NEW KNITTER NEEDS HELP

cmj132 · 11-03-2006, 04:09 PM

Hi All!

I'm a new knitter and completely addicted. Anyway, my friend and I have started a baby blanket for a friend of ours. W've decided to keep it simple. We're going to knit several 6" by 6" squares and sew them together when we are done. I started last night w/ 100% acrylic yarn. First problem, I cast on until i reached 6". Then I knitted the next row wheich ended up at 7-7/12". Is the knit stitch wider than casting on? I didn't miss any stitches or anything. Second problem. The yarn that we purchased is extremely elastic. It's difficult to figure out 6" when the yarn is so stretchy. Can someone please help me?!! Thanks so much!

nikic · 11-03-2006, 09:14 PM

You could knit a small square (4"x4") and then just count how many stiches gives you one inch, and then multiply that by 6 to get the 6" you want.

melinphx · 11-03-2006, 09:18 PM

It really helps to cast on to a needle several sizes bigger than what you'll be knitting with so your cast-on row isn't too tight.

Also, it's always a really good idea to knit a test swatch so you'll know exactly how many stitches and rows you'll be getting to the inch in the body of your knitting (rather than just in the cast-on row), so you can calculate how many stitches/rows you'll need for each 6 inch square.

Another thing is that as you knit, your hands get more and more used to the process, and your guage can change, loosening or tightening up, so you might find later squares not being quite the same size as earlier squares.

-Melanie

cmj132 · 11-03-2006, 09:26 PM

that's a really good idea - i'll try it tonight. thanks so much!

knitqueen · 11-03-2006, 09:30 PM

Measuring your cast on doesn't give an accurate representation of what the actual knitted piece will measure. It all depends on your knitting tension, what stitch pattern you're using, etc. The others are right that you would benefit first from knitting a test swatch.

If you cast on 20 stitches for your test swatch, for example, and found that once you knitted a good sized piece in the stitch pattern you want to use for your blanket, your swatch measure 4" across, then you can figure out how many stitches you'd need to cast on for 6". At 20sts/4", you can figure that it is 5sts/1". So if you want 6" you would cast on 30sts.

suzeeq · 11-04-2006, 12:16 AM

knitqueen said:

Quote:

Measuring your cast on doesn't give an accurate representation of what the actual knitted piece will measure. It all depends on your knitting tension, what stitch pattern you're using, etc.

Besides all that, the cast on row doesn't have any other stitches attached to it and it's always about 80% shorter than the size you want. So if you measured it at 6", I'm surprised it wasn't wider once you made a few rows.

sue