handmade by stefanie

Last year, I went to Creativation for the very first time , and I absolutely loved it. I've been going to industry trade shows ever since I started working at Stitchcraft Marketing , but until attending  Creativation , they have all been focused entirely on needlecraft (knitting, crochet, needlepoint, etc). Obviously, I love yarn and knitting, but every waking moment is filled with it, so it's really a fresh of breath air to spend time seeing other creative crafts outside of the yarn world. This year, I found myself drawn to a lot of the paper crafts - cardmaking in particular kept catching my eye, Some of the display samples were absolute works of art, far cooler than anything you would find in a card store. I wish I had taken more photos, but this is the only one I had on my phone: Concord and 9th The Edible Arts booths are always worth checking out because they make the most incredible things that I couldn't imagine eating, they're so spectacular. Las...

For the first time in the seven years since I started working at Stitchcraft Marketing, I didn't go to the TNNA Trade show this past weekend, which is the annual buying show for yarn shops (and hence, where a lot of my clients exhibit). It's kind of nice to have the year off, because while trade shows are fun, they are also quite tiring. I spent a very relaxing weekend at home crafting and watching the Royals get swept by the reigning world champs. So it goes. I'm not one to suffer from FOMO, but I am curious to hear what everyone thought about the new venue in Cleveland. I'm especially interested to hear who was - and wasn't - there in the wake of last weeks' surprising announcement that Classic Elite Yarns is closing . It seems like this news has made the rounds of social media, but they aren't the only yarn-related business to recently announce that they are closing their doors: Lantern Moon posted about a "closeout sale" earlier this month ...

Earlier this month, I flew to Phoenix for a new-to-me trade show called Creativation . It's similar to the TNNA trade shows I've attended in years past in that it's specific to the crafts industry, but the similarities pretty much stop there. Creativation is much wider in its scope to include painting, beading, paper craft, edible arts, as well as yarn craft (and I think I saw some felt/fiber craft for good measure, too!). For me, it was heaven, because I've done pretty much every craft at some point in my life, and it was interesting to see how they have evolved since then. Let's just say I hit my step goal every day at the show! Yup, a legit bus route! The show floor is massive (enough to have its own bus route!!), and many of the booths were quite elaborate. It reminded me a lot of H+H Cologne in that regard, along with the cool gathering places and lounges throughout the show floor. Love this balloon display in the 3M booth.   The prize-...

Yesterday I got back from the TNNA summer trade show, which returned to Columbus to the delight of pretty much everyone, judging by how busy and lively the show floor was for most of the weekend. My measurements are 100% unscientific, but it seemed like there was way more activity when compared to the rather quiet January show in San Jose. The company I work for, Stitchcraft Marketing , created a community art installation called #StitchLove , which was on display in the TNNA lounge in the center of the show floor. It was the brainchild of my colleague Mari and I am so proud of how it turned out - we all are! L-R: Mari, Me, Leanne & Ben. Seeing everyone's contributions was really cool, and by the end of the weekend, the wall was quite full! Although I'm pretty sure I didn't get a chance to check out every single booth, I did see some pretty cool things while I dashed from meeting to meeting. I was really psyched to spot Katrinkles , whom I discovered on I...

Now that I've recovered from my trip to Germany and gotten back to "normal" life, I should probably share some of my photos from H+H , right? This was my first time attending this trade show, which is one of the largest in the world. The company I work for, Stitchcraft Marketing , had a booth where we represented 4 of our clients - here I am wearing a gorgeous shawl pattern knit with Bijou Basin Ranch  yarn, the Khyber Pass Shawl from Owlcat Designs. The designer, Simone, was kind enough to lend me the sample for the show! The show floor was absolutely amazing - some of the booths were like their own little universe. I shared a lot of photos already on my Instagram feed , so I've tried to pick some different photos to share here - all of which were taken by my husband, Tyler, who was our official H+H photographer.  KnitPro Lana Grossa Guterman Lana Grossa (again) C. Pauli Rebecca Toft UK There was also quite a bit of knitte...