handmade by stefanie

Brown Sheep is one of the first yarns I ever knit with, and they have always had a special place in my heart - so when they asked me to team up for a mystery knit-along, of course I said yes! Now, I know that not everyone likes a mystery knit-along (or MKAL for short). In fact, I swore them off after being "tricked" into doing intarsia one too many times by Stephen West (said with tongue firmly in cheek). Not all mysteries are a delight to solve, but I promise this one will be.  My goal was to create a fun-to-knit shawl with an interesting detail to finish things off. I don't want to give too many things away, but if you like slipped stitches, stripes, and bold mosaic motifs all wrapped up in a symmetrical triangular shawl, then I think you will be happy with the finished project.  Not only that, but the pattern is available for FREE if you sign up for the Brown Sheep newsletter using this link . And if you want to buy the yarn I used for the pattern, you can pick 1 skein...

Running out of yarn is something that every knitter (or crocheter or weaver!) dreads, and when you're working with hand-dyed yarn, it can be particularly anxiety-producing.  The natural variations between dye lots means that it's not as simple as finding another skein to use if you run out of yarn before you're done. While those variations might not be noticeable when you're eyeballing the skein, they can be clear as day once you've used that yarn to your project. For this very reason I highly recommend getting an extra "safety" skein when you are buying hand-dyed yarn for a large project. So what if you're trying to destash? That's where things get tricky, because you are most likely substituting in whatever yarn you find in your stash for the called-for yarn in the pattern (I'll cover yarn substitutions at a later date, as this topic was much requested in my reader survey!). To summarize, not all yarn behaves the same way, and yarn weigh...

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...

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...

Earlier this summer, I purchased my first-ever gradient yarn cake while visiting The Studio in Kansas City. They just happened to be hosting a trunk show from Apple Tree Knits, and I absolutely couldn't resist grabbing a skein of Plush Fingering in a pretty purple-to-blue gradient. Unbelievably, this is the only photo I took of this yarn before casting on, and I have to say it's not my best effort, nor is it my favorite (But hey, free Royals sunglasses!!): I spent a lot of time pondering what to make with this yarn - quite honestly, I was plagued with indecision as to what type of project would be best. But then I remembered seeing this gorgeous project on the Knitted Bliss blog , and I decided to shamelessly copy Julie's idea and cast on for a Starshower cowl .  Since I have issues styling shawls on myself, this is the ideal pattern for me: it's worn like a cowl but looks kinda like a shawl, and features the best parts of knitting both projects, which I like. ...

After all of the finishing I did last month, I've been holding my number of WIPs to a reasonable number, but I couldn't resist starting the  Wonder Woman Wrap by Carissa Browning . It seems like everyone is going crazy for it on Instagram and Ravelry (where it's available for free )! I'm knitting mine out of lace weight yarn: a yak and silk blend from Bijou Basin Ranch called Shangri-La . It's so shiny and lovely, and I think that the airier fabric will be a nice complement to the shiny, slinky yarn. Aren't the colors gorgeous? After knitting several swatches with various sizes of needles, I decided to use the size called for in the pattern (US 4) so that I can still get a fairly large wrap. The difference in final wingspan was more than 10 inches from US 3 to US4 - crazy, right? Since I'm using larger needles, I have to be careful to knit slower and tighter than I am used to - usually I just fly along and let blocking take care of the rest, bu...