How long of a strip of garter stitch knitting can I make that's 20 sts wide with 1 skein of #4 yarn on 8 needles?

I want to make a blanket out of different colored strips of garter stitch sown together. I am using size 8 needles. The yarn is #4 weight, about 380 yards long, and my tension is not very tight. The strip is 20 sts wide. I was wondering if anyone who is a more advanced knitter could give me an estimate of about how long of a strip I can make. I want to have the strips go down the long side of the blanket, but I don’t know if i have enough yarn. I thought if someone could help me now it would save me from having to take the whole thing out later. Thanks.

Welcome to KH. You could knit a few rows of 20 sts then pull it out and see how much yarn you used and divide by the number of rows to get the average. I think you’d want to exclude the cast on, just measure the yarn used in the 20 st rows after casting on. Knowing how much yarn you need for 20 sts you could then do the math to see how many rows you can expect to get with the skein of yarn. Or measure off 5 yds or so and see how many rows you get and do the math. You could do the small swatch and weigh it if you have a kitchen scale handy and go by weight. Those are the ways I can think of to figure this out. If I figured out what works for me it probably wouldn’t be the same as what works for you since there would be differences in tension, etc. Will all your strips be 20 sts? I’m wondering why not end the current color and just start knitting with the next rather than seaming later.

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Thank you so much for the advice. The reason I wanted to do the strips individually was that I wanted to make the blanket to be made of long, 20 st wide strips sewn together as opposed to squares or something like that. So the blanket will be striped. I hope that makes sense.

I’m not sure I understand but if you have it figured out then it should work fine.

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Here is kind-of what I want it to look like. The picture is AI, so it’s not great, but you can see the general idea. I would have the stripes a little wider, though. blanket

That’s pretty. The ridges would need seaming to get them I think. I might just start knitting a strip and see how much yarn it takes by weighing the skein before and after knitting. The difference would be what’s been used. You could knit half the length and check then and just double the difference too. Me? I’d try to wait until I had maybe a quarter of the strip done and might manage it. :wink:

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Ok. Thank you so much! :slightly_smiling_face:

I do not like to sew seams. I’d knit it the opposite direction and change colors every so many rows! Still, it would take some work to figure out how many rows per skein, but the same methods GrumpyGramma suggested would be useful.

I often figure if I have enough for another row by measuring the yarn in a row before knitting using my fingertip to opposite shoulder which is about a yard for me (I have short arms—measure your own or measure where a yard would be on yourself). I put a binder clip or knot at so many yards and see if that’s too much or not enough. Then I’ll know how to estimate near the end of the skein. I often check multiple rows to get a better estimate.

You could knit one row, purl one row (stockinette stitch) for however many rows you like, then knit two rows for ridges (perhaps not exactly like pictured). Or experiment with the knitting/purling to get the desired effect/width of ridge.

You will need a long circular needle to knit this length. You don’t knit in the round, you just pretend you have two super long needles and turn instead of joining.

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Thanks. I could try that. :slight_smile: Do you think you could send me a link to the right kind of circular needle you were talking about, because I have some, but I think they might be the wrong kind.

What do you have? You just need the size needle you want and a cable long enough to hold the stitches. They come in many price ranges. I like Chiaogoo. The cable isn’t too stiff like Clover.
https://a.co/d/1lCX0ec

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Ok, thanks! I think one of the ones I have should work. I’m not sure what size it is, but it looks like an 8.

Show us your progress!

Beth

Hello
I agree with @Beth_Leatherman about knitting across in stripes rather than seaming, I think you could be disappointed with the seaming, not just the amount youd have to do but the look of it too
You have had useless tips about how to judge the amount of yarn too…if you end up half way across a row and run out you can tink back (do you know “tink”? Undoing stitch by stitch so you don’t lose any stitches.) and start the row with a new colour instead.

Have a look at ridge stitch and reverse ridge stitch, the bands can be whatever width you want and you can alter the band width as you go if you don’t want every colour to have the exact same ridge style.
There are different tutorials for these but here’s a couple to just give an idea of it

Here’s a horizontal stitch, perhaps too close together for your blanket on the tutorial but you can alter the spacing to your liking

Maybe a couple of swatches will help decide how to proceed.
I look forward to seeing some progress pics!

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I’m sorry, I should have clarified earlier. I only used that picture to illustrate how I wanted the stripes to be. What I was really planning was to make long strips of garter stitch and sew them together with mattress stitch. I it would be easier to do it with circular needles, but I kind-of wanted the stripes to be vertical, and it’s tricky to use different skeins for every few rows. Thanks for the info, though.

The stripes would be vertical if you cast on at the long edge.

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Joining the strips as you knit them might be a viable option. It depends on how large you blanket will be and if you want to wrangle the bulk as you’re knitting.

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Thanks. I meant vertical as in like the way you knit it, being in garter stitch and working from the bottom up, but I think you’re right. It will be easier if i just use a circular needle.

Thanks for the video. I love the way the seam looks, but I think it will be a lot easier if i just use a circular needle. Thanks for all the help, though. :slight_smile:

Let us know how you ge on, it would be great to see this blanket progressing.

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I will point out the OP mentioned image is an AI* (artificial Inteligece*) generated. Looks nice but it is not intelligent. It is confused by rows and stitches direction, Knit vs. Purl and the shape and texture of them.

The ledt and right edges have ribbing but the lower flat areas (to the right) look like knits also. The left edge shows ribbing without pucker or gathers requiring more sts in the ribs and decreases before the central fields. No color change show through means intarsia with a separate bobbin for each stripe. Twisting new color with old color for each transition.

I particularly like how the strip pattern on the left does not match the folds on the right edge. :wink:

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