I’m sorry to ask this again, I searched for an answer but didn’t get one I could understand. I am going to make this blanket for a friend:
and the yarn suggested is $55 a hank and it would take 6 hanks! Not only is the price prohibitive but I would never get this blanket done in fingerling weight. I’d like to use shine sport from knitpicks for this blanket but I have two questions…
I would need 1020 yards of the $$$$$ yarn, how much of the Shine Sport would I need? When I encounter math problems like this, my brain literally shuts down.
The pattern calls for an initial CO of 211 sts. I am then to increase to a total of 231 sts to begin cabling. I think there are 10 cable repeats (I’m not a great cable reader until I’m knitting and have never done cables before). My question is, if I knit this pattern as is, the blanket will be huge, should I do fewer cable repeats? How would I do this? How many sts should I CO and then how many should I increase to?
Thanks for your help, I know this is a huge request. Sorry if it’s asking too much!
The finished blanket is a 30" square; the cables make it pull in so you have about 7½ sts/inch, not 6/inch. I don’t know how much smaller you want it, but that’s a pretty standard size. If you leave it the same size, you’d need about the same yardage, more or less. If you want it smaller, then figure it out by percentage. Original is 30x30, or 900 sq inches. If you want it 24x24, that’s 576 sq inches which is 64% of the original. 64% of 1020 yds is just over 650 yds.
So, if the cable pattern is 10 sts, then subtract in multiples of 10 for your cast on. Figure how wide you want it to be then multiply that by your sts/inch, and the sts for the main body of the blanket would be the closest -10sts that comes out to (221, 211, 201, etc). Then you dec that number for your Cast on (could be 20 sts less or 18 or 15). You need less sts for the edging because the cables pull in and if there were the same number of sts in the body as the edge, you’d have a wide edge and a narrower body.
I want the blanket to be the same size but I’m want to use heavier yarn. If I knit it as is with heavier yarn, won’t the blanket be bigger? Going from fingerling to sport, will that make a huge difference?
I’m having trouble deciphering the pattern so, here is the part I don’t know about…
So, is my cable repeat 21 sts each? Yes, sorry, it is. I just did the math. So, if I am understanding, for each repeat I drop, I would drop 21 sts total (for the body of the blanket) and I would start with 19 less when I CO (since I am increasing two sts for each column…)?
Is this right? I hope so, my brain hurts and I’m trying to do this with my 2 year old crawling all over me!!! Hahaha!
Thanks again for your quick response! This is definitely one I will do the recommended gauge swatch in pattern.
I know poop about cables so can’t help with the pattern but on the yarns: I looked them up on Ravelry and the gauge for both yarns is just about the same. You should be able to swap one for the other without a problem. The original cashmere yarn (that’s some expensive yarn! ) says it’s a sport yarn, not a fingering.
Yes, the word is Fingering (no l), but the yarn in the pattern is also a sport weight, so if you use heavier yarn and larger needles it’ll be larger. But Shine Sport is about the same weight as the yarn used in the pattern, so you probably wouldn’t need to adjust.
I think “K9 (K2, KFB) do () twice, K4” isn’t the cable repeat but how you increase, so yes, it starts with 19 and ends with 21 sts. So you’d subtract 19 sts from the cast on number if you want to make it smaller. But you wouldn’t need to if using the Shine sport, it’ll come out the same size, plus or minus an inch or two.
Please don’t take my suggestion the wrong way, but why not use a different pattern that calls for a heavier yarn and is a little easier to read ? I have included a link to one available for free on ravelry that calls for worsted/aran weight yarn, therefore larger needles and less yarn for same size blanket. I’ve done the yarn substitution and pattern modifying and sometimes it is necessary, but there are so many cable blanket patterns to choose from no need to frustrate yourself.
Thanks so much! If you can believe it, I looked and looked for a pattern for a heavier yarn and didn’t find this one. I will take this under very serious consideration! I need to look at more yarns and really be realistic about my time commitment.
IMHO blankets are a fun no brain project. Once you get the pattern memorized you can motor right through them. Cables are pretty easy once you learn to read the pattern and get the hang of it. I always practice new patterns in the form of a dishcloth. The cotton is easy to work with and the project is a nice size and even if you mess up the pattern a few times, the end result will still wash the dishes or clean-up a mess : )
OK, so what about Knit Picks Shine worsted for the blanket? I hate to start another thread about this…
I love that she could machine wash it if she wanted, this is baby #4 after all. I have never worked with cotton yarn, would this be ok for a baby blanket? I see lots of Ravelry people using it and the projects look good.
we had an unexpected HUGE expense yesterday and I am going to use the pattern that Vaknitter suggested and am going to use Caron to knit it with. My question is this,…
in the above pattern it has you CO your number of sts, knit your bottom border and then dive right into cables with no increases. The other pattern, and many others I have looked, at have you CO less sts and then increase on the first row of cabling. All the projects for this blanket on Ravelry look fine so I probably shouldn’t worry but, is this ok? I thought that cables wonked up your gauge so you had to add an extra st for each cable? What’s the deal???
It may help to add extra sts. Why don’t you CO about 30-40 sts, do the edging, then start the cable pattern and knit about 10" or so. See how it looks, if the cables pull in or not.
) says it’s a sport yarn, not a fingering.