After the success of the home-knit scarf (so soft, so warm) I’m trying my hand at a blanket. I was tempted to do a hat but I thought that was a bit optimistic for a novice like me, and I liked the idea of seeing lots of little jobs done in the preparation of one big product.
So I got some more wool from the market (blue, red and a knocked back green) and got out my grandmother’s 6.5mm needles. The tricky bit was working out how many stitches made a 10cm square. The sleeve on the wool said 14 stitches by 15 rows using needles of that size, but that turned out to be hopelessly optimistic, and I’m actually doing 14 stitches by 25. At that size, it takes me 25 minutes to knit a square if I’m also watching TV.
The trouble is, when we’re watching something exciting I seem to knit a bit tighter, as you can see when you compare these blue and red squares. The wool is the same weight and make, but the red square is most definitely smaller. That could make stitching them all together a little bit tricky.
Two squares of wool, but the red one is smaller
So far, then, I have 12 blue squares from a full ball and eight red from two thirds of another ball. With two balls of each colour that means I should end up with 72 squares, which will make a nice large blanket for sitting under on colder winter evenings.
Piles of knitted wool squares
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s brilliant!!
I sooo want to do this. What are you going to do with the off sizes when you knit them together??? I would stress on this so I am eager to hear what you come up with…
Hi Cassandra. I’m not entirely sure. I suspect that I’ll have more squares than I need by the time I’ve finished knitting, so I may be able to leave out the ones that are very different to the average, but even if not I think that a little bit of stretching and squeezing may be required.
Jeanette September 24, 2010 6:25pm
To save time knitting all the separate squares together just continue knitting but change the wool colour after the first block and change back again after the second block and continue as if knitting a scarf. You just sew the scarves together and sew in any loose ends. If you sew up matching the rows the uneveness in tension isn’t as noticable. It works for me, I hope you find this usefull.
Hi Nik, what kind of wool are you using? If it’s made from natural fibers rather than acrylic you can just block those squares into shape with some hot water and pins. Highly recommended, it’s really easy and you can make them all the same size. A good introduction here: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter02/FEATdiyknitter.html