Unveiling Lizard Ridge

I know it took me too long to get photos of this up, and I apologize to those of you waiting with bated breath. I finished it after midnight on Saturday night, and just didn't manage time for photos in the following days, though I have been admiring it quite a bit, myself.


All the worrying about the widely varying colours came to naught, as I seemed to find a layout that made it work. One could attribute it to the fact that I chose the colours for the last 13 blocks consciously to try to tie it together, or to the fact that I managed a layout of the blocks that gave it a nice flow. Either way, I'm a genius and it looks great. I think there is a nice balance of bright colourful blocks to darker or neutral blocks, and I am very happy with how they play off one another. Can you find your favourite blocks in there? (Click for a bigger view.)

I went for a 5x5 layout, with 25 blocks total, rather than the pattern's recommended layout of 24 blocks in a 4x6 layout. Since each block is already a rectangle (roughly 10" x 12"), I thought that the 4x6 would give a skinnier, longer blanket. The 5x5 makes it a nice rectangle shape, and leaves it wide enough for two people to snuggle under.


As for the scalloped edging (would you ever have guessed magenta??) I had briefly considered coming up with some kind of knitted edging, rather than doing this crocheted one, but in the end, I couldn't imagine anything that would suit the blanket better. I used a larger crochet hook than she recommended, since the swatch I tried made pretty tight little scallops, and I wanted something a bit more relaxed. This crochet edging took forever, even though it's really only two rounds on the blanket. But so worth it, yes?

My HLM says that soon I'll be designing tour costumes for Aerosmith. Smartarse.

Sneak Peek

The seams are all sewn, so all that remains is to do the crochet edging tomorrow night. (Woo hoo! That's my kind of Saturday night partying!) I practiced my single crochet and double crochet this morning. I think I'm ready.

The seaming itself took forever -- I had planned to attach the squares to one another using a quick single-crochet, but that left Frankenstein's Monster-style stitches on the right side of the blanket. Not quite what I was looking for. So I ended up seaming the whole thing with mattress stitch: slower and more tedious, but ultimately much tidier. It also uses a lot less yarn than the single crochet would have. Thank goodness it's over.

While I don't have any finished photos to show off, today, I will give you a teaser: a blurry photo of the layout of squares, once I finalized it, but before I began the seaming.

It Begins

The Last of the Lizards

The final block is finally blocked. Now I just have to play with the arrangement until the yarn for seaming it arrives. This could get interesting.

And Then There Was One

Here is the second-to-last block for Lizard Ridge:

I am three-quarters of the way through the very last block, and have already ordered the yarn for seaming and edging. Care to guess what colour it will be?

I have also made some good progress on the Honeybee Cardi; it is now all in one piece and I am slowly moving up the yoke. Very happy with how it looks, so far. Soon, I'll get to pick out some buttons for a finishing touch.

Lastly, I am partway through the heel flap of the first Vampire Boyfriend sock, and am feeling good about how they are humming along.

Gosh, I feel so productive, all of a sudden.

Sick of Looking at These, Yet?

One of the great things about picking up my Lizard Ridge blanket again is that I have a lot of completed blocks to show off, so it makes for a lot of colourful blog posts.

Here's another one.

Creating Monsters

Oh how did I know that it would be a slippery slope, if I started knitting for other people? Now another of my coworkers wants a hat. At this rate, I will be in the hat-knitting business in no time flat. Maybe it's my own fault for making such a fine-looking hat, the first time. Eventually I will have to harden my heart again and get back to the selfish knitting, or you and I both will get bored with an endless succession of grey hats.

Speaking of monsters, I have a couple more blocks for Lizard Ridge blocked and in the pile. (Actually, I have two more done than you see here, but I am apparently knitting them up faster than I can photograph them.) Finishing the yoke sweater (yeah yeah I'll get some photos) leaves me a lot more time to work on the blanket, and it is moving along so quickly that I wonder how it's taken me so long to get this far.

Lastly, just in case you missed this bunch of monsters on Cake Boss... the reaction shot at the 1:18 mark cracks me up every time.

Now With More Lizards

Things are humming along, here: I have gotten several more repeats done on the Honeybee Cardigan, this week, and finally feel like it's getting somewhere. As you can see in the photos, there are a few more finished blocks for Lizard Ridge in the pile. I have also gotten nearly to the bust short rows on the yoke pullover, which means I'm very near the underarm, which means I'm very near the exciting stranded colourwork and the big finish for this one.


I actually sat down to do some math for the stranded yoke, the other night, and was dismayed to find that my initial plan won't work, at all. I was trying to work out a way that the repeat would be lined up in an orderly way from the bottom to the top of the yoke, but it seems that isn't possible, since the repeat itself is an even 13 stitches wide, from bottom to top. Of course yoke patterns tend to have a wider repeat at the bottom and narrower at the top. So I have had to revise the plan and I will simply do the number of repeats that I have room for, in each section, and they won't line up at all, probably, but hopefully will still look good. (This will make more sense once I get some knitted and you understand what I'm talking about.)


As you can see, some of the Lizard Ridge blocks are more... interesting... than others. If I hadn't intervened by taking out a big chunk of yarn in the ball, this particular block, for example, would have been alternating orange and green for the whole thing. Yikes.

Onward

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I decided to get down to business and finish my Lizard Ridge blanket, which I've been working on for a couple of years, now. I'd been in a yarn club to periodically send me random balls of Kureyon, but the club was a bit sporadic and it's been a while since I remember getting any, so I cancelled and just went a bit Kureyon Crazy online. ("Okay, this one... and this one... and one of these and this one...") As you can see, I have plenty of it, now. I have already made one (almost two) squares since it arrived, and I can forsee it getting finished relatively quickly. Particularly since it gives me a colourful and satisfying break from the two (count 'em, two) sweaters I'm currently making out of teeny tiny sock yarn.


In fact, it was Lizard Ridge that got me thinking about my plans for 2010. I decided not to go for Ravelry's 10 Shawls in 2010 group, but instead to concentrate on using up some of the stash of yarn and fabric that I've accumulated over the past couple of years. When I added up the number of projects that I actually have the yarn and fabric for, I was a bit shocked, actually. Well over a dozen pair of socks, a few sweaters, several complete quilts and a few more quilt tops. So my plan is that I won't buy more, this year. Or more specifically, I won't buy anything to start something new. I will totally buy stuff I need to finish a project (like quilt batting or buttons, for example.) My only exception was the Rockin' Sock Club, which I couldn't quite resist signing up for, again. I figure it will give me some of that "Oooh something new and pretty" that I will be missing, otherwise.

Also, feel free to give me yarn gift certificates for my birthday, this year. I'll really be jonesing by then.

The Slow Progression of Lizard Ridge

Once I finished Clapotis, I needed some simple projects for pub knitting (since complex ones tend to get buggered up when beer gets involved.) I pulled out a bunch of projects from my stash that will work perfectly. The first place I started was doing a couple more blocks for my Lizard Ridge blanket, with some Kureyon that's been sitting patiently waiting. These two put me up to the halfway mark on the blanket. Another year or two and I will have this one done.

What I Did for Xmas Vacation

When I went to my folks' place for a few days over the holidays, I elected not to take my Bumbleberry socks along, but to make a bit of progress on another project, instead. I had a few skeins of Kureyon lying around, so I took them with me, and made a few more blocks for my Lizard Ridge afghan. The colours are (for the most part) darker, earthier than the bright colourful ones I had in the first set of six. It will be interesting to see how all the colours come together when I have finally finished twenty-four. I have actually considered making an extra one or two, in case something doesn't fit in. But a part of me also wants to keep the random nature of the project, and just let the chips fall where they may. Ironically, when I blocked these four out and went to put them with the others, I found one more skein of Kureyon with them. Had I known, I could have taken it along and had one more block completed. Alas.


Also, slightly belatedly, I finished some personalized Christmas stockings, which I love love love. They are from a pattern in the book New Noel by Linda Lum DeBono, using fabric from the Merry & Bright line by Sandy Gervais. They were totally easy, and I love the pointy cuffs and the elflike toes. The only challenge was attaching the applique letters. The tension was all wonky when I tried to zig-zag stitch them with my machine, so I ended up blanket stitching them all on with embroidery thread. It took ages, and I nearly went blind, but it looks great in the finished product.

Now I'm going to put Flight of the Conchords in the DVD player and get back to the knitting!

Checking In

Okay I know it's been incredibly boring for my (few) blog readers, while I plug away on both the quilting of Requiem and the knitting of the Entrelac lap throw. Here at Chez Crafty, things have been moving along quite nicely -- I've been really getting into the quilting, and enjoying the process, slow and steady. Every day I run my hands over the fabric of something I constructed, and I made hundreds of tiny little stitches to hold it together. I get to look at beautiful designs like this one, and make a little frame of quilting around each one to show it off. It's been very relaxing and gives me a real feeling of accomplishment.

The lap throw is a bit less appealing, at the moment. I have pulled an old Instant Gratification Project out of the pile to put to use my new skill at knitting backwards. It has been a very handy skill with the entrelac, since it means I don't have to turn the work to purl a wrongside row every eight stitches. I actually do the purling from the front of the work, left to right. I realized one day that I have another project which is perfect for this...

Ages ago, I started a Lizard Ridge lap throw (yes, another blanket project -- get the feeling I'm a chilly soul?) which I have been progressing on slowly, mostly due to the fact that I haven't bought all of the skeins I need, from the outset, but instead joined a yarn club that sends me a Kureyon skein every 6 weeks or so. Not only does it make the yarn colours more random than if I was choosing them deliberately, but it also seems more affordable than buying them all at once. Yarn Math. So here you see the first six completed blocks for my Lizard Ridge. I have two more skeins, so may do another block or two soon, but for now, I just wanted to give you a bit of eye candy to tide you over until I get something else to show you.

I hope you are progressing with your projects, and feeling some accomplishment as well...