project of the year spun from Grey Gotland top. Cowl blocking in progress! I knit the I Wish I was Weaving This Cowl on my trip to Kansas City last week; it only took two days, in fact! It was the perfect "conversation" project since the basket weave stitch pattern was easy to memorize. The pattern is available for free on Ravelry from the talented Liz Abinante of Feministy. While I was out of town, I pined for my spinning wheel. I'd taken a hiatus prior to the holidays so that I could focus all of my free time on gift-making, so by th...

Perhaps I'm the only one who checks Craftsy's Yarn Deals on a nearly daily basis, but I just can't help myself. I have often been rewarded with some truly great deals on yarn (my Rocky Coast Cardigan comes to mind - I bought nine skeins of Canopy Worsted for 50% off in the Craftsy Yarn Shop !). There are also some really great patterns sold on Craftsy *, so I thought I'd start highlighting my favorites from both areas in a new regular feature. Enjoy! Stefaniegrrr 's Craftsy Picks of the Week for April 1, 2013: Manos Wool Clasica : 2 skeins will make this free pattern, the Wavy Cable Boot Toppers ! I made these for my rain boots last year and absolutely love them! Spud & Chloe Sweater : Use all three colors created exclusively for Craftsy to make Stacey Trock's adorable Alastair the Caterpillar ! Thanks for stopping by - don't forget to sign up for my newsletter , I'll have a really awesome subscriber-only deal for you this month! ...