handmade by stefanie

As I mentioned before, it's going to be difficult to post about each and every holiday gift I knitted or crocheted this year, but here are a few of the highlights which I haven't blogged about yet...can you guess this year's unintentional theme? Dinosaurs for my nephew Ethan (patterns by Rebecca Danger): Monster Tissue Cozies (patterns by Rebecca Danger): Narwhal for my knitterly friend Lauren, which I apparently forgot to photograph as an FO before gifting (pattern by - you guessed it! - Rebecca Danger): I also crocheted several cotton washcloths and a few more handspun baskets to incorporate into our gift-giving this year: On my last post of 2013 this Wednesday, I'll share a few of the fiber-related gifts I received PLUS my booty from a trip to The Studio while I was in Kansas City last week!

I knitted and crocheted nearly all of my holiday gifts this year, but I'm not sure if I will get a chance to photograph and blog each and every one now that there's no risk of spoiling the surprise. There are just too many, and my photographer extraordinaire has been working so much that finding time for proper photo shoots has been difficult. Excuses, excuses....at any rate, I will be cherry picking a few of these gifted projects to share over the next few weeks, starting with the Star Wars amigurumi I made for my nephews in Portland using patterns from the  Lucy Ravenscar etsy store . Most of the yarn I used was already in my stash, with the exception of the gold sparkly yarn I bought at VK Live earlier this fall for the express purpose of making the world's greatest C-3PO. I had a hard time deciding which nephew should receive which toy, so I ended up randomly selecting three for each package, which I then wrapped up, juggled a bit, and then had my husband stic...

To those who celebrate the holiday today, Merry Christmas! Here is the holiday card my husband designed and silkscreened this year: It was his first year being in charge of the holiday cards, and his ambitious design took more than a little doing to come to fruition. You can bet next year's card won't be a four-color process, but I love how they turned out and it was well worth spending an entire snowy day printing. Here are some of the process photos I instagrammed along the way; it is typically my job to document the process as well as assist in any way I can: grabbing a clean cloth if Tyler gets ink on his hands, running freshly-printed cards to the next room to dry (which is always a challenge since the cats always try to follow me in....Tilly LOVES trying to walk through the drying cards). Whatever holiday you choose to celebrate, I hope it's wonderful!

Once again, there are a LOT of new babies and babies on the way in my life: In addition to our newest nephew and my good friend's little one who were both born at the beginning of 2013, a few (more) of my friends are due in the new year, my cousin is due in February, and Tyler's cousin just had a baby boy this fall. Needless to say, I have been doing a huge amount of baby knitting these last few months! Here is the sweater and owl hat which I sent to welcome baby Ritter to the family: Pattern: #21 Raglan Cardigan by Therese Chynoweth Yarn: Brown Sheep Serendipity Tweed  JHB Button Closure Pattern: Crochet Owl Hat from Repeat Crafter Me (free pattern!) Yarn: Leftover yarn from sweater + Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted Rest assured, there will be more cute baby knits to share in the new year! 

First off, congratulations to our winners! I have contacted these three folks to arrange for the delivery of their prizes: Carrie P, Sweetpurls and Ellie Raine Knits. Thanks to everyone who entered and shared this contest, and thanks very much to the folks from Stash2Go for generously donating the prizes! If you didn't win the giveaway this week, I hope you'll check out the Stash2Go app on iTunes ; downloads are just $3.99 and they're going to be adding some really great new features in the near future! At long last, I am pleased to share my finished Marin shawl! I love how this turned out, and despite some crazy-looking charts, it was actually a fairly simple project to make. I did run out of yarn just as I was finishing up, but that was only because I'd used a bit of this skein to knit a few rows on a snippet scarf earlier this year - otherwise I would have had plenty of yarn to finish this project! The yarn is lovely to work with, so I don't mind having a ...

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This is my last WIP Wednesday for 2013, can you believe it? I sure can't! I'll still be blogging next week even though I'll be visiting family for the holiday, but my posts from now through the end of the year will be focusing on projects I've finished recently (and not-so-recently) which I am finally at liberty to share. Don't forget to follow my blog to keep up! I am thrilled to report that the yarn I ordered to finish the Marin shawl arrived on Monday afternoon: Oh, look at that - the yarn for my next  shawl arrived too! I'm planning to make the Velocity Shawl from Interweave Crochet with those lovely skeins of Seraphim yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch which I purchased during their December sale (free shipping + everything's on sale!). I have no idea how to do Tunisian crochet, but I guess I'll be learning in the new year because I've become obsessed with the pattern and won't rest until I've made one! At any rate, I promptly finish...