Math help needed

[Ginger0104]

I'm making a booga bag out of Patons SWS. Now, my instructions say to cast on 34 stitches, work in garter for 34 rows, then knit in the round for 64 rows, then bind off.

I changed it a bit, because I wanted a bigger bag. I cast on 68 stitches, worked in garter for 51 rows, and now I'm stuck as to how many rows to knit. If I doubled the cast on, and did 1.5x the garter :??

Can someone please help? I've heard that SWS tends to felt a lot more quickly than other wools, but I've never felted before, so I don't know much about that other than the basics. I know to go grab it about 5 minutes after starting the process, then stretch it out.

I THINK I need to knit 112 rows? 1.75x the amount. But that doesn't really make sense, either. So confused :pout:

[SandraEllen]

you don't really need that many rows. 51 should probably be sufficient unless you want a nice roundish bag.

I made one where I cast on 50ish and knit for 40ish rows of garter before picking up to knit up the sides.

[Abbily]

Ok, I'm just trying to translate from the original pattern here, so I don't know if I'll get this right, but here's what I think. I made it following the pattern, btw.

The pattern says 34 stitches/34 rows

you did 68/51

on the long sides of the rectangle, you already have the 68 stitches on one side, so you'll pick up the same 68 stitches on the opposite side. For the sides- for their 34 rows you pick up 1/2 as many stitches minus 1, so 16 stitches. To translate that to your pattern- I think you could pick up 24 or 25 stitches on the short sides. Of course, in order you'd do a short side (25), long side (68 ), short side (25) and then the long side you already have (68 ).

I'm assuming this would maintain your proportions...

[Ginger0104]

I've already gotten my stitches picked up and have knitted 67 rows in the round.

Maybe I should just eyeball it and when it looks the way I want it to look, stop and felt. What is making me nervous at this point is reading that felting tends to shrink things from top to bottom, not so much from side to side. I'm scared I'm going to wind up with something too shallow to be of much use.

[Abbily]

Oooh, I just reread your question and realized you weren't asking how many stitches to pick up.... LOL and after all that thought I put into it... :) Oh well...

I made the booga out of Noro Kureyon as suggested.... it took me FIVE full wash cycles to felt it, and I can still see the stitch definition really well. It's true that it lost more height that width, but I would say it lost less than 1/4th of it's height. If that is any help at all....