Project 3 of 52- Summer Shawlette

I wanted to make something nice for my very dear Great Aunt Irene. She is 90 years old, but you'd never really guess it. She is spry and spunky and someone I cherish very much. I chose a nice little shoulder shawl with faroese shaping. I made it out of a pretty silk/merino blend. This was a fun pattern and a nice, easy introduction into faroese shawls. She loved it and said she would pray for cold weather.





http://www.ravelry.com/projects/BrookeH/summer-lace-shawlette

Project 2 of 52- Summer Kerchief

It's finally summer here in Minnesota and that means it's time to work in the garden. My long hair is always getting in my face while I dig in the dirt. The perfect little solution is a kerchief.

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/BrookeH/whimsy-kerchief

Project 1 of 52- Anabelle's Baby Blanket

My brother and his wife were recently blessed with a beautiful baby girl. For my first project in my "52 projects in 52 week" quest I decided to make her a little baby blanket. I decided on the Teddy Bear Blanket from Crystal Palace Yarns. I used some durable acrylic yarn for easy maching washing.



http://www.ravelry.com/projects/BrookeH/teddy-bear-baby-blanket

Hemlock Ring Blanket

I decided to tackle the popular Hemlock Ring Blanket for my grandmother. This project was so much fun. I really enjoyed knitting from the center out. I used techknitter's great center-out cast on:
http://techknitting.blogspot.com/2007/02/casting-on-from-middle-disappearing.html

The bind-off took the better part of 4 hours to complete. Blocking seemed to take nearly as long. My husband is the biggest help with blocking. I really couldn't have done it without him. Overall this is a great project that I will definately make again.

Resurrecting the blog...and my knitting

I can't believe I last posted here in October of '07. I found out I was pregnant in August of '07 and the world seemed to come to a screeching halt. Well, it's 18 months later and I have a beautiful 14 month old baby boy.


During this time I did manage to knit a few things for my boys. This year, though, I really have the urge to knit some new and fun projects. So, I had the crazy idea to do 52 projects in 52 weeks. This won't mean that they each take just one week. That is certainly unrealistic given how slow I knit. But, it will help me balance out big and small projects. There are so many things I want to try and/or explore further such as socks, fair isle, intarsia, and lace knitting. So with the help of the Ravelry group I formed I will be off and running on a new knitting adventure.

Update!

Where have I been? Gosh, my blogging was going so well until I found out I was pregnant. Surprise! We weren't really expecting this, but we are very happy. I'm due around April 18th of 2008. (My husband's birthday!) For the first few weeks of the pregnancy I was overcome with nausea. Then around week 10 I got a terrible cold that turned into bronchitis and an ear infection. So, needless to say, I haven't touched any knitting in weeks. Morning sickness and knitting is not a good combination. I'm finally starting to feel better on both counts. My bronchitis is finally getting better and so is the nausea. I'm ready to finish Clapotis and get moving on Lizard Ridge again. After that...baby stuff!

My dog has also greatly improved. We certainly thought about putting her down many times. She was so ill. We had a three week window for the predisone to take over and for her to improve. She's done remarkably well on the medicine. Now, we are weaning her to a low maintenance dose.

Let's see...what else is new? The other day my husband walks in the door holding a gray hissing blob in his arms. It's none other than a stray cat. Great....just what we need. Someone had (more than likely) dumped her at the gas station where he found her. I wasn't very thrilled with the idea of another animal in the house. I told him that we'll give her a couple of days to see what she's like, then decide if we are going to keep her or not. Luckily it was warm out so we were able to keep her in our screened porch for the first day and night. It turns out she is a great little cat. She's probably less than a year old. She's playful, sweet, and has really made herself at home. She still doesn't like the dog, but she's getting braver.

Oh.....and after a 2 month wait I finally got on to Ravelry.com . Too bad I was too sick to check it out much. Today I finally added some of my finished projects. What a fun place this is going to be!

So, that's it for now. I'm looking forward to knitting regularly again. We'll probably find out the gender of this baby so I will know if I need to buy blue or pink yarn. :)

State Fair Photos!

So, as you may remember, I wasn't able to meet the deadline to enter my Lizard Ridge afghan in the state fair. It would have been a great idea if I had started the afghan in April or May. My Mom, Jon, Jack and I headed out to the fair last Friday morning. The weather was gorgeous. We headed right to the Creative Activities building. I took a breath and said a prayer that no one entered a Lizard Ridge this year. My mom walks in ahead of me and immediately says, "Oh, Brooke, there's your blanket." Well, pooey, so much for that. Prominently displayed in one of the cases was a Lizard Ridge afghan with a blue ribbon. Congrats to Debra on a job well done. The afghan was made in panels instead of squares. I thought some of the short row wraps looked a little sloppy and bumpy. Yes, I was secretly thinking to myself that my afghan would have smoked this one. I know...what a poor sport I am. Kudos to Debra for finishing on time and for taking home a blue ribbon.

One of the most beautifully finished pieces was Susan Rainey's sweater. (Everything is displayed behind glass, so please excuse the picture quality.) The pattern, yarn, stitches...everything looked perfect. The lace shawl below was also very well done. The quality of the work overall was very nice. Some of the sweaters were just stunning.

Of course it wouldn't be the state fair if the sock monkey knitter didn't make another appearance! The sock monkey dresses were on display last year. New this year was the sock monkey chair. Wow, someone has a serious obsession.