I’m going to make a couple baby blankets for my niece, one for her 2 yr old son and one for her daughter due in October. I’m thinking of using this stitch pattern http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/scrunchable-scarf to make soft scrunchy blankets for the kids. To make it baby blanket size, any ideas how many stitches should I cast on? Thanks for any and all help!
I guess I should add I’ll be using less bulky yarn also, probably baby weight.
Cast on a multiple of 3 sts (plus one on each edge for a selvage).
I would cast on about 29 sts and work the pattern as written and see how many sts I have in 4 in. From there I could determine how many repeats I’d want. Depending on the yarn and needles you use it could vary a lot. That will make a nice blanket and should be fairly quick to make up. It would be nice in a bulky or super bulky yarn to make it more scrunchy.
ETA The baby yarn part wasn’t there before! The bulky/super bulky yarns aren’t what you want at all.
Thanks, GG. That would even work with the baby yarn, right? I want these to be super soft so the kids can love them to death. I don’t know a lot about different yarns, is there a chunky that is that soft I could get at Wal-Mart or Jo-Anne’s?
And what does it mean by plus 1 as a selvege??
You could use Plymouth Encore Chunky (14sts/4") or Lionbrand Thick and Quick (9sts/4") which may be available at Michael’s etc. Both are easy care which is good for baby blankets.
The selvedge stitch is just an edge stitch. You can knit the sevedge stitch every row for a beaded edge or slip the selvedge stitch at the start of the row and knit the selvedge stitch at the end of the row for a chain edge.
It’s a great pattern and will certainly make a scrunchable blanket in the heavier weights. I agree with GG on the swatch. What weight is the baby yarn that you have?
I haven’t bought the yarn yet, so I can get the chunky. I just wasn’t sure if it would be soft enough.
So for the selvedge, I only add 1 stitch? Confused :??
This pattern calls for 1 edge stitch but you can do anything you want on the border. You can do garter stitch or seed stitch, you could even get brave and try an I-cord border. You will do 3 stitch repeats for the main body of the blanket and then you can do something different on the edges if you want. The edge stitches can be thought of as something extra or similar to hemming an edge on woven fabric. It’s an opportunity for creativity.
So for the selvedge, I only add 1 stitch? Confused :??
One stitch on [I]each[/I] side (beginning and end of row) or as GG says, you can be creative here and use your favorite border.
Each side. Yeah. I think I was out to lunch. LOL Thanks for seeing the obvious that I totally missed!
:doh:
Do I have to add a border? I’m working on a scrunchable scarf, and I just used a multiple of 3 to cast on. It’s laying nice and flat and looks ok to me?
I think this should lie flat. If you like it as it is, go ahead as you are. That’s one of the great things about knitting, you’re doing it so you can decide to modify the pattern.
Well, I bought Bernat baby blanket. It’s rated as super bulky, 8 st per inch. I think I need to cast on 128 to have a 48 inch wide blanket. I might start with 90, or 99, since 48 wide seems awfully big. Wish me luck! This is definitely my biggest project so far. I’m using the recommended size 11 needles.
I’ve used that yarn. I think you’ll like it.
ETA You asked for good luck so…
[COLOR=“Purple”][SIZE=“6”]Good Luck!!![/SIZE][/COLOR]
…not that you need it, you’ll do great!
Thanks GG. What did you make with it?? Its so soft but the K2, P1 isn’t working so well with it. :tap:
I’m not sure I remember right now, maybe a Grandma’s favorite dishcloth baby blanket, I know it was a blanket. I don’t have it anymore. I do remember the yarn and it was nice to work with, I think. How much have you done with it? Sometimes a few more rows and things look better.
That’s going to be lovely in the stitch pattern you posted earlier. Yes, 48" is quite a good sized blanket. The super bulky is 8sts/[I]4inches[/I] so about 96sts will give you 48inches but your swatch will really help you out here because the stitch pattern will affect the number of sts/4inches.
Good luck with it and have fun!
GG, I bet that was beautiful! I’ll give it another go today.
Salmonmac, thank you. I knew I was confused but couldn’t figure out what I did wrong.
To do a swatch, I knit that in stockinette stitch, correct?
I’m thinking, what would I do. I’d probably cast on 96 sts as salmonmac suggests for that size, plus border sts if I decided to do one, maybe an edge st on each end in case I wanted to pu&k a border later (gotta have those options!) and just start the pattern. A few rows will show you an approximate size and you can decide if it’s close enough (blankets don’t have to be exact after all and an edge stitch would allow a little bit of size increase later if you wanted it just a smidge bigger). That yarn will knit up quickly. If you’re doing an actual gauge swatch, I’d do it in pattern. Others who are good knitters can tell you the right way. I tend to live dangerously and just wing it. :shrug:
I do a swatch for everything! If I thought I needed a swatch before making a swatch, I’d probably do that.
I guess I hate the idea of working all those sts and then finding out I needed to rip it out and re-do. If you decide to do a swatch, do it in the pattern stitch especially since this is going to have a bit of give to it.