I have an Iris pattern that calls for a size 15 needle and, I think, thicker yarn than I want to use. It says to cast on 88 stitches. How do I convert the pattern to use lighter yarn and a smaller needle?
Afghan pattern
Is the name of the pattern Iris? It helps if you include a link if you can.
Well, it depends on how wide you want your blanket to be and what size yarn you’ll be using.
I noticed that the pattern didn’t give any kind of finished measurements, so if you can give me/us some ideas of how wide you want your blanket to be AND what type of yarn you like that would be a big help.
Thanks, knitcindy
It looks like 2 of those boxes are a repeat and each one is 10 stitches…am I reading that right? If I am then you add stitches in multiples of 20 to get the pattern to come out correctly. Keep in mind you still need the border stitches and there are 8 of those total.
Size is something I didn’t consider. I’m a fairly new knitter and so far have only made baby blankets and washcloths. I’d like to try my hand at an afghan, but I don’t know if their is a usual size for them. All the patterns I’ve looked at seem to have different dimensions. Any suggestions? Thanks!
That is how I read the pattern. Thanks for telling me how to figure out how many stitches to add. Just have to decide how big to make it, I guess, which goes to knitcindy’s question to me about the size I wanted. This is so frustrating - I just want to knit! I haven’t been knitting for too long, but I have bought LOTS of yarn because I just could not resist. Now I have to fit a pattern to the yarn I have, and a good bit of the time I find the pattern I want to make doesn’t work with the yarn I’m trying to knit. Hope that makes sense. I ended up with 18 skeins of yarn for a pattern that is too complicated for me right now and everytime I go to Stitches and Stuff I end up with more yarn! Anyway, thanks for the help!!
There’s not a single size for an afghan - some people want blanket size ones, 40x70, others just want a throw, 40" square, and there’s all sizes in between. As with a lot of things about knitting - it’s personal preference more than a ‘rule’.
I thought this pattern looked very familiar and checked in a booklet I have called Done by Monday Afghans by Plymouth Yarns. A very simiar pattern is the first pattern in there - the difference is the triangles are all pointing the same way. It also has garter stitch borders. It uses 10 balls of 100g Encore Worsted for a 45x50 afghan, knit double stranded with 13 circular needles, guage of 2.5 sts=1 inch. You might find it helpful to look at this pattern.
P.S. I ordered this booklet from Patternworks.
Wonderful. I’ll check on the pattern. The picture with the pattern made it look awfully small for an afghan and then it didn’t give a finished size. Thanks so much.
The afghan is cast on along the long edge. Has 4 stitches for the borders (2x4=8) & 10 stitches per block. So you increase in increments of 10 stitches to keep the pattern.