Novice knitter Q

[turboteal]

Hi, I'm hoping you guys can help. I started knitting last month and am loving it, have done a couple scarfs and want to try a baby blanket. The yarn I want to use is a medium weight (4) and recommends size 7 (US) needles. The pattern I found that I want to use is alternating stripes of seed, garter, and stockinette stitch; in the original they use a bulky yarn with size 11 US circular needles with a 32 inch cable to make a 33.5 x 34.5 in blanket. I looked around and found size 7 circular needles but the cable is 29 inches. Is that too short to make a 34 x 34 blanket? Or even 36 x 36? Just wondering if I should try it on these or try to find a set of needles with a longer cable.

Also I'm guessing I need to do a swatch to figure out how many stitches to cast on in the first place, since my yarn is different from the pattern, yes? Can I just do like 10 or 15 stitches and then same number of rows to see how many inches that is and multiply by my desired length? Does it matter which stitch I use for the swatch? (Blanket has seed stitch border all around).

Thanks!

[statgirl]

A circular needle can hold up to 30-40% of its length again if you cram the stitches.  A 29" will probably be okay, but it is personal preference.  I would attempt it (and then buy a longer one to knit onto if you find it is too annoying).  I knit a lot of stuff crammed together (I prefer this to too much space).

I don't swatch often (bad knitter!), but when I do, I knit enough stitches to be at least four inches wide to account for edge variations.  I also would knit a few inches in each stitch to make sure that there are no major changes to gauge between stitches for you.

Remember when you scale up the pattern to confirm your stitch count for the seed stitch (so that it is really seed stitch and not accidental ribs like my first attempt .  If you "read" your knitting, you will avoid this.

[drloretta]

statgirl is wise

Another option is to hold 2 strands of your worsted weight yarn together, which will approximate a bulky weight yarn.

[statgirl]

Feb 21, 2018 10:19:23 GMT -5 drloretta said:

statgirl is wise

Another option is to hold 2 strands of your worsted weight yarn together, which will approximate a bulky weight yarn.

This is actually what I do most of the time—my sons’ baby blankets were made this way. I love the effect that doubled yarn gives.

[turboteal]

Feb 21, 2018 10:22:23 GMT -5 statgirl said:

Feb 21, 2018 10:19:23 GMT -5 drloretta said:

statgirl is wise

Another option is to hold 2 strands of your worsted weight yarn together, which will approximate a bulky weight yarn.

This is actually what I do most of the time—my sons’ baby blankets were made this way. I love the effect that doubled yarn gives.

Ooh that sounds interesting! I would need to use the larger needles then, yes? And probably double the amount of yarn in order to get the same width/length blanket. Is it harder to make sure you're grabbing both threads at once?

[statgirl]

Feb 23, 2018 1:36:32 GMT -5 turboteal said:

Feb 21, 2018 10:22:23 GMT -5 statgirl said:

This is actually what I do most of the time—my sons’ baby blankets were made this way. I love the effect that doubled yarn gives.

Ooh that sounds interesting! I would need to use the larger needles then, yes? And probably double the amount of yarn in order to get the same width/length blanket. Is it harder to make sure you're grabbing both threads at once?

Yes—larger needles and more yarn. I find it harder for the first row, but after that, the two strands group really well. If you go this route, I suggest pulling from two skeins or rewinding the two strands together in a ball (best choice) rather than trying to pull the two ends from the same skein.

Here is an article on color blending with two strands: knitty.com/ISSUEfall08/FEATcolorblending.html