Knitting with 2 colors/strands at once... size of needles?

#1

I’m a newbie at knitting. My daughter wants an afghan and she’d like 2 colors in it but doesn’t want blocks or stripes of color. I’m thinking she might like the look of two colors knitted together to get a varigated effect.

My question is… if I was going to knit the afghan with ONE strand on a size 8 or 9 needle, do I go up in needle size to do a double stranded project? I don’t want it to be too loose and “holey” but I don’t want it to be so thick and hard to work with that I can’t handle it either!

I’m not really going to be working off of a true pattern. She wants the basketweave/block kind of design and I’m getting the basic pattern off of an afghan my mom made. therefore gauge isn’t all THAT important.

Also, am I setting myself up for frustration? Is it a lot harder to knit with 2 strands at once? I finally got my tension sort of consistent with ONE strand. :aww:

#2

I don’t think it’s much harder to knit with two strands, it’s just a matter of remembering that’s what you’re doing. As for needle size- I would go up at least one needle size and do a small swatch. See how it feels in your hands and how it looks, and then adjust if you don’t like it. Good luck! :slight_smile: I’m sure it will be beautiful!

#3

I knit with 2 strands all the time. Occasionally I drop a strand for one stitch if I’m not paying attention, but generally it’s no problem at all. One size larger needle is okay if your 2nd strand is finer, but if they’re both the same, you might need to go up 2. Knit a sample to be sure and make sure it’s a large 4-square sample in your basket pattern. A small swatch doesn’t show you enough for a large project.
How did your mom finish her afghan? I’ve had problems with the basket stitch looking sloppy on the sides. I tried to finish with a single crochet edging, but that puckered. I love that stitch and would like to know how to properly finish a project with it.

#4

Thanks for both of the replies. :slight_smile:

Mom has 5 or 6 rows of garter stitch on top and bottom and had 6 (I think) knit stitches at the beginning and end of each row. Her basketweave was 6K, 6P and 6 rows of each.

#5

related question…

if I know that the afghan i wanted to make with one medium weight strand would take about 2000 yards… would a double stranded one with baby yarn take that same amount of yarn in each color? That could get pricey.

#6

That sounds perfect. Thanks.:yay:

#7

You’re welcome. :slight_smile:

I found this pattern… but it doesn’t say how much yarn to get. Which is what Ineed to know! lol If I want to make the 40x62 one, do you suppose that about a 1000 yards (3 skeins) of each color would be enough?

#8

If you’re going to double strand it, you’d need to go up way more than just one size for the needle. Try 3 or 4 sizes. So for a yarn you’d normall knit on size 8 or 9, try 11s or 13s. It won’t be that loose, the two strands fill in the spaces a lot more than 1 does. Also, if you use 2 different solid colors, you’re going to get a ‘tweed’ sort of effect like the one you linked to, so don’t know if that will be to her liking.

Probably 1000 yds each would do it for the pattern you linked.

#9

Thanks. She didn’t like the tweed look and so wants blocks of color. I think I may still double it up and use larger needles (11’s maybe) to make it go faster and be nice and thick. I think I’ll buy 1000 yards of two colors and if I need more, I can add a couple blocks of a third color if I can’t match the lot numbers.

Thanks for the help!