more than lizard ridge

My grandma was a Knitter. Some may hem and haw if they can add that kapital K to their knitterly designation, but not gma. She's so Knitta that she wouldn't even think about it-- she just was. Every year everyone in my family (adults on up) would receive a handknit afghan from her. When I say afghan I mean it-- a queen sized bed afghan, usually knit in very very long strips and pieced together over the long folding leg table in the "dining room" (always draped with a rotation of cheery flannel backed plastic tablecloths, to which i spent quite a bit of time peeling apart under the table when sitting there -- but was never ever chastised for doing so.) There's this single moment I have in my memory, standing in the second/bottom floor of the five and dime in the run-down mall, my gma having me hold armfuls of yarn as she lifted and inspected each from the black vinylcoated wire display bin. "Why are you looking at those?" when she inspected each, turning them in her tiny hands. "To make sure the numbers match."

With that, she didn't teach me to knit. It wasn't for lack on her part, my sister sat at that dining table in front of the floor-to-ceiling window facing the olive tree in the backyard, learning knit and purl by natural light... the sun diffused by the "do it yourself" window tint coating on the window-- scratched and bubbling, a bit "wrong" where birds made their final flight into it. I greatly preferred watching westerns or Tora! Tora! Tora! with my grandpa instead, the tomboy in me cringing at the idea of craft. Every Sunday was spent with them (my father's day for visitation, but he worked graveyard and was often half or full on asleep on the couch these days, exausted from the night before and night ahead)... plenty of opportunities missed and caught.

With all that in my brain, I set out making the Lizard Ridge afghan for my grandma.


Lizard Ridge afghan
Fall Knitty, 2006
Started: October 11, 2006
Noro Kureyon color 116 Lot E
US 8 (5mm)
[just about 2 balls worth of Kureyon pictured-- about 2.5 "squares" worth]

When I decided to knit for my family, I knew I had to knit my gma an afghan. Not only because she was the only recipient who would actually, totally "get" the work that went into these projects... but because I'm ashamed and each stitch is a personal, silent atonement for me. I won't tell her this, but the anonymity of the internet lets me share this with yall... I threw away two of her afghans. I wish I could say with an honest heart it was because it was in the wake of cleaning out my closets from my college boyfriend who stomped on my heart and left me a shell, I really do. I can't. Bags and bags of things went to Goodwill and in them went those afghans I'd taken from my childhood home when I moved to go to school... I remember standing there over the bags of clothing and registering their weight with my arms (they were so big they filled my arms), trying to decide thru my own selfish tears and suddenly I shoved them in and I haven't seen them since. I just did it.

I'm ashamed. With clarity I see Sunday nights, gma sitting there at my grandfather's side at the end of the day after cooking and cleaning and errands and everything she did without a sound, clicking away on aluminum straights and miles and miles of dyelotted acrylic already knit in her lap for those afghans. I remember the seaming, the perfection it took. I remember how nonchalant she was about it, never boasting and never defining herself as a Knitter (she sewed, she crocheted, she gardened... she wasn't defined by one thing in my eyes except by being my grandma-- just what she was.) But even then, giving them away, I felt an inkling of wrong doing it.

It is almost overwhelming now, knowing what I know.

So if I seem a little manic about these holiday gifts, its because I *have* to finish Lizard Ridge for her (and the other ancillary gifts for my family, but this is really The One.)



I'm using only one colorway instead of seperate colors for the afghan, color 116. I was lucky to run into a 50% sale at Little Knits for it, I picked up 22 balls. This is my first time using Kureyon and I like it-- its just fascinating. I'd love to try spinning something like this, long non-patterned color runs.

I'm using 2 balls at once, instead of knitting from the inside and the outside of one ball. My LR is going to be a little different from everyone else's, can you tell? Another hint...



Instead of knitting the entire afghan in stockinette, I am knitting the non-short row portions in garter stitch (knitting every row). So, rows 1-3 garter, row 4 as written, rows 5-9 garter, row 10 as written, rows 11-12 garter. I really enjoy the texture of it, and also the delineation generally and specifically-- since I'm "only" using one colorway, and it is darkish-muted, the garter ridges are going to help seperate the color changes more readily.

The pictures show just about 2 balls worth of Kureyon-- about 2.5 "squares" worth. I'm also knitting it in long uninterrupted strips instead of squares, so I'll only have 4 strips to piece together. I think I'll be knitting this in the "background" of other projects, but perhaps not... even though I have other projects planned for the holiday, I haven't cast on for any others yet. I have finished the New Vintage Capelet in Noro Silk Garden though...


New Vintage Capelet, blocking
Noro Silk Garden, color 224 lot a

More pics when I get a brooch to secure it with. The Silk Garden did block to a much softer, drapier fabric, though I haven't taken it off the pins since wet blocking it to really see how much difference yet.

Thanks for listening, have a great weekend :)