handmade by stefanie

First, congratulations to Hipknitizer, who won the Patons Superfine Merino giveaway on this blog! I will get in touch with you to arrange for the delivery of your prize. Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway this month! Next, on to the exciting news: first, I am one of tomorrow's speakers at the Windy City Knitting Guild monthly meeting. May is the annual needle and yarn tasting, so I will be talking about Knitter's Pride products while folks give them a test drive. The meeting is free and open to non-members, FYI. It's held every third Tuesday of the month at the Sulzer Library at 6:45 pm. Second, the new issue of Holla Knits launches today, and I am excited to be a part of it! The Holla Knits Warm Weather Accessories issue has many firsts: it's the first time a sock design has been included in the collection, and guess what? It's by yours truly, and it's my Holla Knits Debut! This is also the first time that articles have been included in ...

In the wake of finishing several WIPs over the weekend, I was on the prowl for a new project I could start in addition to the MANY top-secret projects which are currently on my needles. Yes, there are exciting things afoot (pun intended), and I can't wait til I get to share them with you! Alas, that won't be for a while...next month at the earliest, to be exact. Until then, I'll be ever-so-slowly knitting on my new WIP, the Spindleberry Shawl by Joanna Johnson. I'm using a skein of Skein Merino Cashmere Fingering in the Ochiba colorway; I realized that I didn't have a single grey shawl, and this just happened to be in my stash!  I was able to snag the pattern for free when it was first published thanks to my Ravulous Hot Right Now widget that I have on my phone ( click here to read my review ). I've never made anything with fringe, and it's not something I would normally be into....but for some reason I like it in this design. Bonus: the fringe ...

This weekend's fiber stash acquisitions proved to be a great motivator for my Spinning Spring Training project which I started last week - one pound of Dorper top. I'm nearly to the halfway point, in fact - last night I finished the first bobbin and started on bobbin #2! I also made progress on my #HKKAL project....which I think had to rip back because it looked wonky. Attempt #2 at the crocheted front of the top is looking much better, however:  I have even made some progress on my Berlin cowl, though I haven't been working on it very much because I wanted to finish my twisted-stitch hat. I've also been working some long days this week, so this project has been moved to the bottom of the priority list for my remaining craft hours, unfortunately. Hopefully, you didn't miss my post earlier this week about YarnCon and my interview on the While She Naps podcast . If you can believe it, I have even more  big news: I will be this month's speaker at t...