handmade by stefanie

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...

EEP! It's December! I have absolutely no idea where November - or the rest of this year, for that matter - went. I'm still kind of in denial that it's Decemeber, but I really can't ignore it for now since it's crunch time: I have two weeks to finish my Broad Shoulders sweater, plus I have to do all that holiday gift knitting I've been procrastinating. Luckily, the list of outstanding holiday projects isn't as long as it usually is this time of year, but I am still beginning to panic a bit as the countdown races on....and I am totally ok with indulging a raging bout of startitis, apparently. To wit: over the weekend, I started knitting some adorable Snowball Buddies by Susan Claudino: I also cast on for a pair of fingerless mitts using the free Maize pattern from Tin Can Knits and some of my handspun yarn from Spinzilla: After seeing this granny square Christmas tree idea on Pinterest , I decided to make my own version to hang on our door using som...

My knitting has taken a little detour recently: I can't stop making hats! Just before I left for Minneapolis, I received the news that my aunt was diagnosed with cancer. It was a shock to the family, but the prognosis is very good. Hopefully it's not too much of an invasion of her privacy to say that the tumor itself was already successfully removed, but she does have to undergo chemo as a precautionary measure. After getting over my initial surprise, my next thought was: she's going to need HATS. Lots of hats! Someone in my knitting group mentioned that people undergoing chemo have a tendency to get hot easily, which is something that hadn't occurred to me. But as I was digging through all of my finished hats which are looking for good homes, it seemed like most of them would be too warm, not only given the circumstances but also for the summer months ahead. Luckily, I have a ton of sock yarn in my stash and there is no shortage of great lightweight hat designs in fi...

It was impossible to resist casting on with the lovely (and grey!) skeins of yarn from my YarnCon stash enhancement experience. Thank goodness I'd gotten so many projects off the needles beforehand so that I could indulge in startitis without guilt! On Sunday night, I immediately began making a simple Tunisian crochet scarf using my newfound skills and the two skeins of Bijou Basin Ranch sport weight yarn which came home with me: it was impossible to resist this incredibly squishy 100% yak yarn. I thought it would be fun to alternate between navy and grey as I practiced the Tunisian knit stitch and the Tunisian purl stitch - the result is an interesting effect! The only thing I'm not super-thrilled with is how loosely I began the scarf, but luckily that can be easily fixed by adding fringe to either end when it's all said and done. I also started a swatch for the Lake Michigan Tee from the new Knitscene, using the mondo skein of BFL sock from Leading Men Fiber Arts w...

It seems like I'm not the only one suffering from Startitis this month! I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I suppose it's nice to be in good company. Over the weekend, I started a new spinning project which has been on my mental to-do list for a little while now: After first hearing about opposing-ply yarns on the We Are Yarn podcast, I've been wanting to try this technique to spin a sport-weight(ish) yarn to knit myself a pair of socks. A few months ago, I ordered 8 oz. of Superwash BFL from Nerd Girl Yarns in the #hashtag colorway , and I knew immediately that this was the fiber I should use for this project! Last night, I finished the third single, and tonight I hope to ply all 3 together...and I am already planning my next  spinning project, too! I also started a baby sweater from 60 Quick Baby Knits in some superwash yarn I'd custom dyed back when I worked at Lorna's Laces. It's not super-exciting to look at just yet, but ...

I've been trying to resist startitis, which is has become much harder since YarnCon this past weekend. For instance, I discovered I have enough Seda Sock to knit the Elfe sweater, but I am trying not to cast on til I finish the cropped cardi I just started. Unfortunately, progress hasn't been swift because I keep getting distracted by other things - this is as far as I've gotten since casting on last Thursday: Not a whole lot so see there! There is also the problem of some serious laddering near the cable panels, which I think is tied to how I'm increasing (I'm doing a m1 where you lift up the bar between the stitch you just worked and the stitch on the needle and knit through the back loop); this is also where there is a stitch marker AND a switch from knit to purl, so basically that is the trifecta of unappealing laddering, at least for me - I've always had this issue with my knit-to-purl transitions. The question is, should I frog and restart to try to...

After spending the last year knitting tons of cowls and triangular scarves, I have upset the ratio of hats to scarves in my house.  Luckily, it's pretty easy to even the keel - just make a ton of hats this summer!  This coincides nicely with the arrival of the Knitter's Pride Cubics Special IC Set I've been drooling over (yet again, I have enabled myself  in the course of doing my job*!).  The deal with these is that they have shorter tips that, when used with the enclosed cord, produce a 16" circumference....perfect for hat-making. Roscoe Village Hat! I don't think they were in the house a full 24 hours before I had to cast something on to try them out. I've been meaning to make the Roscoe Village Hat from Breean Elyse Miller's Hot Child in the City collection for a while now, so I grabbed my handspun yarn I'd set aside for the project, assembled my needles, and cast on! This hat was a nice, easy knit, though I'm not sure the dark-colo...

Tough to photograph: Black Stockinette Sweater (Now finished & blocking!) The biggest news of this week is surely the completion of Tyler's sweater.  Having cast on in February,  this project has been a slow-burner.  I did have to frog & restart it.  Modifications have been made.  Entire weeks went by when I didn't touch the thing.  My hare-brained sleeves 2-at-a-time-while-attached-to-a-sweater-body scheme actually worked .  And most importantly, we didn't break up!  Not that I was terribly worried about the Sweater Curse - we've been together for 11 years now - but perhaps my delay in knitting Tyler a sweater was due in part to that silly superstition.  At any rate, Tyler has a new sweater that fits him perfectly and is exactly the way he wanted it!  Which means, of course, that I can cast on for lots of new projects, right?  I mean, I still have holiday knitting to do....and I still have a design that is ready to b...

Foliage Hat: I have the worst poker face. One week down, three to go! Malabrigo Stockpile is off to a great start - I've already completed two projects and cast on for two more!  My non-stockpile projects aren't feeling terribly neglected, either (well, I still need to start the sleeves for Tyler's sweater, but I'm pretty sure that will happen sometime this week, if not this weekend).   Here's the lowdown: 1.  Foliage Hat - Malabrigo Worsted in Vaa (to replace the one I lost a few years ago) Finished! 2.  Madison Hand Warmers - Malabrigo Worsted in Vaa (to match hat) Finished! 3.  Metheglin Cowl - Malabrigo Rios in Solis and whatever odds and sods I have sitting around in Worsted , Twist or Rios ! Madison Mitts at twilight. 4.  Robin's Egg Blue Hat - Malabrigo Chunky in Charrua (my favorite color!) In Progress 5.  Travel Shawl - Malabrigo Sock in Aguas In Progress 6.  Button Bunnies - a ginormous version in Malabr...

This mystery KAL has triggered a major case of startitis! I'm fighting the urge to start two more sock projects - I'd like to finish my Wool Dispensary sock design first (I just cast on for sock #2)....and besides that, it's really better if I limit myself to one sock project at a time. Daybreak: Not at its most photogenic stage I'm not sure if the following logic is actually logical , but instead of starting a monster or sock, I ended up starting a Daybreak Shawl .  I've been wanting to knit one for so long now, it just seemed like I should use the momentum of this KAL to check that off my knitting bucket list.  Does it help my case if I say I'm using sport-weight yarn?  No?  Well, I had to try. I cast on last Thursday - much like the addictive Pogona Shawl , it's flying off the needles! I really love the Knit Picks Simply Cotton yarn - it comes in a beautiful palette of colors and is easy to knit with - not something you can say of most cotton ...

i've been so busy with the shameless self-promotion (sprinkled with a healthy dose of pos-mens) that several FO's and WIP updates have gone unposted.  this is gonna be a long one, so you might want to grab a sandwich and a comfortable seat.  first off, here's a photo of the completed rebecca danger monster i was working on a while ago with my tour de fleece handspun - i think it turned out pretty cute!  big green monster pattern:  iris the gourmet monster fiber: mixed-breed wool fiber, hand-dyed and -spun by me needle size: US #4 also on the FO front is a cabled beret i was test-knitting for rotten cupcakes , and it turned out beautifully.  julie is a former chicagoan who has recently relocated to california; we met through ravelry and our original plan was to have a hat-knitting partnership so she could keep up with supply and demand in her ravelry shop.  the move, of course, created a shift in priorities and circumstance, but now we ...