The Rippled Reading Afghan (Original Knitting Pattern)

Buy Pattern

My dear friends, I have some exciting news:
The Rippled Reading Afghan is finally published!

This pattern has been 7 years in the making. Not because it needed to take that long, but because it has been knit off and on, little by little throughout many important phases in my life (college, getting married, having kids, etc.) and by the time I realized that fact, I didn't need to complete it as quickly as I could. It was about the journey.

I started this object while I was in college. My blog was about a year old, and since I had nothing but my studies and knitting, I spent endless hours knitting this to episodes of "Lost" and "Smallville" with my (soon-to-be) husband. We would make our own popcorn in a large microwavable popcorn bowl (we still do) and spend our time as couch potatoes (yup, still do when we can).

I knit this during long car rides, I knit this on a vacation or two, I knit this in our new apartment after getting married, I knit this while pregnant, I knit this after the kids were born. I finally decided to finish this once my boys hit four. It was time. I was just inches away from running out of the last bit of discontinued yarn.

I found the perfect lace edging and decided to complete the journey. Needless to say, being dragged around for 7 years, this afghan deserved a good washing!

 I think the result is stunning. It is all about the yarn. I used a multi-colored/printed yarn that also variegates. I didn't worry about getting all of the same skeins. I actually bought a bundle of yarn in red-green-blue-yellow tones back when Yarn Treehouse was still operating online. Don't despare, I have found two similar companies that have yarn just like this, but in superwash!

Pattern: Rippled Reading Afghan by Anna Maliszewski

Price: $3.99

Yarn: 1500 yds of Yarn TreeHouse "Rhythm" in worsted weight, plus 480 yds in Jojoland's "Rhythm" Superwash Worsted weight yarn

Needles: size US8 dpns and circular needles (16'') and size US9 circular needles (19''), plus 1 dpn

Blocked Dimensions: 69'' diameter/18' circumference

Started: February 2008

Completed: February 2015

 I have gotten so many requests over the years for this pattern to be published, I have some work to do going through really old Ravelry Messages over the years!

This pattern is super-easy. One could almost knit this while reading?

I think the lace edging works wondrous for this afghan. This afghan was meant to look like a pebble was thrown in the water, and the water is rippling outward. I imagine that one could sew a button in the middle. 

I saved the last little bit of knitting for an episode of Lost, so the journey would come full circle. Pun intended.

Valentine's Day is coming up. Make sure you keep in touch with my KUAS Facebook group page this Saturday for random give-aways (only group members win)! What do you think? You like?

WIP: Afghan Border Control

 Hey All,
I'm still here. Sorry for the absence. It's been a crazy-busy summer, filled with reunions, illnesses and back-breaking landscaping in the front and back. However, I am picking up this afghan at the end of our long days and working on the border, bit by bit.

 It's a mesh-like lace pattern that suits the afghan well as the lacy waves spills out beyond the afghan body ripples.

Our property underwent a major change. We had a few dead trees-one being a very large Ash-and some dead shrubbery, and we basically removed most of the front's landscaping and redid it with new plants and some paver stones. I'm still trudging through the 5 yards of mulch that I bought for the front and back. This project took us 5 times as long because we had no idea that there was a foot of rocks embedded in clay soil everywhere that we wanted to plant or dig for the pavers. What a nightmare!!! However, even though the plants are not mature yet (it will grow tall and bushy), you can see that potential for next year's growth below. The Purple Fountain Grass (there's 5 of them) and Russian Sage should get pretty large in the future:

I've also started landscaping in the shady area in the backyard that couldn't grow grass. I can finally see the light to the end of this landscaping tunnel.

Spinning & "Ripples" Reading Afghan

I spent the better part of Saturday dying some more yarn. I let the spinning wool soak for a good hour, before I cooked it in a large steel pot full of various shades of pink and some purple. It's such a pretty color! I nicknamed it "Cranberry Apple."

I started to spin the wool using my brand-new drop spindle. My only concern is that to get it looking normal, you have to overspin, thus making it twist up on itself. Otherwise, the fibers aren't spun enough, for a strong finish. Oh well. Maybe i'm just used to double or more ply, and this is just a single ply.

I also dyed my FH (Joe)'s wool. He's a sucker for green, so I dyed him various shades of green. The food coloring company now sells "neon" colors for food dyes! I was thrilled. I used the "neon green" to get that yellowish-green color in his skein. The other 2 shades were mixes of food dyes. I'm calling this one "Woodland." He'll be checking up on this blog now and then, so I can't tell you what i'm doing with it yet. Sucka!! :-P Yeah, I love you more. It's even published!


Today, I designed my own afghan, since I've been itching to make some sort of afghan for months. It was going to be called "flowering out," since the texture looked like petals. Now, with my favorite colors, I had another look at it, and was like, "gee... you look like ripples in a pond." Ok, well, I don't talk to myself that weirdly all the time, but I did come to that realization somewhat like that. So, it's now called my "Ripples" Reading Afghan.

Doesn't it look like someone threw pebbles in a pond?

And no, you're not hallucinating. It is semi-triangular. The colors are darker in real life. That teal is a lot lighter in the camera! yuck. I'm still debating whether or not to add white after I do somemore stockinette & garter rep's. I'm a plain jane, and two striping colors seemed appealing to me. However, I think another color, white, would maybe enhance it. What do you all think? 2 colors? 3 colors? EDIT: I've already decided to just stick with those two colors. :)

The pattern will be out when I finish. It's already written up, but it would be weird if I release it, but didn't finish it myself.