Winner of Knitwit's Lizard Ridge afghan!

CONGRATULATIONS Knitwits! Our combined efforts, creativity, and talent made a beautiful afghan that we raffled off for Covenant House. At last count, there was approximately $1350 in proceeds from raffle tickets and donations. A tremendous success. I can’t wait to see what our next project will be.

Raffle winner: Robin Dutton

A new link: Ravelry is a knit and crochet community

Hello all,

This is a link Sheryl pointed us to. Ravelry.

Ravelry is a free site. There are currently 543,850 registered users.

ORGANIZE - Organize your projects, stash, needles, and more.

SHARE - Show off your work. Share your ideas and techniques.

DISCOVER - Find new designs & yarns. Make friends. Try new things.

Cheers, Meg

New yarn store in Victoria BC: Button & Needlework Boutique

Button & Needlework Boutique

This shop has been around for 12 years apparently, but only branched out into yarn a couple of years ago. It stocks buttons, embroidery materials and a lot of yarns you don't see all that commonly, like Ella Rae and Spud & Chloe, and some local stuff too - as well as colours that some of our locals don't have (ie, Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed in two different shades of pink! :)

Best of all, the shop has a toll-free order number, reasonable shipping rates and super friendly and helpful staff. A great place to consider if you need something desperately and the local shops cannot or won't supply.

http://www.buttonedup.com

New yarn store

Gina Brown's Yarns opened this month and in Sara's neighbourhood.

Address: 3424 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC (3 blocks east of Alma Street).

http://ginabrownsyarn.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

Kristina ~ " ... I'm the granddaughter of Gina Brown, and have decided to finally take the plunge and open my own location of our family yarn store in Vancouver ..."

Vacation knitting

Aloha Knitwit friends ~ Meg & Shirley

Tunisian Crochet blanket

From Shawnna: Here's the Tunisian crochet blanket that I'm doing - the technique is available for free from Stitchdiva here. And also here. The Stitchdiva actually produces the pattern I used - I used super bulky yarn, 19 mm Tunisian crochet hook and cast on...95 stitches (heheh I only have 93 now). It's fairly narrow so if I was going to do it again I'd probably cast on about 113....

Crochet Mousey

Hello Knitwits,
Here's the crochet mousey Shawnna emailed the group. From the Crochetville website. "The only thing I did differently since I wanted to give it to my cats was to embroider the eyes, rather than putting plastic eyes on it. I filled it with scrap bits of bubble wrap which makes the mouse crunchy."
Cheers & thanks Shawnna!
Meg

Wrist Warmers aka Fingerless Gloves

Hello Knitwits,
This is a free pattern that a friend gave me. I made one pair for myself last winter and wore them everyday. Fun to make, and more fun to wear ~ basically it's a rectangle that you sew into a tube, leaving a hole for your thumb. Fingerless glove pattern from Crystal Palace Yarns.
Cheers, Meg

Cloud Cascade Scarf

Hello Knitwits, Regina found this wonderful free Cloud Cascade scarf pattern to add to our collection. You must join the Lion Brand community first, but it's free. Have fun! And thanks Regina ~ let's keep adding to our pattern collection, Knitwits! :)

Ruffle Scarf pattern (Caron yarns)

Here's the pattern for the Merry's ruffled scarf.

Fun crochet

Shawnna told us about this fun, modern looking crochet that has become very popular. She brought in 2 books for us to see. Her cat loved the little mouse she made.
Amigurumi!
Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Lacy Crochet

Lizard Ridge project being prepped for sewing

The Knitwits met today to organise and strategized how to put our afghan together. Lots of collaboration and a sewing lesson. Seven of us took 4 squares to sew together, and will meet again soon to sew the 7 rows together. Next step is to crochet a border. Getting exciting!
Photos: Our squares, #1 pattern, #2 pattern (selected for its wavy look), pinning coordinate labels, and our coordinate list.

Long tail cast-on technique

At Edita's Introduction to Knitting - Part 1 course we learned the long tail cast on technique. This technique is leaves a lovely finished & stretchable edge. Here are two videos to demonstrate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwCrIwSOqlQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f2LXGqLCPs

Yarn Bombers Book Launch

The book launch for the Yarn Bombers was at ThreeBags Full on Sept 17, 09. Here's a link to the book… http://www.arsenalpulp.com/bookinfo.php?index=294

And here are photos:

I spotted guerilla knitting at my Community Garden at Davie & Burrard

Hi everyone,
It was so cool, on my way home last night I walked by my gorgeous Community Garden [http://vancouverpublicspace.ca/] and spotted something bright and wooly. The guerilla knitters had been there, and they had left behind, on the fences, brightly coloured knitted sleeves! Looked great and made me smile.
Cheers, Meg

Crochet Class

Hi everyone,

Well, it seems like crochet embellishments are the hottest thing in knitting right now - our blanket is a good example....I don't know how to crochet at all and so I've just signed up for a crochet class that's starting up at the end of the month at Urban Yarns on 10th. If anyone else is interested, it's 4 Monday evenings: May 25; June 1,8 & 15, from 7 - 9pm, $95.

Link: http://www.urbanyarns.ca/index.php

Cheers,
Shawnna

New UBC Knitter's site

From Regina:

Also, just to let you know, there is a new UBC Knitter's site on Ravelry:

http://www.ravelry.com/groups/ubc-knitters

Photos from Wed April 8th knitwit meeting - LPC

2008-Dec Library knitting for Covenant House

Hello everyone,

2008-Dec Library knitting for Covenant House
The Library fundraised for Covenant House this December and shipped 10 boxes of goods and a cheque for $652.00. The knitting group made approx 25 hats, 35 scarves and 1 pair of socks! Good clean fun, no? My accomplishment was one long green scarf using the biggest needles I've ever tried to wrangle - good thing I was surrounded by wonderful coaches.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=hx9vsmt.77qsqndt&x=0&y=-vqqgua&localeid=en_US

We are currently sponsored by the HR Committee to knit an afghan, auction in Dec and give the proceeds to charity.

Attached are the fingerless gloves we chatted about.

Megan

Ribbed Scarf

Hi all

Here is the ribbed scarf that I am making. You need about 4.5mm needles, and it takes about 2 50gm balls of yarn. Laura and Kat have finished scarves in this pattern!

Number of stitches: you need a multiple of 4 stitches plus one stitch, so: 25, 29, 33, 37 etc.
Cast on 25 stitches (or more, above).
Row 1: K2, P2, repeat to end, end with K1.
Repeat Row 1 until scarf is long enough.
Cast off all stitches.

Lunch knitting Mar 25 2009

Hi everyone

Here are photos of the Lizard Ridge squares, lots done, from out lunch meeting yesterday.

cheers
Merry

Hi everyone,

As promised, here's the pattern for the scarf I showed today: http://www.angelyarns.com/free-patterns/noro-scarf.php.

I used whatever size needle recommended on the yarn label - I think it's 5mm. I'm very sorry - I cannot remember how many rows I did to get the width of the scarf that I made. If anyone's interested I'd be happy to do a demo at next week's session.

Here also is the link to the Cascade yarn site, with all the colours available in the 220, 100% wool recommended for the seaming/crochet border of our quilt: http://www.cascadeyarns.com/cascade-220.asp

Let's start thinking about border colours!

Cheers,

Shawnna

Next Afghan?

Thought you might like to see a good idea for our next project: looks easy!

http://www.therunningyarn.com/2008/pretty-punk-blanket-free-pattern.html

cheers

Merry

Lizard Ridge Feb 25 09

Hi all

Thought I would share photos from our last Wed meeting.

Cheers
Merry

Guerilla Knitters in Vancouver

Hi Knitwits,

Here is a funny take on knitting. One of the gals in the article works at UBC!

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Guerrilla+knitters+cosy+craftivist+message/1344323/story.html
--
Sara Jane McGillivray

Shawnna Parlongo to knitwits-ubc

Hi everyone,

Something came up a few times in today's session so I thought I'd better clarify. This pattern asks you to do 4 twelve row repeats to make a complete square BUT on the fourth and final repeat the pattern asks you to do all 12 rows, then knit one more row, and then bind-off purl-wise. This extra row at the end compensates for the cast-on row - ensuring that the square stays square.

I hope that's clear and that I haven't confused you more!!

Cheers,
Shawnna

Knitwits: Video clips, updated pattern chart, needle request, next meeting

Hello Knitwits,

We had an excellent meeting today in LPC. A lot of one-on-one lessons were given, and I believe the dim lights are beginning to get bright!

We shot the following two clips today to be helpful - Sara is teaching.

Wrap & Turn knit stitch from the purl side:



Picking up your Wraps from the purl side (re-loaded):




Additional clips found on YouTube:








Attached is Sara’s Lizard Ridge chart. Corrections have been made and saved in excel.


If anyone has an extra paid of 5mm needles, Sharon Yee needs a pair.

If anyone needs some easy practice yarn, please let me know.

Next meeting: KR 7 lunchroom 12 noon.

Lizard Ridge pattern has been nicknamed the Booby pattern. Check out the boobies below!

Cheers, Meg

hope this gives you a different way of doing things



Regina

Hi Everyone!

As promised, here's the link to the blog with the wrap tutorials. Note, they aren't part of the blog entry - they are links to external sites - up in the top right corner. The first one has photos, the second one has written instructions. Both are good to check out: http://lizardridgeknitalong.blogspot.com/

Also, see the same blog, 2006 archive with the Author's own instructions on the wraps and fixing the wraps. Scroll down to the entry for September 21st: http://lizardridgeknitalong.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html


Cheers!

Shawnna

Good morning everyone!

I have set up a group email list to make chatting easier:
knitwits-ubc@interchange.ubc.ca

We had our first meeting yesterday at noon KR 7. Introductions were made and an intro to our project was given by Shawnna. Was great!

Some notes & tips:

- our pattern will be a challenge for beginners but we have until Dec to complete and we have rock-star knitters amongst us to help.

- the yarn we are using is delicate and breaks easily; it was suggested that you start learning the pattern with a different, more study yarn; I have an extra ball of acrylic if anyone would like to use it.

- the pattern listed on Knitty website is missing some key instructions [http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall06/PATTlizardridge.html] but Shawnna is going to email the group the complete instructions (or how to link to them)

- Sara has created a wonderful grid to help you work this pattern and will send it to us

Next meeting: Wed Feb 11th at 12noon in the LPC 2nd floor lunchroom.

If you come through the front doors of LPC, and up the stairs, there’s an elevator to your right. Take it to the 2nd floor, down the hallway on the right, past the washrooms and straight into the lunchroom.

If you get lost your fellow Knitwits work on the 1st floor and will help you out.

Cheers, Megan

Hi All,

Here is some more information from Shawnna about the Lizard Rdige project.

Lot's of inspiring pictures!! It looks as though too much blocking and pressing would flatten the bumpy bits. Might be a good idea to just block around the edges.

Anyway, we've got 7 knitters on board for this project so far. It's going to be so wonderful, and a great fund raising opportunity!!

Sara

Shawnna Parlongo wrote:

Hi Sara,

Yeah, I'd happily do a demo for people! I'll try to properly block my square tonight so we can work out just how hard that is. I also found some online help:

This great blog that has links to short-row knitting tutorials as well: http://lizardridgeknitalong.blogspot.com/

Flickr photos that show the progress of the project - and yes they all look totally warped before blocking! :

A great knitting project!!

Hello Library Knitters,

Our knitting for Covenant House was a big success - valuable to Covenant House and fun for us.

Shawnna Parlongo has great idea for a prject that we could all do together. We talked a bit about this during one of the Koerner knit sessions in November. We could all knit squares, stitch them together and have a beautiful afghan that we could raffle off and send the raffle proceeds to a local charity. If everyone on this email knit one or two squares we could probably make two afghans.

Shawnna found a fantastic pattern that uses yarn available at Urban Yarns (and probably other places too). Have a look at the pattern below. Each square requires 1 ball of Noro Kureyon, $9.95 each.
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall06/PATTlizardridge.html

It would be great if we got busy with this project before the Fall. We'd have more time to show it off and sell lots of raffle tickets!!

If you decide to particpate, please choose any of the Noro Kureyon colours. The multi coloured result will be gorgeous!! Shawnna has worked out a couple of difficult bits on the pattern, so please consult her before you start.

Lastly, we could ask the Human Resources Committee for funding from their 'Funding for Community Event's' pot-of-gold!!

Let me know what you think..............Sara.