Welcome to the Kirkwood Knittery Blog.  I guess I'll start by introducing myself a little.  I'm Brooke, and I'm a fiber addict.  I'm also one of the co-owners of Kirkwood Knittery.  I have 3 children, Austin is almost 9, Caleb just turned 7, and my daughter Peyton is 2.  I'm also blessed with a wonderfully supportive husband, Jason, who is the creator of our website. 
I taught myself how to knit 5 years ago.  I used to sew and design clothing with flat fabric.  Those of you who know me will understand that I have always needed to alter my clothing to fit me!  When we had children, my sewing room became a nursery, so I needed a more portable creative outlet.  And so it began....
After spending a week studying a learn to knit book, I felt that I was ready to move on from squares and rectangles.  So, off I went to my neighborhood yarn store, Pennie's Place.  I looked through patterns, and became infatuated with a pattern for a child's intarsia cardigan.  Not a beginner project by a long shot!  But, I had no desire to make a scarf, poncho, or dishcloth.  Finally Penny gave me the best advice I've every gotten.  She told me that if I wanted the finished project, I would make the effort to learn the skills required to get there.  So, I bought 6 colors of washable wool, circular needles, and the pattern.  I struggled through that sweater, sitting on the couch with the pattern and 3 different technique books surrounding me.  Every time I came to a new skill in the pattern, I'd flip through the books until I came to a good definition of what I was supposed to do in real words.  I made it through that sweater, and my son looked darling in it.  And, in one project, I learned shaping, intarsia, and basic garment construction.  That was the only pattern I have every knit and followed completely.  I quickly started altering patterns to fit me or to add stitch patterns.  From there, I abandoned patterns alltogether, and now I design all my garments.  
So, in this blog, we'll talk about what I'm working on now, hopefully what you're working on, and what's hot.  Right now, I'm really into lace work.  I'm finishing a shaw, based on my duet shawl pattern, in the Habu Textiles silk.  This shawl pattern is a rectangle shaw, but it has sleeves, so that I can actually keep it on!  Right now I'm working on the edge.  This is one of those "Don't talk to me until I finish this row" projects, so I don't get much time to work on it!

Speaking of the Habu--we finally got our steel yarns-silk wrapped steel and wool wrapped steel.  Here's a shirt/jacket I'm working on.  This is the peplum, worked in stockinette with 2 strands of silk wrapped steel and one strand of the paper moire.

Here's the shell I made with the linen paper and the cotton slub.  The linen is similar to raffia.

I'm also working on a winter coat for Peyton.  I'm using the Bartlett wool, and I'm making a long coat with inset box pleats.  With all the new yarns coming in (boxes everyday it seems!) each day I seem to add to my works in progress!   
So, keep checking in, and watch the progress on all these projects.  Right now I'm off for our dying party at the store.  I'll post some pictures of the results tommorrow.