handmade by stefanie

I already shared my individual results, but since the winner of Spinzilla won't be announced until October 23 (?!?) I wanted to share the accomplishments of my awesome team, the spinners of #TeamLouetNA. This year, we had a lot of familiar faces from previous years, plus some new-to-us spinners. Everyone was super excited for the event, and our team thread on Ravelry was filled with lots of chatter - sharing fiber prep tips, updating everyone on their spinning progress during the week of Spinzilla, and cheering one another on. It's such a great group of people, I feel lucky to be their captain. For the first time ever, we had 100% participation from all 25 spinners (in previous years, there has always been one or two who drop off and forget to send in their yardage, despite my persistent harassment!). Just look at all of these beautiful handspun singles and skeins: You might be wondering how this year's total yardage compares to that of years past - but fear not!...

The fates seemed to be against me for Spinzilla this year: For the first 3 days, I was at an intensive work conference downtown and had extremely limited time to spin. Once I was back to my normal work schedule, I hit more stumbling blocks due to forearm and hand pain from way too much typing. The magic combination of rest, ice, and a very nice massage on Friday night was enough to get me back into spinning form for the final push. On Saturday, I spun through all of the fibers that I thought would be easiest on my arms and hands - I'm pretty sure the lovely merino/tencel I was spinning played as much of a role in my pain as the typing, so I opted for some of the fluffly fibers I bought at the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool festival last month. On Sunday, I managed to transform all of the singles from the week (which wasn't much) into beautiful yarns: My grand total was a paltry 1964 yards - that's a personal worst, as you can see from this chart: I'm hoping m...

Spinzilla starts today and I am flying by the seat of my pants! On Sunday, I just barely managed to finish spinning singles for the project I had on the wheel and then ply a bunch of random leftover singles into a frankenyarn to clear out some bobbin space: Plying the gradient 2-ply yak/silk will be the first order of business once Spinzilla starts (obviously, I will only count the yardage once for the plying, and not the spinning of the original singles, which occurred before the start time); my first official spinning project for the week will probably be this merino/tencel that I predrafted yesterday: And the rest will (hopefully) just work itself out as the week progresses. I'll be severely limited in spinning time til Wednesday night, so I am really pinning my hopes on a productive final push at the end of the week and over next weekend. Good luck to everyone spinning this week!

Can you believe that Spinzilla is just one week away? Quite honestly, I can't - it's totally snuck up on me. As the Captain of Team Louet North America (the reigning champs two years in a row, if I may toot our own horn), I should probably have a better plan in place for my own spinning next week, but I regret to inform you that I'll probably be winging it. Work has been crazy, and although my team captain duties are not overwhelming per se, making sure all of our spinners are prepared for the week ahead is definitely a top priority ahead of my own spinning plans! I'll be attending a conference right at the start of Spinzilla that will create some difficulties in finding time to compete, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up for a personal best when it comes to spinning this year. I've always wanted to break the 4,000-yard mark, but have yet to do so. In the back of my mind, it's a goal, but a more realistic one is to at least spin a Monster Mile (1760 ya...

I started a few projects since last week, but I promise that I had really  good reason for doing so. For instance, I realized that I had just one gift knitting project I needed to make, and that time was running out to knit said project if I was going to ship it to the intended recipient prior to Christmas. Also, one of my Spinzilla prizes arrived - a custom set of Kollage needles from my team host, Louet North America , who is the new owner of this needle company. All signs pointed to starting a new project ! (note: close up shot to avoid spoiling the surprise) Here's another photo of my fancy customized needles: If you're a bit jealous, you don't have to be - you can get your own customized set in 2017 ! I also started a hat because I wanted an instant gratification project - and Woolly Wormhead did a one-day promo last week offering a free pattern with a coupon code. I ended up buying an additional pattern along with this on in my small bid to pay it forw...

Honestly, I had no idea we would be able to do it again, but it's official: Team Louet has won this year's Spinzilla event! All in all, there were 5,525,309 yards of yarn spun during this year's event, 296,849 of which was contributed by Team Louet spinners. You can see the full Spinzilla results here - and there is more info about how my team did here on the Louet blog . It was a pleasure to spin with such an awesome group of people - I'm looking forward to Spinzilla 2017!

I was spinning furiously Sunday evening before Spinzilla drew to a close at midnight and managed to spin nearly all of the fibers I had earmarked for the event (only a half-pound of dyed merino remained unspun). I was hoping to double my usual 3,000-ish yardage of the past few years, but managed to only add about 1k to the usual yardage, finishing at 4034. I probably could have gotten that last bit of fiber spun up if I hadn't taken an ill-fated excursion to Windy Knitty in Andersonville on the same day as the Chicago Marathon (a journey that requires two bus lines, or a bus and a train, if you prefer). Though the event was in the morning and I wasn't trying to take mass transit til the afternoon, the effects of many main streets in Chicago being shut down for the runners could be felt, even at 3pm that same afternoon. Honestly, I'd done ok until the final leg, when the bus I was waiting for wasn't slated to show up for 30 minutes (with an immediate follower -...

Spinzilla started this past Monday, so nearly all of my free time has been spent at the wheel this week. My overall goal is to spin two bobbins-worth of singles each day, and then ply them all together on Sunday; by the end of Day 2 yesterday, I had all of these bobbins filled up: The only project I've been knitting on consistently since Spinzilla started is the garter stitch scarf that I inherited from my grandmother: I've had a lot of meetings this week, and during some of them, I have been able to sneak in a few rows to work past the halfway point of the third skein of yarn. It's a nice foil to all of the spinning (not to mention, the long work days) this week! I'm hoping to share my latest FOs this Friday, provided I can get some decent photos taken between now and then. It's kind of a crazy week, but I'll do what I can amongst all the spinning. Thanks for stopping by!

Spinzilla is just one week away - gulp! Between a very busy month for work and the unexpected week-long trip to KC earlier this month, I find that I am feeling quite unprepared for a week of spinning. This past weekend, I did at least find some time to dig through my fiber stash and make some plans. I've heard that Spinzilla is a great time to spin a sweater's worth of yarn, something I have never attempted, but I have been working off and on (mostly off) to spin through a large quantity of Louet Light Gray Swalesdale fiber with that purpose in mind. I've got about 2 pounds to go, and have been saving it for Spinzilla. While I love natural colored fiber, I sometimes get bored spinning with it, so I raided my stash to see what else I could spin to keep things interesting. I pulled out a half pound of Louet Dyed Merino in Brick, A braid of Nerd Girl Yarns Panda Blend Fiber in Parrotfish, and two BFL braids from Cloudlover in the Ginkgo colorway. For me,  getting t...

A few issues ago, I read an article in Spin-Off which talked about using a blending board to make batts. It sounded interesting at the time, and I made a mental note to give it a try at a later date. A few weeks ago (or maybe a month? I can't keep track), I decided to break out the blending board and finally give this thing a try. I had most of a 4oz braid of Cloudlover BFL which I wanted to use as my main base (a portion of that had been used to try out my 3-D printed Turkish Spindle from Turtlemade) to use with a Jar of Inspiration and some dyed fleece I bought on Etsy. Before I put anything on the board, I tried to divide everything into three even piles so that each batt had enough similar fibers and colors to allow them to look good when plied together, but then added some unique additions to each one to also make each set a bit different. It wasn't terribly scientific - I don't think I measured a whole lot, save for the base fiber, and my approach for each of th...

I've been working on all of my WIPs pretty diligently since last week, but it really doesn't seem like much has been accomplished. There is, however, measurable progress - for instance, I am just 3 inches away from finishing my yak cardi sleeves and joining them to the body of the sweater for the yoke. I've almost finished the left side of the Broad Shoulders sweater (more on that here ), and my Miya shawl continues to grow. My entrelac cowl has definitely grown since last week - I am just zooming along on each wedge section. Surprisingly, this turned out to be a really great on-the-go knitting project, which is why I've made so much progress. It also got an awesome new home in the form of a project bag made for me by Kemper of the Junkyarn Podcast . Thanks, Kemper! Lastly, I've added a few more dino parts to the mix, though I'm not sure I'm going to finish by the end of the month for the Toy KAL I was kinda sorta but not really participating...

Today's a special blog post, just so I can do a bit of bragging: my Spinzilla team won the Golden Niddy Noddy! I couldn't be more proud of Team Louet North America . What a tremendous group of spinners! To reblog from our team sponsor's post announcing our team's stats: 24 of 25 registered spinners reported yardage & will be receiving our Team Thank-you gift valued at $100! We’ll be creating a special fiber pack for our hard-working spinners which includes two 1/2 lb. bags of Merino Silk, a 1/2 lb. bag of Dyed Merino and a Lavishea Spinzilla lotion bar! 21 of 25 registered spinners are in the Monster Mile Club! This means that they will receive an additional gift from us (their choice of in-stock fibers valued at $100)! Eight of our spinners reported 5-digit yardage! As a team, we spun a total of 271,607 yards – that’s just over 154 miles, or the equivalent of 5.8 marathons! We’ve far surpassed our team total from last year (156,853) as well as the win...

Spinzilla started at 12:01 AM on October 5, and I have been spinning up a storm with every free moment I get. Since the start, I have filled a total of 5 bobbins: the three at the bottom are spun from  Louet Jacob fiber, the top right was spun from some of my blending board rolags, and the top right is a braid of fiber from the Cloudlover fiber club. I know my original plan was to wait til Spinzilla was over to ply, but that cake of singles you see in the photo above didn't go so well (the other side is NOT a pretty picture!). I decided to ply all of the Jacob singles into a 3-ply so that my Victoria bobbins could be efficiently cleared, and then I really went for broke, spinning with more blending board rolags and nearly filled a sixth  bobbin! It's safe to say that Spinzilla is off to a great start for me. Of course, I haven't found much time to knit, but I did make some progress on my WIPs over the weekend. For instance, I realized that I hadn't ripped far enou...

Fall's arrival has given me major startitis, and in addition to the Broad Shoulders sweater KAL I'm leading now through December 13, I've been unable to resist several more -alongs which are taking place in October, such as..... Weekend KAL This is a freeform KAL happening now through October 30th, and participants can knit any project from Jen Geigley's Weekend for a chance to win a mystery prize (knowing Jen, it'll be totally awesome)! To me, this book is absolutely perfect for handspun yarn, and I've already picked out a few skeins from my stash to use this month. If you missed my review of this great new book, click here to get caught up . Then check out all of the KAL details here on Jen's website !   Toy-along This one's happening here in the Victorian Studio Podcast group on Ravelry , and it's another freeform KAL allowing participants to knit or crochet any toy project they like for a chance to win some great prizes! I have be...

Spinzilla is almost here! In just one week, I'll be spinning with my excellent teammates on Team Louet North America. This is my third time spinning with Team Louet (and also serving as the team captain), and I think we are definitely in contention for unseating Team Fancy Tiger Craft for first place. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I have been prepping a LOT of rolags for Spinzilla using my new Louet Blending board . Part of this is because the blending board is just so incredibly fun & addicting to use - but the other part is because I am going to be traveling for the second half of the event, and I want to make sure that I have plenty of fiber that is easy to use while on-the-go. Small, portable rolags seem tailor-made for travel spinning! This year, I am going to take a totally different approach to my Spinzilla spinning: I don't plan on plying ANY of my projects til after the event. I have plied in years past, and I just want to try something new, e...

First off, congratulations to  LuckyPenny , who is the winner of this month's giveaway ! I'll contact you to arrange for the delivery of your prize which was generously donated by the folks at VK Live Chicago - free marketplace admission and 2 free classes this October! Speaking of October events, now is probably a good time to say: Spinzilla is coming! Team member registration will open on September 1 (we'd love to have you on Team Louet! ) and I am already starting to plan my strategy for this weeklong event. Enter my new favorite fiber prep tool: the Louet Blending Board. I've been coveting this board which debuted late last year (or maybe it was at the beginning of this year?), but they have been a little hard to come by because they are so popular! Finally my patience paid off and I was happily surprised last week to see a Louet box on my doorstep. I opened up the box, watched a couple of YouTube videos about blending boards, and I was off! My fiber stash i...