handmade by stefanie

Last weekend, I put the finishing touches on my Thrummed Mittens , then gave them a nice blocking in Wrapture  (I could still smell the lingering jasmine during this photo shoot)! As luck would have it, my husband got a very fancy digital camera as an early birthday present from his parents, and he took some really great photos of my finished mittens...a process I apparently didn't enjoy. Consequently, he's now going to be doing a LOT more photos for my patterns and blog posts! I mean, it's night and day, the difference between these photos and the photos I've been using from our much-older digital camera (or my cell phone...or instagram...). You can get all the details on the yarn and fiber used in this project on my Ravelry project page . I used to pattern and video instructions from Marly Bird's excellent Craftsy class, Mittens and Gloves Galore ( click here for a full review and a special discounted link for my blog readers)! I am so excited to bu...

It's the last FO Friday of April, and I'm psyched to share my latest finished project with you, my ready-for-spring cropped cardigan ! Now that all the ends are woven in and it's been blocked, I just need to find the perfect buttons. This was a pretty quick knit (I am a historically slow sweater knitter, even for cropped cardis and such); on April 4 I cast on and ended up ripping out my work and starting again from scratch mid-month because I am OCD . I'm glad I did, because the finished product is perfect! Once I sew on some buttons, I'll have my husband take a photo of me wearing it, but for now, here's my latest FO: Pattern: Breezy Bolero by Marly Bird Yarn: Roslyn , a fingering weight cotton/cashmere blend from Bijou Basin Ranch Notes: My size called for 4 balls of yarn; but because I had to go down a needle size to get gauge, I ended up using only a tiny bit of that fourth ball! I probably have enough to make some fingerless mitts or a hat; perhaps i...

The arrival of my first shipment from the Sweet Georgia Fibre Club proved to be the perfect motivation to finish the spinning project that has been on my wheel for several weeks now: some very pretty merino roving I purchased at the Yarn Barn in Lawrence, KS a long time ago. That night, I finished the second single, and then on Thursday afternoon I plied both singles together. I'm still not sure how this happened, but I only have a few inches left over from one of the singles once the plying was complete! What I like about this fiber is how it looks like a grayish-brown from far away: But when you get closer, you can see that there are lots of heathered colors that blend together to trick the eye from far away: Before delving into my newest fiber acquisition, I wanted to be sure to spin the custom batt which I purchased at YarnCon earlier this month (I'm not sure if you can request a custom-made batt from the  Knitspin etsy shop , but they have plenty of other fibe...