Monday 16 April 2007

I Promise...

... that this is the last post in which I'll mention Lizard Ridge.

Here are the details:
Pattern, Laura Aylor on Knitty.
22 balls of Noro Kureyon.
1 and a bit skeins of Rowanspun Aran for sewing up and border.
5mm knitting needles.
4.5mm crochet hook for sewing up and borders.

Here's a (blurry) close up of the back showing the crochet seaming. I seamed 4 blocks into strips along their short sides then seamed strips together.

And here's the finished blanket (pre-blocking). The border was two rounds of crochet, one double crochet and the second triple crochet (British notation - I think). The seaming didn't use too much yarn, but I couldn't believe how much the border took - almost 200m!

Finally, here's an almost action shot of the blocking (with Splat inspecting my work). I had planned to pin out the blanket, then spray it with water until it was thoroughly damp, but this failed miserably. I couldn't spray it enough for the water to penetrate and my hand was aching from working the spray bottle so I reverted to plan B. As the blanket was already pinned out and I couldn't face unpinning it, dumping it in the bath, then putting it on a low spin in the washing machine, I left it where it was, soaked a bath towel and layered this over the blanket, making steam with a very hot iron. I then left it pinned out overnight to dry. This worked almost as well as a proper wet block would have and I'm really pleased with the results.

The finished dimensions are approximately 5 feet by 5 feet which presented me with real space problems for blocking in my tiny wee house!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! That is one beautiful blanket. I love the colours - so vibrant. You have a lot of patience to knit something so big! And I don't see why you shouldn't mention it again. If I made something as wonderful as that I'd be singing it from the roof tops!!

Thanks so much for the kind comments and advice on my Rogue. I'll investigate the three needle bind-off - sounds promising. I'm a relatively new knitter so learning all the time - blogs are such a great way of learning and sharing our knitterly skills, don't you think?

Happy knitting!

Anonymous said...

Its so beautiful. The colours are fab and it must have taken ages. Be proud of what is a very special achievement!