handmade by stefanie

There's no need to be intimidated by brioche knitting: this technique is actually quite simple, once you get the hang of the somewhat-wacky abbreviations (brk? brp? what??) found in most patterns. If you can yarn over and knit or purl two stitches together, you absolutely CAN knit a gorgeous brioche project! Brioche knitting produces a wonderfully squishy fabric that looks especially cool when you use two colors of yarn. Believe it or not, two-color brioche is actually a bit easier than single-color brioche because it helps you see where you are in the pattern. And here's another surprising fact about brioche: it's actually easier to work in the round, rather than flat! Here's why: when working flat, you typically work two right-side rows followed by two wrong-side rows, which means that you work the first right side row, then slide your work back to the other end of your circular needle so that you can work the second right side row across all of the same stitche...

When you think of Uruguay, inevitably you think of yarn....at least, if you are a knitter! Every yarn I've touched from Manos del Uruguay has not disappointed. I've been fortunate to work with several over the years, but somehow a skein of Serena , their blend of 60% baby alpaca and 40% pima cotton, never found its way into my hands. Until now! The kind folks at Fairmount Fibers, the US Distributor for Manos yarns, recently sent me a skein of Serena in a new colorway called Ethereal. As soon as I felt how soft and squishy this skein was, I knew it wanted to be a lacy cowl of some sort. What I found interesting about this yarn is that it's labeled as a sport weight, but the site notes that it has a "versatile" gauge. I ended up using smaller needles than recommended to knit this project, but I have a little bit left over and may have to try knitting a swatch on US 6 or 7 out of sheer curiosity! This yarn was amazing to work with, and in fact, I forgot that ...

I finished another hat! I was 3 skeins of Filatura di Crosa Samarcanda yarn to review, and decided they would be perfect for a fast-knitting hat. It's a well-known fact that I can't resist a green yarn, and I love the tweediness of the fiber blend (33% Kid Mohair, 18% Polyamide, 17% Wool and 2% Acrylic). Before I dive a little deeper into this interesting yarn, I just want to mention the pattern that I chose, the Hishigata Hat by Angela Tong. I knit a Hishigata hat with some handspun yarn (also green) about a year ago and have been meaning to knit another one ever since. Once the yarn arrived, it seemed like the perfect fit - sometimes the stars just align that way! I've always seen yarns from Filatura di Crosa, but I have not actually worked with any of them (full disclosure, think I may have a cone of laceweight somewhere in my stash). I've always been curious about their yarns, which are all milled in Italy. In fact, they are not just made in Italy - they ar...

When I first started knitting, yarns from Brown Sheep were my first experience of non-big box retail yarns. Well-made, affordable, and available in a huge range of colors, their yarn is just as appealing me to now as it was 10+ years ago. I knit the Arwen cardigan back in 2007 in one of their now-discontinued yarns, Prairie Silk, and it is probably the best-wearing yarn I've ever used for a sweater (it still has yet to pill). So of course I jumped at a chance to try out their newest yarn, Prairie Spun DK . First, if you aren't familiar with Brown Sheep, they are a family owned and operated mill located in Mitchell, Nebraska that focuses on sustainably-produced wool and wool blend yarns. They source their fleece and fibers from US sources whenever possible, buying the majority of their wool directly from US growers; breeds include Corriedale, Rambouillet, and Columbian. You can find out more about them here on their website . I knit the child-sized version of the M...

When the folks at Be Sweet yarns asked me to review Magic Ball, my immediate thought was that it would make a fabulous woven scarf! I asked if they could recommend some coordinating warp yarn as well, and they ended up sending me two skeins of Magic Ball in the Silver Lining colorway and 2 skeins of Mango Moon Yarns Di Lusso , a sparkly chainette yarn, in the Moonlight colorway. I hand't warped with a chainette yarn before, but it ended up being a great choice! I was a little worried it would be splitty, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. The yarn is very smooth and strong thanks to the blend of 48% Silk, 45% Viscose, 4% Lamé, and 3% Nylon. Each ball has about 65 yards, so I used nearly every bit of the two balls for my warp. Then came the fun part - weaving with the Magic Ball! I wound the first skein onto my stick shuttle and oohed  and aahed  over the succession of yarns, which the label describes as "a divine arrangement of hand dyed bouc...

I was excited to try a new yarn courtesy of Heart of the Mitten , an online store & yarn shop in Michigan who is also the exclusive US retailer of Dale Garn. Lerke Pluss , is a shop exclusive available in a gorgeous palette of 20 colors . It's an interesting blend of 53% Merino wool and 47% Egyptian Cotton, and it's made up of several plies which creates a nice, round yarn with lots of bounce - so if you find traditional cotton yarns tough to work with, this yarn is worth giving a try. Plus, it arrived with a packet of delicious tea! I really liked this yarn overall; the only downside I can come up with is that the yardage per skein is on the low side (87 yards in 50g). That's not a problem for a small project, but if you plan to make something larger like a sweater, be prepared to weave in a lot of ends. Having said that, I'm confident that the effort will be worth it. This yarn has excellent stitch definition and is super-soft, but I have a feeling that it wi...

In the first of many reviews and giveaways made possible by my TNNA Marly Bird Designer Dinner swag bag, I'm pleased to share a review of a new-to-me yarn that I have been seeing around Ravelry and instagram: hand-dyed yarn from Annie Modesitt. It seems like the current trend for designers is to branch out into other related avenues such as stitch markers, project bags, and, of course....yarn! ModeKnit Yarn  is hand-dyed in Minnesota in shaded solids, variegated colorways, and the ever-popular gradients, which are new this season. They offer four different yarn blends and three different yarn weights (lace, fingering and worsted), and the color options are always changing (you can view more info about the yarn bases and colors here on the ModeKnit website ). I received two sample skeins of ModeWerk Flow (they use the word " Flow " to indicate gradient colorways in yarn, and I think they are available across several bases within the brand), which is a machine washa...

After more than ten years of knitting, I can still have new experiences - even with well-covered territory such as merino yarn! This recent merino experience actually took me by surprise: I've spun with it, I've dyed it, I've knit with it, and I've even crocheted with it...I was pretty sure I knew all there was to know about merino! Turns out, there are four different classifications of merino fiber, sorted by micron count range . At the bottom of the spectrum is Strong Merino , which ranges from 26-22.9 microns; above that is Fine Merino , which ranges from 20.1-23 microns; next up is Extra Fine Merino, which ranges from 20-15.6 microns; and at the very top of the heap is Superfine Merino Wool , with a micron range of 18.5-15.6. If you're into numbers and wondering how these four classes stack up against other fibers you may be familiar with, here are a few for comparison's sake: BFL (Blue-Faced Leicester) has a micron range of 24-28, Cashmere goat down ...