Lizard Ridge-Part II

Yesterday I had the pleasure of knitting with Bernadette St. Amant. She holds teaching clinics at various locations in the metro. She is an amazing teacher with expert knowledge of knitting. She also designs for Malabrigo....what can be better than that? I went to her for advice on Lizard Ridge. I wanted to see what my options were for seaming and to see how my short rows were coming along. I also had her look at the sundress I'm working on. I always learn new things when I attend her sessions. I noticed my decreases in the sundress were very noticeable. I knew the sheen of the yarn would make them show up more, but I wondered why the designer had placed them right in the middle of the stockinette sections. A quick check with Bernadette and she agreed that they could have easily been placed at the beginning of the stockinette section instead of the center. So, the more I knit, the more I will start to trust my own instincts. Patterns might be written accurately, but they may not be "optimized".

I was very excited to show Bernadette what I had learned so far with the Lizard Ridge afghan. I did my own experiments with yarn-over short rows and really liked how they turned out. She said she usually recommends this method. I did find out that I am not knitting backwards...but actually purling backwards, since I am doing this with the purl side facing me. She showed me how to knit backwards from the knit side...but it just confused me and felt awkward. By this time I'd had about 16 hours practice purling backwards and had gotten pretty comfortable with it. My brain and hands had also memorized which direction to go for the short row section. So, I will continue to purl backwards on the short row sections. I might even place a video on the blog showing how I do it.

Now to seaming... I told Bernadette that I didn't want big bulky seams and that I would prefer to do the squares rather than panels. (I really like the patchwork look of the individual squares.) She said I can't have my cake and eat it too. Edge-to-edge seaming is out of the question given the weight of the afghan. My compromise is to knit a garter stitch border on either side. There are definately a few advantages to doing this. 1. There's no curling of the edges and they are nice and neat. 2. The seam should, in theory, be less bulky. To the left you can see a sample of the pattern with the garter stitch edge and garter stitch modification to add more definition to the block. I'm pleased with how this has turned out.

The block below I finished before I met with Bernadette. It does not have the garter stitch edge. I'll probably rip it out and re-do it later. It is colorway #209. It's so pretty!

Boredom leads to a new Obsession

I've grown tired of knitting purses, tired of felting, and tired of small projects. I feel the need to make something more substantial. Due to my busy work schedule, I was only able to start one new project between February and June... a Noni bag for my grandmother. A few weeks ago I heard my knitting bag call my name. After an uninspired search on the web I headed out to gather up the latest knitting mags from my LYS. This is where I found the sundress that I'm currently working on. Why is it that you can't ever be happy with just the project on your needles? As soon as my knitting senses kicked into high gear they were already thinking about the next project. "Hey, why not make an afghan?", they said. After searching the usual online haunts, I remembered the great Lizard Ridge pattern.

I first fell in love with Lizard Ridge when it appeared in Knitty last year. I printed it out and added it to my very thick knitting binder. I had no interest in knitting an afghan, but I loved the way the Kureyon colors exploded before your eyes. The nice thing about waiting to knit this pattern is that many people have had a chance to finish one. A quick google image search yielded lots of great photos of finished afghans. You can see the finished products here, or here, how about here, or even here. This one made with Paton's SWS shows a very suitable substitute yarn, but this non-Kureyon one just doesn't work for me. There's even the obligatory knit-a long.

This is just a small sample of all the Lizard Ridge information available. This afghan incorporates short row knitting to achieve the wonderful wavy shapes. For many knitters these short rows with wraps and turns can seem quite intimidating. As usual, the wonderful website http://www.knittinghelp.com/ has a great video to explain them. Here's another method of doing short rows that I plan to experiment with today. You can also learn how to "knit backwards" to avoid turning your work so frequently. The best explanation and video I found showing how to do this from the purl side is here. With every good pattern comes unique modifications. Click here for one of the best sites with lots of pictures, tips and modifications.

I hope this post will be helpful to those of you thinking about starting this beautiful afghan. So, without further ado.... here's my first Lizard Ridge Square.

New yarn!

I saw a post on Knitty about a yarn sale at Amazing Threads in Maple Grove. They had 35% off lots of different yarn including *some* of their Noro. I bought some Silk Garden Lite in colorway #2033. I got enough for Clapotis. I don't know how these colors will look either A) on me or B) as a Clapotis, but they are beautiful.




The only other project I could think of at the time is a Christmas present for my MIL. I want to make her a summery top. They had a few finished tops from Noro designed patterns in the store. So the hunt began for a good pattern and sale yarn to match. I came up with the one pictured to the right. It is made with Sakura. A really great Rayon/Poly/Nylon/Silk & Wool blend. I chose the fun colorway #5. My MIL looks great in lime green. As usual pictures just don't do the yarn justice. So, I had a fun and successful time shopping and I saved more than $40!

Knit.1 magazine "Sundress"

This is the sundress that I am working on for my sister. It is coming along nicely. You can find this in the sum-mer '07 edition of Knit.1 magazine. I'm using the Lion Brand Microspun yarn that it calls for in the colorway #158 Buttercup. I've read so many negative comments about this yarn, but it really isn't bad at all. It is very soft. It does have the tendency to split easily. To avoid this, just use dull tip needles like bamboo or Denise. I'm not having any trouble with splitting the yarn on my Denise's.

I hope the stockinette sections will flatten out a bit after blocking. (they are a bit wavy) I'm concerned that the decreases in the st-st are going to show too much as well. I'm sure my sister will like it either way!

Checking in....and work in progress

What a busy 5 months I have had! Our real estate business was really busy from January until mid-May. Things are starting to wind down for our slow season. Yes, June and July along with December are our slowest months. This is the first chance I've really had to think about knitting again. We took a road trip this Easter to Mississippi and I was able to start on another Noni bag. I just now finished that one for my grandmother. I've started on the sun dress (really more of a swimsuit cover-up) in knit.1 summer '07. I'm making this for my sister for her birthday. She's always going to Mexico for short beach weekends. I'm so happy to be knitting and playing with yarn again! I have a few more designs for kids in my little head and will try to get them down on paper by this fall/winter. I hope everyone is still enjoying the dragon scarf pattern!

Finally...Pictures

Here they are...still not 100% finished. First dress to the left in the heavy cotton and dress to the right in lighter weight cotton/acrylic blend. My crochet edge around the sleeves on the yellow dress is way too tight. I'm still looking for a way (non crochet) to edge the sleeves on the striped dress. Then I just need to add my knitted flower and I'll be done.

This is a photo of some of my thrift store finds. I love the yarn the pink sweater is made with. I can't wait to felt it. The other sweater is already pre-felted. I'm sure by mistake. And..I just couldn't resist the embroidery on the infant jeans for $1.50. I have a great purse in mind for the sweater and embroidered jeans. It'll be way too pre-teen for me, but I bet I can find some little girl who will love it. Top left is a little denim dress I plan to embellish somehow!?!? I'm trying to finish current projects and get reorganized. I have been very bad about starting a project before the next one is ALL the way done. I got a couple of really good books recently. The first one is Color Works: The Crafter's Guide to Color by Deb Menz. I'm the kind of person that can sit and stare at a wall of yarn for an hour and walk away with nothing. I love color, but have grown frustrated trying to coordinate certain projects. This book is simply amazing. I'm already looking at color so differently. It comes with color wheels you can remove from the book and take to the yarn store with you. It shows color examples in different crafts such as quilting, bead embroidery, knitting, spinning, etc. I highly recommend this book! The other book is from Indygo Junction. It's called Bag Boutique. There are some nice solid purse and tote designs here that can serve as a blank canvas for your own creative ideas. I need to ramp up my sewing skills....but I'm looking forward to giving these a try.

Thrift store finds, felting class and more

I got a chance this weekend to visit Crafty Planet in Minneapolis. What a cool store. They have a great yarn selection, tons of books, embroidery patterns, fabric and more. I'll definately visit them again. They also expressed interest in making a kit with my dragon scarf. That would be cool. Vickie Howell is going to be there on Feb. 16th before the big Knit Out event at Mall of America. My husband has such a crush on her...he has suddenly developed an interest in going to Crafty Planet too. Last weekend I took a class on felted flowers with two very talented ladies from Wisconsin. You can find their site here. They have 2 books coming out soon that are sure to be a hit with needlefelters. Check out their site for some very unusual embellishing techniques.Yesterday I hopped over to a local thrift store to search for wool sweaters to felt. I found two sweaters, a really cool scarf and a few demin items to practice some needle felting embellishment. I'll post some pics of my finds soon.