Lion Brand "Watercolors" Blanket

#1

I’m knitting a Lion Brand pattern for a “Watercolors” blankie:

I have started it 3 times, and can’t seem to get the stitches to look right. The third and fourth rows that are “K1 with B, *K1 with C, K1 with B, rep from * across” and “K1 with B, *P1 with C, K1 with B, rep from * across”–is that the “broken rib” pattern or is it called something else?

When I try those 2 rows, I don’t get stitches as they’re shown in the picture of the blanket. I get stitches that, on both the right side and the wrong side of the blanket, just show the strands of the yarns as I switch colors, on top of the actual stitches. I can’t really see the stitches at all as they look in the picture.

Between each set of those rows is 2 rows of knitting with Color A, which is the easy part! Rows 7 and 8 are the same pattern, just with the colors reversed (C then B instead of B then C). But I just can’t figure out how to knit the blanket so that the stranded parts DON’T appear on the “right” side of the blanket.

Any help would be appreciated.

#2

Whenever you have a P st on the RS in a different color, it’s going to show. It may take a few rows for the broken rib pattern to look like it should.

#3

No, the purl stitches are all on the “wrong” side (even rows) of the blanket (they alternate knit and purl or purl and knit on the even rows–4 and 8). And the “broken rib,” if that’s what it is, is always going to be separated by the two rows of garter stitch (rows 5 and 6) in Color A (it’s an 8-row pattern). So far whenever I try to do rows 3 and 7, which are all knit stitches, I see the strands of the different colors on top of the knit stitches, which is not what the picture shows. So there must be something I’m doing wrong in holding the yarn or something. I’ll see if I can get the 1st try that I took off the needles (but didn’t rip out) out of the trash tomorrow and take a picture, and then put a picture here from the Lion Brand site of how it’s supposed to look.

#4

Do you keep the yarn you aren’t working with paired with the one you are working with? Since you say there are strands of the different color over the knit stitches, did you move both the strands to the back when you knitted? Because from what you’re describing, it sounds sort of like you left one of the strands in front while you knitted with the other one. You should be moving both colors together back and forth while knitting with the 1 color you need for the stitch.

#5

That’s a good suggestion, RoseFairy, but I was holding both strands behind the needles when doing the knitting rows. In fact, when I looked up tips on Fair Isle/stranded knitting, several of the tips said if you were using two colors, to hold one color in your right hand (like English method) and one color in your left hand (Continental method)–that’s exactly what I was doing. So I still can’t figure out why the strands were showing on the front (right) side of the blanket.

I’m going to start over on my lunch hour and see if I can figure this out. I’m thinking what I might do, if I can’t get it to work, is just do the two-color (B & C) rows as stockinette stitch, and then the single color (A) row in garter, as the pattern specifies. It’s just confusing and aggravating. sigh

#6

I think I may have figured it out. The problem appears on the “K1, P1” rows. I have been holding the K1 color yarn (it’s Color B) behind the needle and the P1 color yarn (Color C) in front of the needle. So when I do the purl stitch with color C, the strand that’s carried to the next B stitch remains on the front (right) side of the blanket.

I think what I’ll have to do is move the knit stitch color (Color B) working yarn to the front of my needles when I use the Color C yarn to actually MAKE the purl stitch. That way the B strand will be behind the purl stitch on the back side of the blanket, and it won’t be covering up the “V” knit stitch on the front side of the blanket.

If anyone has done ribbing in the stranded method and you have a better, less awkward way of holding the two strands of yarn so that the B color strand doesn’t rest on top of the front side of the blanket, I’d appreciate your tips. :slight_smile:

#7

I was trying to explain that you should be moving both your color strands together to the back to knit and front to purl (the moving both strands together thing), but I didn’t do a good job of it. [B]In any case congrats for figuring it out![/B]

#8

Thanks, RoseFairy. It’s still not quite right (the Color C is still obstructing the color B on the front side of the blanket), and it still doesn’t look quite like the picture, but it’s getting better.

:knitting: