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Showing posts with label Very Pink Knits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Very Pink Knits. Show all posts

Friday, March 8, 2024

Knitting Today: Mitered Square for Blanket

 It has been a very hectic week with many activities and lots of knitting in between. I noticed it has been a week since I posted...  Today's knitting was working on a mitered square to add to the Barbara Walker Learn To Knit Afghan I have been working on for some little time. Of course BW does not have a mitered square as I recall, but I don't like some her squares though they really are great for learning new stitches.  In this case, on this afghan, I am just trying to use up that Hilda Yates yarn on this afghan, There are supposed to be 63 blocks but I am hoping the yarn runs out before then...!

There are many different designers making virtually the same mitered square, just different yarns and either an even number of stitches cast on or an odd number of stitches cast on.  I saw Very Pink Knits had a mitered square with 40 stitches cast on. I liked that but then discovered she had you knit all the squares then sew them together.  NOT a fan of all that sewing together so I continued looking.

Then I found Snufflebean Knits had a Join As You Go mitered square.  Love it!

Cheryl Brunette also has a wonderful mitered square pattern/plan where you can knit small squares like this one and then make larger and larger ones, all sewn together...though I would Join As I Went.


This is where I am so far.  Because of my poor camera skills, the lighter green square looks larger, but it is not.  The lower left of that square is a little wonky because I was knitting from memory--not always the best idea--so I finally went online and found the Very Pink Knits video again and had my mind refreshed...  I had only been doing the K2tog and I needed to also SSK!  Made a huge difference.  Of course, in this case part of the wonkiness is because instead of only knitting K2tog, slip marker, SSK on the right side rows, I had to catch up with decreasing so I did the decreasing every row for about four rows then let it go. I thought it might be close enough.  Well, it is a blanket and is NOT going on display though I do plan to give it to one of our grandchildren...

So the knitting is going well, or at least well-ish.  I am about ready to do some knitting on the Brother KX350 flatbed knitting machine.  I signed up for a class on making a sweater in five days.  Of course I will need to give away that sweater because I do not believe I will be able to knit my size on the machine but then...I have not done a gauge swatch and might be surprised.  In this case, I would really like to be surprised.  I will be using up some of the Hobby Lobby yarn to give it a try.  When I am down to more empty yarn bins, I can then purchase some higher quality/wool yarn in good conscience.  Maybe by then I will be a different size.  One can always hope!

Thursday, February 1, 2024

Knitting Today: Winter Chill Shawl

 A few weeks ago I started knitting a Pi Shawl by Elizabeth Zimmermann in fingering weight sock yarn with the idea of using up yarn that I did not seem to be knitting into socks.  It was looking so pretty but was taking FOREVER and I thought I would not get it done for this winter.  Well, I CERTAINLY was not going to be able to get it done this year at the rate I was knitting. 

 It happened that I found a Very Pink Knits podcast where she shows how to knit her Winter Chill Shawl pattern.  I thought a shawl would go faster in a worsted weight yarn.  (Of course I decided to rush over to Hobby Lobby before they closed that Saturday night to get a yarn cake of gradient yarn...sort of defeating the plan of using up what I had...). So I got started on that.  And it did seem to be going pretty fast. At least at first.


This is the beginning of that Winter Chill Shawl.  It was moving right along when I had the feeling that I needed to knit a baby blanket so the Winter Chill Shawl went into (hopefully short!) hibernation!  Baby blanket info soon!

Anyway, now I have multiple projects going...something I did not plan to do this year.  AND having had a few issues with sickness that kept the needles and yarn in the knitting bag for  a good long time, progress has not been really robust.  Feeling better now so perhaps....maybe a finished object coming up.  At least one thing might be done in the next week.  That is the plan, anyway!