Archive for the 'events' Category
SITE LAUNCH!
Monday, November 30th, 2009
The big day is here! My new website launches today!
The gorgeous design is thanks to Julie Levesque of www.symposi.com, and I LOVE it!
You will have a MUCH easier time navigating the site, finding out about upcoming classes and events, and finding out more about me and my designs. Click on the image below to enter:
To celebrate the launch of the new site, I’ve written a new free pattern for you!
Mazie’s Mittens: quick 2-needle mittens
Pattern Notes
Knit on straight needles, these mittens are a great way for a beginning knitter to make handmade mittens without trying to use double-pointed needles. (Or for an advanced knitter to make mittens when you’ve forgotten your knitting bag at home over the holidays and have to borrow stuff from your mom.)
I used two colors of DK weight yarn: one for the ribbing, one for the hands, and a little bit of white to embroider the snowflakes. You could do these in a solid, use up several leftovers to make stripes, or any number of combinations.
By changing yarn weight and needle size, you can make these mittens larger or smaller to fit children of various ages and sizes. (Use sock yarn and US1 / US3 needles for baby mittens, Use worsted weight yarn and US5 / US7 to make mittens for older children.)
You can download the free pattern here on Ravelry.
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Preview my new WEBSITE!! (www.stefaniejapel.com)
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
Oh you guys, I couldn’t be more excited! My new website is about to go live! It was designed by Julie Levesque of http://www.symposi.com. The site has everything all in one place: shop, portfolio, workshop information, links to my blog and etsy shop. The best part is that it all works, it all looks great together in a unified, beautiful presentation.
You may recognize Julie as the graphic designer who created several promotional materials for Ravelry.com, such as Tshirts, brochures, totes, pins, and logos!
Here’s Jess in a tee designed by Julie:
To see more of Julie’s work click here.
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Taos recap AND Tshirt Class starts today!
Monday, October 5th, 2009
We just got back from the Taos wool festival. I actually bought yarn. I bought just as much as I could stuff into my commemorative tote!
The real highlight, however, was meeting up with some very fine knitters and dyers!
Yes! I made a montage! There were just too many to post separately. One of the COOLEST things was to meet up with two students (Sammie and Paula) from my online Fitted Shawl class! They had great things to say about the class, which is so awesome to hear in person! I really already felt like I knew them after having them in class for 3 weeks!
I also ran into Marly Bird, but didn’t get a dang picture!
Today is the first day of UPcycled Tshirt Yarn class, and we have 25 students! This is 5 times as many students as I usually teach here locally (I’ve said it before, this is a SMALL town) and it’s just a dream come true. As long as I’ve been creating things with my hands, I’ve dreamed of having a little shop with a classroom space and meeting other crafty people and developing a community.
AND…with the help of the internet…I can do that!
Here are a couple of photos of projects that we’ll make in the class:
We have a skylight in our living room that cast a pretty moody lighting today! I LOVE these pics! 
You can click on them to see more pictures in this set.
Posted in Patterns, events, press, Online classes | 2 Comments »
Spotlight on Mols … the Blue-Ribbon-Winning Knitter!
Friday, September 18th, 2009
A few days ago, I received this note in my Ravelry inbox:
I’m a twelve year old girl that has knitted your back to school vest. I took it to central Wisconsin State Fair and got Best of Show. I just want to thank you for making this pattern. It means a lot to me. Thank you!
Mols
WAHOOOOOOO! Congratulations, Mols!
Mols has graciously agreed to let me post a photo of her in her Fair-Winning Fitted Knit! Doesn’t she look great!?
The pattern can be found in my book:Fitted Knits: 25 Projects for the Fashionable Knitter
Posted in Patterns, events, press | 4 Comments »
We bought a house!
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
Here’s a picture of me on the back porch.
This house is a little 4-bedroom, 2 bath ranch house in an older part of town. It was built in the 1950s…and has had some really interesting additions and fixes over the years. It has a really funk layout, great bones, and TONS of potential. We’re so excited to get in and start painting, rip out the kitchen and start that again from scratch, and make the back porch into a lovely hangout.
It has a huge back yard with mature shade trees (not a ton of Southern NM homes have this!):
See the basketball court? Won’t that be a great tricycle-riding spot?? I also can’t wait to install a composter, get a garden going, and get really self-sufficient veggie-wise!
The room on the left has a fireplace! I was hoping for a fireplace, and this house has one! We may eventually put a pellet stove in there, to maximize heat production, but for now…YAY! Fireplace! You can see some of the questionable update choices of the last owners…weird tiile in the kitchen space, and ugly wall colors / no wall colors.
The carpet is brand new, and while I’m not a carpet fan, it’s going to be great for the new baby to learn to crawl on! So, that will stay for now.
We’ve got a month crossover with the house we’re in now, so we can get in and clean and paint this weekend, and then spend a couple weeks moving everything over.
This house is such a blank slate, it’s going to be amazing to get to design it and fix-er-up!
PS: Nathan took these photos while we were there several days ago for the home inspection…so that’s why he’s not in any of them. I’ll be sure to post lots of pics during the renovation stages, so you’ll see more of him then!
Posted in events | 8 Comments »
Fitted Raglan Shawl Hits the Road! (Video blog post!)
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
Hi All!
Nathan laughed out loud while I was editing today’s video post. I’m not sure what was so funny. Maybe it’s the fact that Mazie is laughing in the background of my moody pan across the lace fabric of the shawl…or that Mazie starts her jukebox on “Happy and You Know It” during my intro…or that I sound like a teen-beat reporter when I introduce my mom in the second segment.
Also: I SWEAR that I didn’t coach my mom at ALL during her interview…she just supports what I’m doing so much that she can’t help but shill.
I know these videos are totally silly, but I’m having so much fun talking “live” to you guys!
Mom’s version of the shawl will be knit in 2 hanks of Lorna’s Laces Green Line Worsted (210 yds per hank.) One color is Chagrin, the other is Courage.
I found a great tech editor for the pattern (The FAMOUS Jenn Jarvis, of Nipperknits, and formerly of Vogue Knitting!!) and we should be set to pop on that by the middle of next week. (WOO-HOO!) Since this is my first true lace shawl pattern, (I’m not counting the Reclamation pattern, Back and Forth Booklet, or the City Shawl, though they are technically lace…) I want to be sure that this pattern has everything that a lace knitter expects.
Are my charts industry standard? Do my repeats make sense? Does the schematic show everything you need? I want to do this RIGHT!
I also want to tell you that I’ve started an online knitting workshop site! Visit http://stefaniejapel.ning.com to learn more!
I’ll do a video post about that, it’s neat!
Posted in Patterns, events | No Comments »
My Big Interview!
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
On the way up to Durango, I talked to Marly of the Yarn Thing Podcast!
Have a listen, but keep in mind that I was 2 Margaritas to the wind!
(It’s the little player in the left sidebar of Marly’s Blog!)
Posted in events, press | No Comments »
Back from Yarn Durango!
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
Well, Mazie, Mom, and I had an interesting drive up to Durango last weekend!
We left on Thursday and stopped in Santa Fe on the way.
Here’s me teaching. You can tell I’m really strict!
And here’s a picture of the whole class:
(If you click on either of these photos, you’ll go to the flickr set and can see more pictures.)
Durango is a wonderful little town…and if you are ever there, be sure to stop at Yarn!! Kara and her staff are wonderful, and the shop is just gorgeous. It’s one of the prettiest I’ve seen.
The workshop went really well. Everyone left class well on their way … adapting a pattern to go from flat to circular knitting, changing the fit of an existing pattern, or designing their own sweaters. Everyone seemed to come with different goals in mind, but they all seemed to enjoy the class and leave feeling better about reading and understanding the fit and shaping that go into patterns.
SUCCESS!
Mazie really enjoyed Durango, too. It’s her ideal town…lots of dogs, bicycles, kids, live music, and STAIRS.
She was so cute! She wanted to carry her own purse (I put it on crosswise!) and wear her sunglasses and bracelets. She walked right along with us, not needing to hold hands. The only time she ran off was if she saw a really cute dog, or if there were stairs to climb.
We just had a great “Girls’ Weekend!”
Posted in Trips, events, press | 1 Comment »
One Lovely Blog Award
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Thank you, Melissa!
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Back from teaching at Loop!
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Hi All!
I’m back from Philly and stocked up on Alchemy silken straw *AND* a ton of cute fabrics and patterns to SEW. Loop is a gorgeous space, and I can tell that the clientele really has a love for t he craft, the shop, and the owner, Craig! It was such a great weekend! Here are some pictures I took on my phone…I’m still looking for my camera so that I can post actual pictures….Please don’t laugh, Yahaira only had the weekend to teach me this fascinating new phone / Twitter combination.
The classes went really well, and I had a great time meeting everyone!
Here’s a note from one of my students that I got in my inbox just today:
I worked through the formulas and I started knitting the neck. The 1st time
through was a little overwhelming but I got over it. This first sweater
will be my template for adding elements to other sweaters. Your class was
just what I was looking for!
Marnie
YEAH! She got it!! Woo hoo!!
Did you know that Craig and Laura’s shop Spool is *THAT* Spool? The spool of the cute stuffed birdy pattern(pdf link) that everyone is making?? I totally didn’t make the connection until I was standing in the shop. Wow. A brush with fame.
Yahaira, Jo, and I are making Chinese Coins quilts together, and I picked up a copy of the pattern and a whole bunch of 2.5″ strips with which to make it. I unintentionally picked out mostly Jay McCarroll fabrics for the quirky animals and bugs (Mazie loves animals!)