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.

I am feeling v. that I have said the same sorts of things as trib
Go for it Glaikit

Yes sorry Gleaming, we crossed in the post - I would have changed mine if I'd read yours first :)

trib we did cross, possibly twice; but there's absolutely no need for you to be sorry, you've been a total brick to everyone on this thread and the blanket one.

Evening all! Just in case anyone is looking for a little inspiration, I am just doing these, which are v cute.

trib they are v.v. cute, never thought I'd see knitted trousers that actually worked. Must be exposure to all those fifties and sixties knitting patterns for newborn outfits like <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=1950s+baby+knitting+patterns&start=78&num=10&hl=en&biw=1181&bih=567&tbm=isch&tbnid=kf50YocTNaVWKM:&imgrefurl=www.thisgirllel.com/2010_06_01_archive.html&docid=WfDwBssahmfliM&imgurl=1.bp.blogspot.com/__YfwK4DqANw/TB1FAi3T_sI/AAAAAAAAHw4/rCCIkefWXPI/s1600/il_430xN.142627482.jpg&w=413&h=607&ei=4RNyT8CmCdH58QOygbE8&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=293&vpy=160&dur=7291&hovh=272&hovw=185&tx=98&ty=171&sig=115256296493512973084&page=5&tbnh=170&tbnw=116&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:78" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this

Lordy, that is truly monstrous, Gleaming. Imagine them in a grown-up size and then run screaming from the building.

Yeah, they are pretty awful - but guess the had to cover a huge terry nappy!

Sorry I go AWOL in the week when I'm at work! Have ordered some Patons DK from McA Trib in green pink and cream. Waiting on it's arrival with baited breath!
Are you local to me Trib? I remember you saying you know the area but can't remember if you said you moved away.

Hiya Glaikit - no, not local at all any more! I used to live up the road from Linlithgow but now I'm in Leeds. I have friends in West Lothian and in Edinburgh still, haven't been up for ages and ages.

Well, my Kanoko trousers are done, so I can now take them and the jacket to the post office, although I will have to use the not-so-nice one in walking distance to save on fuel! A friend of mine went out last night at 10:30 looking for anywhere that still had some and there was not a drop.

Which reminds me, I was in West Lothian during the last fuel strike - being so close to Grangemouth, our petrol station was one of the first to get fuel again when the strike ended. Hope you will have similar good fortune if it comes to a strike again this time, Glaikit!

Wool has arrived! Only ordered it yesterday afternoon! Great service!!

Wool has arrived! Only ordered it yesterday afternoon! Great service!!

I'm away this weekend so won't get started til next week now.

Good stuff! It didn't have far to travel and they are usually pretty quick off the mark, but that's excellent.

Ok so I've started as I can't help myself! Plus I don't really want to have to clean the bathroom I don't understand this bit, although I won't need it for a while yet as I've only just cast on!

When desired length is reached and a wrong side row has just been completed, start the next row by casting on 3 stitches using the cable cast on and make a 3 stitch I-cord bind off. Continue until you have three stitches left, then work regular I-cord until the I-cord is the same length as the rectangular panel. Bind off the I-cord however you like.

Ah right, it's taken me a while but I've understood what they mean now Glaikit. All you need to worry about at this stage is whether you own any double-pointed needles. If not, you'll probably need a couple to do the top edge of the square and the handle. I am off to Google for the clearest diagrams for you but you can get cracking and avoid the bathroom for now!

Crap no double pointed needles. will get some. thank you trib you are my own knitting Mr miagi! Cast on cast off cast on cast off

LOL, you shall practice catching flies with your knitting needles, Glaikit-san. Although obv I don't think Mr Miyagi used Google to teach Daniel karate.

Right, in reverse order (this will make more sense). First of all, this tutorial explains how to do an i-cord - and why double pointed needles are the easiest way to do it.

Basically, you cast on 3 stitches and then knit them. Now you have a left hand needle with nothing on it, and 3 stitches on your right hand needle. Swap the needles over and then push the stitches from one end of the right hand needle to the other. Now knit the three stitches again, pulling the yarn from the left hand side to the right to start knitting. Just keep doing this over and over and soon you will have a fantastic little tube or cord of knitting. Because you need to be able to knit with both ends of the needles, DPNs are the easiest way to do this and for the sake of a couple of quid, I wouldn't worry about how you can do it on normal needles if I were you.

Okay, but before you make the handle out of an ordinary i-cord, the pattern wants you to have knitted one across the top of your work, casting it off as you go to make a nice i-cordy edge. First of all, you need some extra stitches. These are instructions on how to do a cable cast on - I've deliberately started these at step 3 as you're adding 3 stitches on to the right hand side of an existing piece of work, rather than starting to cast on from scratch. This tutorial shows you what it should look like and then you can follow the steps to add the i-cord edging to the top of the work. In this tutorial, though, you just stop once you've finished edging the work. For the bag, you cast off all the original stitches so you're left with just three and then you do an ordinary i-cord on double pointed needles for as long as you like.

Here's one I prepared earlier - it looks dreadful as I did it really loosely just to show the stitches (and in two colours).

Cable cast on

After the first slip, slip, knit

Few more stitches in

Only three stitches left on the needle

With i-cord

lightbulb I get i-cord in theory anyway will re-read the instructions and watch the video for how to actually do it as part of knitting tomorrow

Thanks trib

just had a go at making an i-cord on two DPNs -works really nicely, kind've like french knitting without having to find a bobbin and attach pin things.. will have a go with a practice cast off edge tomorrow - this technique has loads of possibilities

i-cord is, like all things Zimmermann, total genius. As well as the i-cord cast off, you can also do it as you're going along (for vertical, rather than horizontal, edges) - I've seen it in a couple of patterns like this scarf and this hat - basically by getting to the last three stitches of the row, bringing the yarn in front and slipping the stitches purlwise.

- she does a slightly different way of joining the two stitches together - k2tog through the back leg as we now officially know it after the Time of the Heart! I think ssk is easier to do though. - Glaikit doesn't need to worry about this for the bag but it shows you how to do an i-cord edge all the way round a knitted shape like a blanket.

agreed, i-cord is total genius, have watched the second of your videos and had a go - it makes a beautifully neat edge trib I am learning loads from you

Apologies for absence, real life deadlines and vomit have been getting in the way somewhat!

I still haven't quite finished my MrsK squares . After tactical withdrawal on the over-complicated one, I thought I'd do a nice rose, and despite using my smallest needles I'd got 2/3 of the way through before bothering to check the size - it was 7" and no way it could squish to 6". .

So I had to frog that one too and now I'm doing a nice, simple mitred square. Not sure when I'll be able to pick up again after that as I have an annoyingly short (but mortgage-paying) deadline, but I'm intending to knit DS a jumper. With cables!

Oh Minnie, what a shame about the rose one, is the pattern on Ravelry?

I'm trying to persuade ds he wants an Owl jumper but of course he is having none of it - ducks or nothing, apparently. Dinosaurs might be considered.

Minnie sorry to hear about the vomit, I'm interested in the rose pattern too.

The owl jumper is lovely, wish I had someone little to knit for, the children in my life are all approaching teens and I don't like knitting 'big' things - I'm a bit of an instant gratification girl and get bored halfway up the first sleeve

It was this one - as I am knitting with -shhh, not on the list-- red wool, I thought it would be nice - ah well.

One query - is it just me, or when knitting a pattern like this with alternate rows of just knit (or purl, depending) - do you get vertical lines where it changes from one texture to the other? Because it seems to happen to me a lot and it's rather annoying. I don't know if it's just the angle in their own picture of the rose one, or if it's something about the way I knit...