baby blanket knitting style

[elmoandella]

hi, all . i've been doing ok with my knitting for you lot that were talking me through it. i managed to do a garter scarf in 2 different colours.

i'm thinking i'll do a baby blanket made up of squares.

trying to decide between making them all a range of knitting techniques i.e garter/ribbed/moss etc as this will give me some prractice of each. or would that look terrible and i should stick to one style?

I've just finished a lovely blanket. The trouble with doing mixed stiches as you sugget is that the squares may well end up different sizes e.g. 30 stitches of rib will come out smaller than 30 stitches of garter.

I found a fabulous book in John Lewis which was basically a book of blankets made from squares. I chose a pattern which had a moss stitch border round each square, and then a different motif in each square (hearts, stars, squares, circles etc). The motif was done in moss stitch.

There is a a pattern in the book where they do what you're suggesting. I'll see if I can find the book, and look up whether there are a different number of stitches for each square.

lol, i'm pretty bad at couting titches. was gonna do 1 and knit other to same size. terrible idea??

I did a squares blanket: knitted in strips and sewed them together. I think simple can be best if you choose six or seven lovely colours and mix them up.

"Log cabin" makes a great blanket too - see here for the original, (scroll down to February 15th 2004). I've done this one too, the changing directions help the blanket keep its structure.

ooh, littlefish, I've made that blanket too, if it's the one in http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blankets-Throws-Knit-Patterns-Instructions/dp/1843404710/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8& s=books&qid=1223845942&sr=1-1 this book!

whoops

yes - beware that some stitches are more thread hungry than others so you can't rely on the same number of stitches yielding the same size of square. i think you'd be wise to follow a pattern where someone's calculated this already than make up your own, as you may end up doing a lot of unravelling. unless you're happy to do that.

ok,

thanks for advice. i'm going to mess about with a few techniques to see which i prefer. and make it using a few different colours with same type of technique.

and keep my eye out for a book that has pattern for using different ones in same blanket

Littlefish, is your book the same one as beansmum's link? Your blanket pattern sounds exactly what I've been looking for so would be good to know.

Yes Norksdrift & Beansmum - that's the one. In fact, I sort of combined two patterns from the book. I wanted to make a very classic looking blanket, so I did it all in one colour, and took the motifs from a couple of patterns in the book.

It's a really lovely book.

Have you manged to do the purl stitches yet?

managed even, don't want you to have a mange

And let me put a plug in again for the New Lanark wol shop. They do beautiful yarns, silk and wool for very reasonable prices.

oh i've just found out a new wool shop has opened right here in bathgate. had a look today. but as its old fashioned type of town centre it was shut on mondays

not tried purl. but determined i will be able to do it. i will succeed is my mantra. my knit stitches are looking rather fab if i do say so myself.nice and uniform and got on with the changing colours through my scarf no problem. i'm using the stitch and bitch book for instructions on how to do the moves as it's very good at explaining. and i've got another one that i can remmber the name that is good for practical stuff like sizing and technical terms as the stitch and bitch one is in american sizes. it also has a really simple blanket in garter stitch with a border in ribbed that looks quite nice and is good for beginners it says. so i'm going to give that a bash.