Thick and Warm

Completed another 4 strand baby blanket within the last few days.  Have to admit, I think this has become a favorite design for me.  It comes together so quickly and I don't have to decide on just one color of yarn.  I usually pick 3 or 4 different colors that go well together.  This time I choose:  Pearls, Delft, Pesto, and Rococo (see photo to the right)!  Something I noticed with this batch, Joanne's Craft has their own Home Spun Sleeve now, so no exchanging a color from one store at another store.  Drats!!!!!!!!!!

Something I did differently this time, toward then end, was to actually measure how differently each skein of yarn was.  I have knit thee blankets prior, with four strands, and each had at least one color way shorter than the others.  Assuming that the first skein to run out was exactly 185 yards, like the sleeve said, here are the lengths of the remaining 3 colors:

1. dark brown - 130 inches
2. blue - 199 inches
3. light brown - 958 inches

That is quite a discrepancy as each is suppose to be 185 yards.  I keep meaning to send Lion Brand a question asking why such a difference.  A difference of just over 26 yards between shortest and longest.

Anyway, back to the blanket, I used the same basket pattern as previous ones I made for a set of twins.  Six rows were knit.  I began a pattern of knitting three, purling 30, knitting three more.  The next row I knit all the way across.  I kept this pattern until I was close to 33 inches and knit 6 more rows and bound off.  Again, I had to use the extra yarn form one color and attach to another.  I ended up running out of the green and dark brown by the end.  Believe I tied the blue to the green and light brown to the dark brown to be able to finish and not buy more yarn.

So, with out further fan fair, here are some photo's of the blanket I made!

These always turn out thick and warm!  Know little "J" will like this ~ at least I hope he does!

Four Strand Blanket

Earlier this summer I knit blankets for a set of twin girls.  My original plan was taking WAY.TO.LONG.  Switched gears to size 50 needles and 4 strands of Homespun by Lion Brand.  This style of blanket comes together real quick ~ each blanket took about 6 to 8 hours and I was able to get both done in 7 days (woo hoo instead of months).

For the blanket, I knit 36 stitches across and continued knitting each row until I had 3 inches.  Then, I a knit 3 stitches, purled 30, and knit the last 3.  On the next row, I knit straight across.  Repeated the knit/purl row followed by a knit row until whole piece measured 33 inches.  Knit until 36 inches and bound off.

As usual, it seems like some skeins of Homespun are WAY under the 185 yards and some way over.  I've had to join the end of another skein to one that just ran out.  I've always had enough, among the four skeins to finish the project.  Just be aware this happens.  Think it has been in the "Parfait" color, think bank to the various baby blankets I've made like this.

 Here, you can see the boarder ~ kind of!

 Picture of the whole blanket ~ almost!!

Braid off the final corner.  Made one blanket more pink

and the other more brown.  This just in case Mom and Dad

want to be able to tell the difference between the blankets.

Hope you enjoyed reading about this blanket.  Really easy, once you get past the HUGE needles.  I love how quick it comes together.  I'll still make blankets with smaller needles, just when I have more time to get them done.  When I need to get a project done quickly, it has got to be big needles.

I have a new camera on order and hope to begin taking better photo's soon!  Maybe the next project will look better on here!

Happy knitting until then.

Long over due

I finished another baby blanket and passed it along, I think on January 6th.  And let me just say this will be the worst "how to" type post ever written.

     Why you ask?  Here's a few reasons:

1. Late in posting ~ check
2. Forgot to measure overall project before giving gift ~ check
3. Can not find the sleeves from the skeins, so no color or brand of yarn (a new one to me!) ~ check
4. Forgot what size needle I used (but can figure it out, I think) ~ check

If you'll let that slide, here is what I can go over:

1. I knit with both ends so it's twice as thick..  Not really to difficult to manage the skein of yarn.  Just as easy as if you were using just one end.
2. I cast on 110 stitches of "Blueberry" ~ the darker blue.
3. From there, I knit one side and purled the other to create a stocking stitch
4. Once the skein got close to the end, I unraveled what was left, found the "center" of what was left, and cut the ends to be very uneven.  Did this because I wanted  mixture of first color and second color before moving totally to the second color.  Not sure if I first joined the inside tail of the skein or outside tail.  In the long run, doesn't matter to much because you'll end up using both.
5. Kept knitting a row and purling a row with the second color (the tan shade) until just about finished and repeated the above steps of straightening out and joining the third color (the light blue).
6. Knit and purled the rows until I had just enough to cast off.  At some point, I figure out how much yard I need to complete a row and figured out how many more rows I could do.  Think I finished the blanket with 6 inches of yarn left!

Here are various pictures for you:

Alone the center, you can see where the Blueberry and tan are joined together.

It was a very pretty effect.  If I were to repeat something like this, I'd go for more of the two colors.

For the first go around, this turned out well though.

Love the overall look!  So pretty!

Kind of close up!

I'll see what I can do to figure out the size needles, brand of yarn and colors for the tan and light blue soon.  Now I'll move onto other projects!

What else?

Another baby blanket.  Nothing fancy, all knit, back and forth, 85 stitches across till it looked done!   How is that for a "how to"?

Here's the finished project:

Yes, there is some subtle changes in coloring where I switched the skein.  Once again the dye lot got me.  Worse yet, the color was on clearance and was GONE!!!!!

So, moral of this story.  Buy at least two skeins as you can make a nice sized "receiving" type blanket with just two!

Should have paid more attention when I bought because the color difference, although same named color, was quite noticeable.  Hope I've learned my lesson.

Neglect!

I'll be the first to admit ~ I'm in a dry spell for knitting.  It just isn't as enjoyable as it use to be.  It's become a chore.  The natural result is that a knitting blog gets ignored!

Since middle of July ~ approximately ~ I've been working on a real basic baby blanket.  It took me three tries to get the width correct.  First shot, it would have been about 4 to 5 feet wide, then closer to just 4 feet.  On both, I was wondering how many skein's I would need to finish this!  Finally found a number that was close to what I wanted!  FWIW, I did practice the 4 inch by 4 inch square and did the math to figure out the bigger peace.  For whatever reason, I had a hard time visualizing it in my head!  Weird, as this is just a knit stitch, row after row after row.  REALLY basic blanket!  That's probably why I'm getting bored.

Well, another lesson learned with this one on buying enough yarn.  I never would have dreamed that a dye lot could be SO different on Lion Brand's Home Spun.  The same colors are in each skein, however in the first one I used, the accent colors were in longer strands so the stripping is more pronounced.  In the second, the main color (white for both) seemed to be thicker and the accent colors much thinner and shorter length.  Not a whole lot I can do as this color was on clearance when I bought it and could not be found!  Argh!  It's not to bad of a change, but not what I would have wanted.

Maybe this time I'll learn my lesson!  :)

Hometown Baby Blanket

"The Big Reveal"

Just needed to use the terms from all those HGTV design shows!  ;)

Close up!  Decided to keep all knit stitches on the same side!

Bigger picture

The blanket measures just about 36" square.  Due to the stockinette stitch, it does curl along the edges.  I personally like the curl.

I chose not to whip stitch the edges in the tan.  I tried a few stitches and didn't care for the overall appearance of it, so it's plan on the edges.

Here's the post where I described the blocks, amount of stitches cast on and rows, color choices, etc.

Happy Knitting readers!

Sneak Peak!?!?

Do you want a sneak peak?

              I bet you do!

But of what?  What else would it be on this blog, but something knit (especially since I don't crochet!).

Okay, here is a peak:

Were you hoping for something bigger?

Something showing more detail?

Maybe something like this one instead?

Bigger "Sneak Peak"!

Okay, okay, I know a better picture of all that has been completed so far ~ which is almost all of it.  I really shouldn't have any problems finishing it by Thursday!  Below is the best picture of the blanket.  The last blue panel needs to be finished and the column knit together, then stitch those three blocks to the rest of the blanket.  So here it is:

What do you think?  It's for a baby boy I've been calling Todd.  Mom and Dad have the right to over rule my choice in names though.  ;)

Past Knitting Projects

I have another blog, on daily life.  Been at that one for awhile.  Here are some links to a few things I've knit and posted there:

9 panel baby blanket

stripped Hometown blanket

cable scarf (first portion of blog post is the scarf, the remainder is musing about life)

I've knit many other things and could possibly find more pictures too!  Will see what I can do on another day.

Baby Blanket

Have begun my first baby blanket since beginning this blog.  No formal pattern, but I intend it to be a 9 panel blanket that I whip stitch the various pieces together.  Each piece will be made out of "Hometown USA" yarn by Lion Brand and is 27 stitches wide by 36 rows.  The center block I used Los Angeles Tan in a basket weave.  The remaining blocks are San Diego Navy and Oklahoma City Green, four of each color, done in Stockinette Stitch.

When I have all the blocks finished, I'll decide if I want all the border pieces to have knit side out or alternate knit and purl so that the blanket has more texture.  As of this posting, I have the center block tan, basket weave and a blue stockinette stitch block finished.  I am about half way through the first green box.  I'm guessing I may need three skeins of the blue and green, each.  The tan only needed one and I should have enough left over for the whip stitching the pieces together.

FWIW:  there is a similar pattern on Lion Brand and possibly elsewhere.  I made a basic 9 block blanket, a number of years ago, that was made with Home Spun, all knit stitch and only two colors (from Lion Brand).  There, I made 4 of each color, then decided which color I wanted to have 5 blocks and which I wanted to have four.  It was from this pattern that I experimented and came up with the design I am working on know.  May play around on other designs to create an argyle pattern that crosses over several boxes.