handmade by stefanie

This article and pattern originally appeared in Holla Knits , an online magazine produced by my good friend Allyson Dykhuizen . She has graciously allowed me to republish here on my blog now that Holla Knits is no more, and I am super excited to relaunch one of my favorite sock designs, the Spring-tastic Socks, which are now available here in my Ravelry store ! This pattern is fun to knit and looks great in both semisolid and variegated yarn.  The Spring-tastic Socks are shown here in the Periquito colorway of Manos del Uruguay Alegria Sock. Sock Knitting Basics Sock knitting is a pretty vast subject, so this article in no way purports to cover every aspect - but it will help you to tackle your first pair of socks with confidence and give you some ideas for future sock exploration. First things first: let’s cover the terminology. Below is the basic anatomy of a sock, which you will see referenced throughout most sock knitting patterns. Cuff: Generally, this cons...

I’m not really a ‘summer’ person, but I finally found a reason to get excited about 90 degree weather: solar dyeing!  I’ve always wanted to try this technique, but usually don’t think about it till summer is long gone. Lucky for me, a box of undyed yarns from  Kraemer Yarns showed up on my doorstep not too long ago, prompting me to make some plans for dyeing experiments which I can share on this blog. Obviously, solar dyeing was my top priority, since I assume that there will be very few 90-degree days this fall (here’s hoping!).  It’s funny how, once you are actually looking forward to the next really hot day, they don’t show up! It took a few weeks of anxiously watching the weather forecasts, but there was finally a good day in August wherein I could give this a try. The upside of having to wait a few weeks? I could amass all of the supplies I needed! Here’s what I used to get the job done:  2-3 skeins of undyed yarn (I used 2 skeins of Jane ,...

Last month, I cast on for a really beautiful stranded colorwork project (the Xanadu Snowflake Cowl by Julie Crawford ) using a buttery sock cashmere yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch. Having knit several colorwork projects before, I really thought this would be a piece of cake, but I ended up struggling with it quite a bit at first, and progress was frustratingly slow until just recently. I think my main issue was that I had taken a fairly long break from stranded colorwork, and I was sorely out of practice. I couldn't quite get into the rhythm of the project, and I also wasn't able to spot mistakes until I had knit several stitches (and sometimes even rows  ahead), which made for a lot of frogging and maybe even some cursing here and there. But I stuck with it, and the more I kept working at it, the easier it got. And once I started getting the hang of the chart and working with the two yarns, things moved along just a little bit quicker. I also have three little "tricks...

Not too long ago, I was given some very pretty spinning fiber which didn't have labels: Despite having no idea what I was working with, I spun up the pink and purple braids pictured above to create this lovely skein: After spinning with it, I had an idea of what I thought the fiber content might be, but I have been meaning to perform a few tests to confirm or deny my suspicions. It wasn't until this past weekend that I finally got a chance to perform a Burn Test, which is a very common way to assess the fiber content of a mystery yarn or fiber. I filmed my process and added it to my YouTube channel just in case anyone was interested to see the Burn Test in action; below are the steps I followed and some more detailed information to help you identify your fibers, should you decide to perform a burn test of your own. First: BE VERY CAREFUL! I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that setting things on fire is dangerous, but please be sure to keep safety in ...

As I prepare for the Tour de Fleece (which starts this Saturday, eek!), I'm focusing on clearing out my bobbins and figuring out which fibers I want to use from my stash, which got me thinking about what to do with leftover singles. After a while, most handspinners have a lot of leftover bits and bobs of single-ply yarn leftover from past projects, and I have made it my mission to find ways to give them new life so they don't have to sit on storage bobbin for eternity. If you've been saving those singles (or just want to find some creative uses for the next time you have leftover handspun), here are three of my favorite ways to put those singles to good use! 1. Practice a new technique: there are a lot of techniques you can test out which might be less intimidating on the smaller scale of a leftover single - chain plying, felted singles, or experimenting with unbalanced plies all come to mind. Not only that, but using leftover yarn that otherwise would have collected du...

Happy FO Friday! I have been dying to share this crocheted Owl Basket by Deja Jetmir , but had to wait til after mother's day since I made it for my mom! Isn't it cute? She was pretty excited about it, as I knew she would be - she is not only a huge fan of owls, but arguably my biggest fan, too! I also have finished the Maine Morning Mitts from Wednesday's post - oh my, they are heavenly. I don't think I ever want to take them off...in fact, I am wearing them right now as I type!! The craziness of the week has been such that my regular photographer (aka my husband Tyler) wasn't able to take FO photos of the gloves. I actually had to resort to using the self-timer on the fancy camera! It hadn't been going terribly well, but then Robin decided to help out. I wish I'd gotten him entirely in frame, but on the plus side, you can see the mitts quite well! Thanks, buddy! I wanted to share a video tutorial I came across earlier this week which helped...

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,...