Barbara Walker Learn To Knit Afghan Project, Square 30

This block was a joy to knit.  It is number 30 and is called the Twisted Lattice square.  This stitch could have multiple applications.

The pattern is a multiple of 12 stitches plus 10.

Cast on 46 stitches. 

There are 24 rows in the pattern repeats.  Repeat rows 1-24 twice then rows 1-6 finishing with 54 rows before bind off.

 

As you can tell, this square is being blocked and is on its side rather than straight up and down.  If you turn your head 90 degrees you can see it the way it is supposed to look!

At this stage in my knitting of this project I have decided to go back to where I left off...not being a tremendous fan of slipped-stitch patterns...and will then continue on as Barbara Walker wrote her book. I am sure I will learn many things if I just take them as they come.

Until this point I have used just four colors, two darks and two lights, as Mrs. Walker suggests.  Another one of my "semi-sleep" nights was productive in that I have a good-sized bucket of Bartlettyarns already and have plenty of lights and darks, so from now on I will just use up what I have.  With good fortune I will use up the whole bucket and can then justify going to Hilda Yates' Yarn Sale again this fall!

Knitting Today: Updated Blocking Board

One afghan square on the homemade blocking board is such a pretty thing.  The job gets done.   Having said that, with a pile of 25 or so squares to block, and looking at the size of the blocking board, it seemed like I could put three more squares on the board.  The blocking should be accomplished much more rapidly.

In some ways, this does not have to happen quickly because I have perhaps 30 more squares to knit, but...once I started the blocking, I have been so pleased with the results that I wanted more gratification!  Why have I not blocked anything all these years?  Oh, wait...I did not have a blocking board.  AND I did not think it was that important.  Now I do.

This morning I found my husband's T-Square and drew three more squares on the blocking board, thus I can now block four squares at once.  Nice!

Since taking this picture, I have gone back to the bedroom and smoothed out the blue and natural block as best I could and straightened out the line on the light blue and dark blue square by adding another row of pins where the straightening needed to be. I am hopeful that both blocks will be more nearly perfect by they time they completely dry.

Knitting Today: The Blocking Board Project

Many knitting patterns end with the words: "weave in ends and block".  I always weave in the ends and but usually leave it at that.  The Barbara Walker Learn To Knit Afghan project has changed all that.

Recently some friends decided they wanted to knit the same afghan and learn all the stitches. This seemed like such a good idea that I decided to go back to the beginning of the book and read the introductory parts again so I could be a real mentor to these friends.  I found two things of particular interest:

 1. Barbara Walker seems to encourage knitting a gauge swatch!  What?!!! For an afghan square?  

In looking at my box of afghan blocks I discovered that knitting a gauge swatch would have been a very good idea.  At least one of the blocks will have to be re-knit because it is about 14 by 14 inches instead of the 10 by 10 inches that the garter stitch block is...the garter stitch block (Block #1) being the one by which all other blocks should be measured.

Box of completed Barbara Walker Learn to Knit Afghan squares

You will notice particularly that the stocking stitch square is rolled up like a scroll! 

SO...

2.  Blocking really does matter!  When I measured the blocks that I had completed they were all over the place in terms of sizes.

So blocking here we come...  I have blocking wires.  Somewhere stored carefully away.  The other night I was in a semi-sleep state (sadly, a rather frequent situation) when it occurred to me that 14-inch straight knitting needles would make great blocking wires for 10 by 10 inch afghan squares!

Having realized this, I went to one of my knitting needle stashes and found a pair of US size 0 needles and a pair of US size 1 needles in the 14-inch length.  This made me very happy.  Immediately threading the size 0's through one side I realized that even though these are metal needles, I should probably get another pair of size 1 needles as the size 0 needles will become curvey needles instead of straight needles if much stress is put on them for very long!  I will have to be very careful which sides of the squares I use to insert those very slim needles...

Homemade Blocking Board!

So, since I needed a blocking board, and did not have the money to purchase one, I looked around the house for something that could be used.  Several people suggested pinning the blocks to an extra bed.  Knowing myself, and my proclivity for failing to pick up EVERY LAST PIN, I decided that would not work for my family and friends who come to visit and stay overnight.

Some years ago we purchased a very nice elliptical trainer and the pads to go underneath to protect our nice floors.  There were several left over so one of them because the blocking board.  I marked out 10 by 10, 11 by 11, and 12 by 12 inch squares thinking that one of those sizes would work.  It turned out that 10 by 10 was what we needed.

 An essential part of blocking is to dampen the knitted wool for some little time before attaching it to a blocking board.  Here I had the block already "wired up" sitting between two damp washcloths.  After blocking this square I thought I might want to actually soak the squares in a sink of warm water for a while.  That works pretty well, too, but takes longer to dry out.

This  photo shows the block wired and installed on the blocking board.  It has not yet had its ends woven in...that will be coming soon!

Knitting Today: The Sheep Project

It is my privilege to be a special friend to some ladies in our church.  Each month we visit together and watch out for one another.  Sometimes we talk about a gospel principle.  This month we will be having a discussion about The Good Shepherd.  Since not only are we all blessed by The Good Shepherd, but we get to be shepherds ourselves, to care for one another.  This being the case I decided to knit a little sheep for each of the ladies to hang on a cabinet door in her kitchen as a continual reminder to be a good shepherd herself.

This is what I managed to make:

You cannot see their legs because I have them all clumped up together and because they do not yet HAVE legs!  I am going to get pipe cleaners for legs.  The strings on their backs are for hanging.  I hope it works, and I hope they are a good reminder.

Using bulky yarn and a US size 11 knitting needle, I cast on 11 stitches then did garter stitch for 11 garter ridges (22 rows of knitting) then cast off.  I folded the rectangle, stitched around the edges, stuffing with a small amount of fiber that I had from a fleece I skirted, washed, dried, and carded.

The head was knit using a US size 4 needle and worsted weight yarn.  It was a more complicated pattern than the body....!

Newsy Bits: Am I a Wizard, or What?!

When we were ready to install a stove in our kitchen, we chose a General Electric Adora gas stove.  We have loved it for several years.  Recently one of the front burners has failed to light.  Well, for several months it has failed to light.  This morning I had had enough of that failure to perform.

Since I am absolutely sure that the reason the burner failed to light is directly related to my poor housekeeping skills, especially allowing food to boil over the top of the pot, I decided to see if I could fix the problem without calling in the appliance repair man (which would save us lots of money). 

{Perhaps some of the other cooks in the house may have had a hand in this boiling over but I will not be pointing any fingers as I am the regular cook AND I do tend to get distracted by other things, like washing dishes, reading that last few pages of an exciting book, knitting the last two rows of a darling pattern.  (My mother-in-law was such a great example:  when she was cooking, she was COOKING, no resting up or moving on to other things. I doubt if she ever burned a pot of potatoes or carrots or beets or anything else.  I should try harder to emulate that in her!)}

SO, to get to the point of this post, this morning I wanted to boil some potatoes to use in pan fries for breakfast.  (Of course, since it is 10:05 AM as I am writing, it will me more in the line of brunch, or potentially even lunch!)  Having that burner not working was such an aggravation that things finally got to a head.  I removed the cast iron griddle and grates and washed the stove top as best I could without chemicals.  I tried to light the burner again and nothing. 

Next things I tried lighting the burner with a match after having taken off the little round plate/diffuser and I did get a little bit of a flame but nothing to write home about and not enough flame to push out through the holes under the diffuser.  At this point I was at a loss because everything looked ok.

Going onto the Internet I put in a little questions: "Why won't the burner on my gas stove light up?"  Shazaam!  Someone had an answer which did not include calling the repair man.  It was suggested that the use of a sharp hand-sewing needle be used to push through the holes on the unit.  There were two holes in the top unit but nothing happened when I stuck the needle in. One of them looked perfectly clean and the other one didn't.

When I looked down the open hole into the stove workings under the stove top itself, I saw one more little round hole.  It is surrounded by a little washer/nut apparatus, at least that is the best way I can think to describe it.  That was perfectly clean and new looking, but I pushed the needle down into it anyway then re-assembled the burner parts (the unit and the diffuser plate), lit a match, turned on the burner and WHAMMO!!!  Out came perfect flames!  I feel so smart.  A real wizard, in fact.  AND potatoes are boiling on the stove over that burner.  (Oh yes,  I have been distracted by the telling of this story but I have NOT let the pot boil over!)

Now I just need to talk my husband into giving ME the money he would have spent on the repair man.  Well, maybe HALF that money.  I want to subscribe to the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  They have many resources online that would help further my family history research.  Don't you think that would be a good use of good money?  Especially since it did not need to go to an "outside" repair guy?!  I do...

Knitting Today: Baby Janes

Several years ago I came across a knitting pattern for some darling little booties for girl babies.  The pattern was called Baby Janes on Ravelry.  (The actual pattern download is here.) Since then I have knit up probably a dozen pairs in different colors, often in variegated yarn.  Most often I use Caron's Simply Soft yarn because is really is soft and has a bit of a sheen to it that makes for lovely little booties.

This past weekend the young women at our church were having a dance and fund-raiser to help them earn money for their summer camping experience. I made some booties for that.

Here are the Baby Janes:

By using a circular needle and using both ends of the ball of yarn, I knit two of them at once and can easily knit them, including the finishing with button sewn on, in an evening.  At least I can finish in an evening when there are not too many phone calls nor requests for snack options!

Knitting Today: Heart Dishcloth/Washcloth

Around Valentine's Day there are many very cool knitting patterns using the heart pattern.  Usually I see these and get very excited to make some of them as gifts.  Unfortunately, there is almost always no time to knit up the projects in time for Valentine's Day (or Easter or St. Patrick's Day or Halloween or Christmas...).  This time, however, I did get a gift made.  This time a two-day snowstorm which left a foot and a half of snow made driving to the intended recipient impossible.  The day having gone by, I will probably put the gift in the gift-waiting-to-give drawer where I keep knitted gift-items-to-be.

This wash cloth/dish cloth was knit with Sugar 'n' Cream cotton worsted weight yarn.  Peaches 'n' Cream yarn could also be used, or any other cotton worsted weight yarn.

My heart cloth did not look fat and happy like the one shown on the pattern, but then, I thought I was out of time so I stopped knitting increases early....shortcuts often are not worth the saved time!

The pattern is found here.

It only took an evening to get it knit up.