Stefanie's Blog

Beehives and halos and coils, oh my!

2010-03-10T14:59:00Z

I decided to get a little bit experimental with my spinning this past weekend and try my hand at art yarn. I really like the way art yarn looks, and I love the spontaneity that goes into making it, but I've been focused on getting my fundamentals down and haven't tried to make any myself yet. The Interweave store has recently started carrying Jacey Boggs' Sit and Spin DVD (you may remember Jacey's fabulous coils from the cover of the Winter 2009 Spin-Off ), so I took a copy home this...(read more)

New Year, New Resolutions

2010-01-20T15:39:00Z

I find myself saying this over and over, and you'd think I'd be used to it by now, but I can't believe how fast time goes! I'm still getting used to 2009 and suddenly I'm struggling to remember to put a "10" instead of "09" on my checks. Although it crept up on me, the new year still brings a really exciting sense of possibility. Each year I think back about what I did last year, and get excited about what I'm going to do this year. And of course, the new...(read more)

Taking the Stress Out of Holiday Shopping

2009-12-16T19:54:00Z

There are so many things that I like about the winter holiday season—twinkling lights, baking cookies, fresh snow—but holiday shopping is one thing that can be quite a downer. I went out last Saturday to pick up some gifts. I drove around town for over three hours and wasn't able to cross a single thing off my list! Long lines, stores that don't carry the thing you need, slogging through the slush and busy parking lots—yuck! Saturday was one of those days that really tested...(read more)

Snuggle up with Winter Spin-Off

2009-11-18T16:03:00Z

Winter might be my favorite season—snowmen, cuddling up with a book and some hot chocolate, lots of time with family and friends, and, of course, holiday gift making! The Winter 2009 issue of Spin-Off is on its way to mailboxes and newsstands right now, and I think it's a pretty exciting one. There are lots of great tidbits to keep you company as you sit by the fire and watch the snow fall. While every issue of Spin-Off is educational, this one really has a lot to teach. There's a fabulous...(read more)

Demolition Man

2009-11-17T17:33:00Z

Somehow I have never seen Demolition Man, even though cheesy futuristic sci-fi and/or post-apocalyptic movies are totally my thing. It was on tv last night and there was a part that made me laugh so hard I thought I had to share it. (Although it's entirely possible that without the rest of the movie for context this might not be funny at all to those who haven't seen it.) The set-up: Sylvester Stallone is a wrongly-imprisoned cop who was frozen and re-awakened in the future to bring down...(read more)

Respect the Spindle! Q&A with Abby Franquemont

2009-11-11T15:15:00Z

I did my first spinning on a handspindle. Like many spinners, after I got my feet wet I moved up to a wheel, and there I remained for a long time. I felt that while the spindle was a fun first step, it was just a stepping stone on the way to wheel spinning. After a couple years of spinning, and especially after witnessing a contest between spindlers and wheel spinners at this year's Spin-Off Autumn Retreat (more to come on that later), my view of spindles has changed drastically. These are fabulous...(read more)

Live from SOAR!

2009-10-28T18:27:00Z

I'm writing to you this week from the middle of a beautiful Oregon forest. The Spin-Off Autumn Retreat (SOAR) is well underway, and as usual it is a sight to behold. The beautiful Sunriver Resort has been taken over by 300 spinners, weavers, and felters, and magic is in the air (our dining hall (left) even looks a bit like the Great Hall at Hogwarts!). By day, the country's foremost spinning masters impart their knowledge to willing and excited students, by night spinners gather in corners...(read more)

Holiday Spinning and the Downtown Scarf Project

2009-10-07T13:28:00Z

I don't know how time flew by so quickly, but somehow October is here! For those of us at Interweave's home office in Loveland, Colorado, that means we've begun carrying coats to work—even if it's 70 degrees when we leave home—because snow could arrive unannounced at any moment. Cold weather is definitely on the way, and I've notice a marked increase in the amount of hats, scarves, and gloves being worked on during office meetings. Some of these projects are the result...(read more)

The New Spinning Project Store Debuts with Anu Kotli’s Estonian Hand Puppets!

2009-08-26T13:43:00Z

When it comes to projects and patterns, spinners are unique. Like the Renaissance master painters who mixed their own paints, we spin our yarn before we begin a project. And while we can make our best guess at yarn substitution based on the notes in a typical pattern, it's comforting to have pattern information tailored specifically for spinning. This is what makes Spin-Off patterns special-in addition to a great knitting, weaving, or crocheting project, they provide plenty of information about...(read more)

The Magic of Socks

2009-07-22T14:58:00Z

I’m not quite sure what happened (maybe I’ve been living under a rock?), but somehow I’ve missed out on the craze that surrounds sock knitting. There are so many people who are fervently obsessed with socks, yet for some reason I’ve never really had a strong desire to try my hand at making a pair. I’m not quite sure why this is—is it the fact that I prefer to go barefoot, or the suspicion that I would finish one sock but never finish the second, or maybe the secret...(read more)

Transform Your Spinning with Maggie Casey

2009-07-01T18:17:00Z

When you first start at a new job, there is usually some sort of training involved. Sometimes it’s just an overview on how to set up your voicemail, when to take lunch, etc. But when I started working at Spin-Off , part of my job training involved taking a spinning class (lucky me!). When trying to decide where I should take a class, I heard the same thing over and over: “You have to take a class with Maggie.” After taking Maggie Casey’s beginning spinning class at her store...(read more)

Knitting with Handspun: An Adventure in Duplicating Commercial Yarn

2009-05-13T14:32:00Z

In my last post , I talked about my belated New Year’s fiber resolution—conscious spinning. I’ve been making an effort to plan out my yarn before spinning instead of just falling into my comfort zone and taking whatever my wheel wants to give me. I’m midway through my first conscious-spinning challenge—knitting a project intended for commercial yarn out of handspun. The Interweave store has a ton of great patterns, and I’ve discovered that duplicating millspun...(read more)

Spin Control and Conscious Spinning

2009-04-01T21:07:00Z

Aside from the fact that I get to play with yarn and fiber everyday, there are some moments when I realize that my job is really, really cool. Enter Exhibit A (at left), a super advance copy of Spin Control , the upcoming Interweave book by Amy King of Spunky Eclectic fame. I’ve been looking forward to this book, and the other day I walked downstairs to the book department and managed to snag myself a preview copy even though it doesn’t come out for a few more months—I feel like...(read more)

Extreme Sheep LED Art

2009-03-18T18:57:00Z

Amy just forwarded me the link to this video - talk about creative shepherding! This must have taken an extreme degree of planning and coordination. Those herding dogs sure are talented! I also like how nerdily over-dramatic the credits are. (Please visit the site to view this media)...(read more)

Celebrate spinning during National Craft Month!

2009-03-12T14:42:00Z

While most of us have fiber on the mind all year long, this month provides a special opportunity to honor spinning and other crafty endeavors because March is National Craft Month. As a dabbler in many areas of the crafty world (in addition to spinning, I’ve also explored screenprinting, soapmaking, dyeing, quilting, weaving, sewing, candle making, and lots of other areas) I am a huge advocate of making as many things by hand as is humanly possible (at one point my goal was to have an entirely...(read more)