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Knit-Alongs
1

This KAL will run from June till how ever long it takes, please feel free to join us at any time :thumbsup:

If you are not knitting this for Christmas but for yourself, that’s ok still join in (prolly what I’m gonna be doing) :teehee:

A couple of days ago I came across a pattern for the Christmas Star Afghan which can be found here, you can see it from that link but in order to print it out, you do have to use your e-mail addy to access it but it’s free.

Then on Ravelry I seen how I would like to do it, by double knit. This way there is no bad side to the knitting! Here is the linkto how the member worked hers she breaks down the info for you, isn’t it stunning? :happydance:

I contacted her and she said that we can use her charts since she got them from this book(she did modify them though)

If you go to her flickr account you can see a bigger size of the charts which may be easier to print.

Or if you would like to find your own chart or just use the pattern’s chart you can do that too.

To make your own chartyou could use this site she has a lot of free charts there, use this websiteto create your own, use this websiteto create your own graft paper to print and then draw out your chart, or if you have a book with ideas you could use that. I have the book The Complete Book of Traditional Fair Isle Knitting that has a lot of charts in it :thumbsup:

Other Notes:

I don’t plan on working the name into the blanket, but she does share the charts on how she created the name that may help you :thumbsup:

I figured we could start this in June 'cause that would give everyone time to figure out their yarn…plus that is the start of the 6 month count down to Christmas :teehee:

Her finished size of blanket is: 34 x 35" -used 9.5 skeins in KP’s Shine Cream and 9.5 skeins in Sailor (KP Shine).

If you don’t want to double knit the blanket and want to knit the original, please join us

If you have no experience with double knit, no worries it’s not hard…Here is a patternon KH that may help you along with videos

I hope many of you will join me in knitting this very beautiful blanket :hug:

2

If I were to do an entire fancy blanket in a KAL, I’d prefer the aran squares, as I’m not fond of knitting fair isle. Or a blanket with many different types of knitting in it.

I made one years ago, in 5 strips. I would knit with one pattern for about 6 inches, then switch to another pattern for another 6 inches and continue like this until I had the length I wanted. Then I knit 5 more strips, continuing with changing the pattern. Unfortunately, I gave the 5 strips, which took me over a year to knit, to my mother, who then knit a dark border around each strip,(complete with white dog hairs knitted in) and then gave it to a non-knitting friend to sew together. She sewed it together all bass-ackwards! one or two strips would be right-side up, the next: right side down, then up again. I was so hearbroken, I kept the blanket for a year, but everytime I looked at it, I’d feel sad. So much of my knitting work wasted.

I gave it to the Salvation Army store. My DH brought it in, I waited in the car. He said a woman snatched it up as fast as he put it on the table. I felt slightly better.

So, although I’d love to join a blanket KAL, I fear the bad memories will return.

but maybe it’s like having a car accident…they say you need to get back at the wheel asap!

3

Dustina, thanks so much for posting this, along with all of the supporting links! June is a great start date- I should be able to actually join in at that point!

4

I would love to do this sometime, but I’m not sure if I’ll be getting involved with this one. Too much to do right now, but I certainly will be watching the beautiful blankets develop! :thumbsup:

5

The original pattern is knit in stripes and then seamed together and well it would NEVER get done if I did that…but you can Cast on all the sts at one time (the one on ravelry was a cast on of 135 sts) and worked in one piece…the color work is very easy to do…all you gotta do is figure out your tension :thumbsup:

I understand though I have not finished a big project so this will be something to see… will I finish? or not? :teehee:

I’m actually working on the Aran Afghan started it back in Sept, I think…only have 2 blocks finished :teehee:

Carey~:yay:YAY I’m so glad you can join!! What yarn are you thinking of?

Jan~Maybe later on down the road you can…no deadline on when the KAL will be over :thumbsup:

6

Dustina, I haven’t the foggiest idea what yarn, and I haven’t looked at the ravelry example to see what yarn she used, either. What are you thinking of?

7

I notice she used worsted. All I gotta say about that is that it’ll be very thick. I’m making a double knit headband with Plymouth Encore and boy is it thick!

8

I’m not sure I have some Caron Simply pound in my stash and feel like maybe I should use that instead of buying new :teehee:

She used Knit Picks Shine…it would make a heavy blanket might try dk weight :think:

9

Just wanted to add my 2 cents about yarn choice:

Breckaused KnitPicks SHINE worsted. It sells for $2.49 per [B]75 yd[/B] skein.

However, KnitPicks SHINE sport weight sells for $2.49 for [B]110[/B] [B]yd skein.[/B]

SHINEsport has [B]27 colors[/B] to choose from and it’s washable/tumble dry…and that’s always a good thing!

I’d personally recommend a sport weight yarn. Totally.

SHINE sport gives more yardage for the $2.49.

10

Did you read the latest on her Rav page? I hadn’t seen it till I clicked the link this morning. Her dog chewed a hole in it.

11

:inlove: pretty colors!

:passedout:

12

But wouldn’t it take more yarn to complete the blanket in sport weight?

13

I wondered about that and thought about getting a skein to see if I could gauge or close to it…I know the sport gets 6sts per inch on #3-5 needles…while the worsted gets 4.5 to 5" on 6-9 needles…When you look at her pictures she has one of a ruler by her sts and it looks like she is getting 3.5 or 4sts per inch…

With a blanket normally I wouldn’t worry about gauge 'cause it doesn’t have to fit…but not sure how the different yarns would come into play with how much yardage you would need :think:

14

Ooh…I’m really thinking about this one. I really love the blanket and I think I can double knit it (I have only done the hot pad from KH, but it turned out pretty good). I’m just not sure I’m fast enough to actually have it done. But…I’m really thinking about joining in.

I do wonder, do you think it would look good done in Caron Simply Soft? That’s likely what I would have to use, and I would hate to put so much effort into something just for it to look bad because of yarn choice. Plus, it would be washable this way. Or would it? How do you think a double knit blanket would wash up. I’d really need it to be washable. Too many grubby kids over here!

Off to ponder…

15

:hug:don’t worry about the time frame, no rush…I have no idea how long it will take me :teehee:

I think Caron would work and it is machine washable…I use it for my kids items and it washes up well. It will be on the heavy side being worsted, but I’m also thinking of Caron since I have it in my stash already :thumbsup:

16

Dustina, THANKS for posting this KAL! I want to do it, but for a wall-hanging. Think it would work? I’d like to use leaf or flower motifs instead of Christmas. What do you think? I need something about 36-40" wide by about 12-18". I could do just four blocks across and two up. Thinkthat would work?

17

Ooo I like the leaf idea! You probably don’t need it double knit for a wall hanging though… then again it would sure lay nicely and probably not sag much, but that might depend on the yarn.

18

I like Caron SIMPLY SOFT very much. It is a very nice yarn, affordably priced!

I looked online today, at other washable yarns…and one thing I found to be a problem…many of the yarns I liked did not have dark saturated colors nor cream or white colors. A decision about brand of yarn would be decided by the colors, and washablilty…in addition to the weight of the yarn.

I forget, does the original Christmas blanket call for worsted?
If it asks for worsted, would the motifs become distorted out of shape if we used dk or sport?:??

But, I don’t mean to butt into this thread…I haven’t even committed to knit the blanket! Sorry.

I might try ONE SQUARE of the blanket, as a swatch of sorts… to see how DOUBLE KNITTING and I get along! I’ll use a dk and see how things pan out dimensionally speaking. You know, to see if it knits up SQUARE, and not rectangular. That’d be a bummer.

19

Hmmmmm :think: that’s a good point. I dunno. :?? This is what happens when I start to modify! :wall:

Well, yes…if you wanted the blanket to be a certain width and length, using sport or dk…you’d have to increase the motifs across the row. Like maybe 4 motifs instead of 3.

Gah.

20

I downloaded the pattern and it actually calls for a worsted weight acrylic yarn. The sample pattern shown in the original here was done in Red Heart Soft. So I think that Simply Soft would work great.

Artlady, I think you are absolutely right about the color though. I’ve been looking through color cards online also and have had a hard time finding the colors I like as well. I was thinking Simply Soft as that’s what’s available here. I live about 1.5-2 hours away from any city and I’m not sure I’ll get there before this KAL starts. I’ll keep searching though.

I really like the original colors and would like to stay as close to it as possible. I also think that I’ll just do the original star chart as well, because I really like it.

As long as I can get the yarn for this project, I will be joining this KAL!