Lets see how far we've come...

So I was thinking, since its American Idol season, its coming up on my one year blogiversary! Well, in a couple of months, but still, its exciting. I was poking around Ravelry today and realized that I have a bunch of projects in there that I made/posted before Bricklayer Knits began. So, I wanted to share :)

This is a baby sweater I made for Brady, its the Simple Hooded Cardigan (Ravelry link) on Lion Brand's site. Its a free pattern and it was my first baby gift. I made it out of Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Charcoal Grey. Isn't it cute? Brady was 5 months old when I made this for him, Kelly and Scott took him for his first trip to Disney and we watched their lab, Cody, and I knitted this sweater while they were gone. I knitted it in the 12 month size, figuring he'd grow into it, and he'd have plenty of time to wear it. Well... not sure what happened, (yes, I got gauge) but Kelly put it on Brady and he almost busted out of the seams! Ugh! At least he loved the buttons! And, I made it in a very neutral color, so its hung up waiting for his younger sibling to come along and get full use out of it.

Those are both Fantine, a French Girl Knits pattern. I made them both out of Rowan Big Wool, which I LOVE. The pattern uses size 17 needles and the yarn is huge, so this sweater is a really fast knit, I highly recommend it if you need something quick. I made the brown one for myself with long sleeves, and I wear it all the time. Its starting to pill and I need to stop wearing it so much! I made the light blue one for Kerri for her 30th birthday last year. The picture doesn't really show off the color, its a pale blue, not grey.

These were my first pairs of mittens. I actually did make one other to practice, but ran out of yarn, so these are my first PAIRS. The brown pair is made out of Lamb's Pride in Espresso. My friend Keely knew I was trying to make mittens and asked for a pair in chocolate brown. I LOVE when people ask me to knit them stuff, I know they'll actually wear it! The red ones are done in Cascade 109. Those are for me, and red is my favorite color, so I went for it. The pattern is a Berroco design called Melinda. Its pretty easy, I picked it because I had not yet learned to knit in the round but was antsy to try mittens. The ones I made for myself now need gloves inside them to reach their warmth potential, so I need to find a new mitten pattern and maybe start lining my mittens, too. Note: We have ugly light blue blankets on our furniture because I have destructive cats that shed a lot. You can see Octavious planning some evil attack even here in this picture. (Just kidding. He's the cutest.)

My first socks! I entered a half-birthday swap last March in the Libra group in Ravelry. My VERY generous swap partner, Tammy (her blog can be found here) gave me, among other things, TWO sizes of Addi Turbos long enough for Magic Loop, the Getting Started Knitting Socks! book, and a skein of Zen String Serendipity sock yarn, in colorway November. She couldn't have hit the nail on the head more with the color! I LOVED this yarn, the book was perfect for teaching myself how to knit socks, and these are still my favorites out of all my socks. Thank you, Tammy!!!

Just when I think I can knit anything, I do something stupid like this. This was an attempt to knit Anna of Green Cables in Cascade 109 bulky (again). I thought it would be great to have a hat to match my mittens. Instead, I knit myself a funnel. I started on a size 9 circular and figured that since all I had for DPNs for the decrease were 11s... that would be ok and wouldn't make a difference. I think I thought I was going to come up with this new knitting technique that nobody else would have thought of and I would be famous. Instead, I have this hidden somewhere in the craft closet abyss and will hopefully one day frog it and do it the right way, Magic Loop style, same size needles the whole way through.

If you're still reading this, thanks for looking at some of my projects! Hopefully I'll have pics of some of my new ones soon...