Support thread from Arts & Crafts for the blankets

[tribpot]

We've been talking quite a lot on the main thread about getting the stitches right for a particular square with a lovely heart design in it. You need to be registered on Ravelry to see it here or with the designer's website (also free) to see it here.

The race is on to see whether any of us can complete it without going completely insane at the difficulty of some of the patterns, so we are having a (supportive) 'heart-off' this weekend to try and get it done without flooding the main thread with messages about it.

On the cast list so far are: GleamingHeels, MinnieBar and me, but all are welcome - beware though, you have to supply your own valium.

I've just recharted it to get it down to a size that will knit out to (about) 6", so have chopped out 4 rows of border from the bottom, 2 stitches of border from the sides and 2 stitches of the plain bit between the outer and inner border. So I'm starting with 29 stitches. I'd prob prefer to have 3 rows of border and 3 side stitches of border too, but as the square is going to be put into a larger blanket (unless rejected by our Blanket Mistresses Pistey and Knotty) I thought a slightly scrappy border would probably be okay.

Ooh Gleaming, very grim. But you could always have a look at the online services like the iPlayer and 4 On Demand?

Yes, you're right trib I could, and I haven't tested whether my HDMI cable will work, but I think it will since it just works with the TV as a monitor... I'm cross though as I have loved got into the habit of recording all sorts of things and series and can't remember half of what they were. Will have to go back to checking the TV schedules, but writing down the options instead of recording then and there. We'll cope fine though, just a bit frustrating

Occasionally when we've got two things taping we've had to watch something live and it feels a) odd and b) antiquated! And I can still remember the utter rage I felt when our old sky box wiped off everything we had taped, including the last two episodes of Lost?

Anyway. My next challenge is still progressing, but slooooowly, because I found it a real struggle knitting with all four needles. I'm on the circular one now though so speeding up a little. Still doesn't look anything like the picture though and is rather gappy so whether it makes the grade remains to be seen?!

Thanks for the empathy Minnie, I haven't knitted on four needles for years, I feel all fingers and thumbs just thinking about it, so good luck.

I have finished the hat for DH - am quite pleased with it, will put up pictures, but not right now as we need my laptop for HDMI purposes!

I think the important thing with circular knitting (on DPNs at least) is to ignore the needles you aren't actually knitting with. So only focus on the one with the stitches on it, and your 'roving' needle, which is the extra one (i.e. if you've got the stitches spread over 4 needles you need a fifth for the knitting). Typically the others won't fall out, even if they are slippery metal ones.

Getting the stitches not to look 'gappy' when you move from one needle to another can be difficult, you should pull the yarn harder than you think to make it even! The first thing I knitted in the round ended up inside out, which wasn't good :)

Gleaming good work on the hat!

Hat Pix on profile

Mins
trib is spot on with the many dpn knitting, the reason it is difficult for me is that I mostly knit too tightly, getting rid of the 'gaps' for me is about concentrating carefully and making sure all the stitches are really close to the ends of the needle with which you're knitting without losing any stitches over the edge

Sorry to let Team Heart down, but I think I'm going to have to bail on that flowery square. I've got one stitch too many and I've undone four rows which has taken ages and I still haven't found my mistake. I'm really confused as well as I can't understand how I must have miscounted so many times . Plus I'm not very good at tinking as I keep dropping stitches/polluting them back on wrongly, etc.

If I weren't up against it for time, I'd be tempted to frog it and start again, but it's taken me just so long to get this far? grrrrr!!

polluting = putting, obviously!

Minnie - I was gonna have a go at the square at the weekend just to get an idea of it. I'm still happy to do that even if we have to keep it in reserve for next time. No mere chart can solve the problems of circular knitting, though (hmm ... but could it help at least? I wonder ... )

I think the instructions were fine - I think it was just a step too far for me, at this stage of my abilities. I will give it a go another time (I will not be beaten by a woollen flower!) but it's taken me since Monday to get less than halfway so I need to crack on with something else so I can get it posted on Monday.

Down, but not out?

Just a strategic withdrawal, then, Minnie. Very sensible.

my 7 squares all done! I'm now looking for my next project!!

Great squares, Glaikit! I love the stripey one. Now, your next project. Let's see.

What do you fancy? It may sound a bit unadventurous but there are some really nice patterns for flannels and dishcloths on Ravelry - like the owl one mentioned above.

I also like a lot of Frankie's knitted stuff - nice, small projects to lovely looking blankets.

Or how about a bag? This one gets a bit of a hard time in reviews for being a bit boring to knit but I think it looks quite nice for summer.

Plenty of ideas, just give us a thought what you feel like doing!

Btw all, here's a top trib tip (extra marks if you can say that 10 times in a row after too much wine).

Don't knit three baby cardigans in a row without doing any of the sewing up or putting buttons on. You will go quietly mad wanting it all to be over so you can start your next project.

Glaikit you're squares are things of great loveliness!
Minnie a wise tactical withdrawal as trib says

as for *trib's top tip' when I went to help my sister put together the blankets that I have just temporarily put on my profile, I discovered that she hadn't sewn in any of the ends on her squares - not hard individually - but there were soooo many of them

Holy horse, Gleaming - those blankets are amazing but the thought of all the sewing in of eneds is making me feel quite ill!

Yes trib I do love them, my sister's idea and she did most of the work as a sort of heirloom, I just contributed a few squares. The children love them (they're sewn onto a fleecy blanket as backing and weigh a ton) but those eneds were a nightmare. I hate sewing up - I think that's partly because I am not very good at it!

eneds .. as you can see I was so distressed by the idea I lost the ability to spell as a result :)

It's just another example of their pesky-ness

I like the bag! I need a knitting bag as I'm just using a carrier just now. Not done a garter stitch yet though. Is it tricky? What wool should I use for that? Remember total beginner here!! I have no idea what Worsted 10ply means!

I liked the look of that bag too.. and I also use a carrier at present and it's full of holes as I shove the knitting into it when I need to hide everything behind the sofa for tidying up purposes!

Garter is usually the first stitch people learn - when I was a child in the dark ages it was just called knit (as opposed to purl). I think worsted/10 ply means quite thick wool, 2 or 4 ply is for delicate little baby things, I think double knitting (like the stuff the MN blankets are made of) is 8 ply or thereabouts so I would think it's like 'chunky' or Aran wool - it won't matter too much, the bag will come out a little smaller if you use DK - if you're buying your wool from a wool shop, they'll be able to help you.

A lot of patterns on the web are from the USA and they use different words for the thickness of their wool and sometimes for stitches, you can Google - or even better wait for trib to come and give you definitive information

Oh I can do knit stitch! Fab!

Glaikit I was kind've wondering what you had been using to make your squares - so garter stitch just means knit every stitch on every row - you're set to go - Hurrah!

Right, garter stitch, currently known as gayer stitch on the main blanket thread, is just knitting every row. There is no stitch simpler than garter/gayer.

The worsted thing threw me off completely when I first started looking at bag patterns. A bit like pounds and kilos, American yarn weights and European ones don't correspond exactly, although there is mucho information around to help translate.

Worsted is the equivalent of our Aran or possibly Chunky weight - although the worst that could happen if you used a bog standard DK yarn for the bag is it'd end up a bit smaller than intended, hardly the end of the world! Plus you could always make the pieces a bit wider if you wanted to.

The recommended yarn is the Lily's Sugar'n'Cream, which is an absolutely fab range of heavy cotton yarns widely available in the States but hard to find here. Hulucraft do carry it, though.

There are plenty of good cotton mix arans available too - this is one of my favourites (the link is to one of my fave knitting shops, but's widely available).

The Sugar'n'Cream worsted and that Patons aran can both be seen in this little item that is one of the things I've been sewing up this weekend.

Of course - no reason why it has to be in cotton! It's just a bit sturdier for a bag, but if you're making a knitting bag by definition mostly what it will contain is wool :) Or why it has to be in Aran weight - the Patons DK is good value as well (bearing in mind that's a 100g ball) and widely available.

I've used this chart for working out which needles from my eclectic collection to use. It also, I now notice has a comparison for weights of wool too, a bit further down the page