handmade by stefanie

Today is a special post, since I'm starting not one but TWO excellent KALs this month! Lorna's Laces Fisherman in 36ns Chocolate. I'm joining thousands of knitters as we take the Yarn Nation 30 Day Sweater Challenge , and you can, too, by clicking this link ! I'll be using some yarn from my stash (two skeins of Lorna's Laces Fisherman in Chocolate) and the Uma pattern from Chic Knits . Originally, I was going to follow the recipe found in the 30-Day Sweater eBook (available here ), but I had a hard time deciding what to do - did I want to do some colorwork? What about cables or some sort of stitch pattern? Did I really have time to figure all of this out, even with the easy-to-use formula provided in the eBook? Probably, but I must admit that I am kind of lazy when it comes to sweater-knitting: I'll wing it for just about any other project, but for sweaters, I prefer to use existing patterns. I know that I should step outside my comfort zone this time,...

I finally have an exciting update on my Emmanuelle Sweater : I've started the Chevrons on the front piece! Woo hoo! So far, so good; I'm hoping the other colors I have planned will play well with everything else. With any luck, I can get this final piece knitted by the end of next week, which means I am on track for finishing this by the end of the month (I hope I didn't just jinx myself there). This would mean that it'll be one of the fastest adult-sized sweaters I've knit to date. I've also made some major progress on the Mountain Moss lace edging and it should be finished by the end of this coming weekend, too - which means I can start something new! I still have plenty of gift projects to knock out between now and December, so I'll be less stressed once I can finish this 'selfish' project and get back to gift knitting/crocheting. Of course, life has a way of throwing monkey wrenches into the best-laid plans, doesn't it? First, I'...