This is the latest afghan I have started. It is based on Jen Stone-Gerardy's Cabled Wedding Blanket. The Cabled Wedding Blanket is knitted in a super bulky weight yarn, which is not the yarn I was wanting to use. What I wanted to use was Red Heart Supper Saver Fleck in colorway Aran Fleck. So I did some searching for stitch patterns after carefully looking over the photo of the blanket.
The borders appears to be the basket-weave stitch. If you use the basket-weave II stitch pattern from knittingonthenet.com the instructions for rows 8,9,10,11 and 12 are wrong if you knit Eastern-Uncrossed (combo) style. Rows 8,10 and 12 should read: P5, K6, *P4, K6*repeat to last nine stitches, then P4, K5. Rows 9 and 11 should read: P5, K4, *P6,K4* repeat to last 11 stitches, then P6, K5.
Then I found a Celtic Braid pattern at knitting-and.com. I found in Ravelry a pattern called Aran Square by Darlene Swaim, which I picked the Aran Braid out of the middle of. The Aran Braid is on the left and the Celtic Braid is in the right, in case you are wondering.
And believe it or not, I swatched like crazy to figure out how to knit it all at once. The center panel is three Aran Braids one on each side and one in the middle and the two Celtic Braids are between the Aran Braids. (I couldn't spread it out because the circular needle is too short or, I swear, I would have.) The center panel is 24 inches by 48 inches, with a 12 inch border all the way around of the basket-weave stitch for a grand total of 48 inches by 72 inches.
I cast-on 252 stitches using US# 6 circular needles. (The extra two stitches are the stitches I slip when I turn a row.) Knitted the basket-weave stitch for 12 inches, then I started the center panel. I had to increase 24 stitches on the first row of the center panel to make up for the pull of the cabled braids. When I get to the end of the center panel I will have to decrease on the last row those 24 stitches I added so I can go back to just knitting the basket-weave stitch. Which means the afghan should lay flat without any blocking. I will be able to toss it into the washer and dryer with no extra fussing.
So this is my knitting I am taking everywhere I go for the time being.
Have a good day!
Judy
2 comments:
Wow. Really nice. I'll have to look up that basketweave stitch. I'm getting tired of crocheting (spelled?) all my afghans and baby blankets in the same fan stitch for the past 40 years. I'm more into knitting for now anyway.
The basket-weave stitch is one I found when I was first learning to knit and I really like the way it looks on both sides. I have pretty much quit crocheting because of the tendon and nerve damage in my hands, wrists and forearms. Earning a living doing heavy, repetitive, physical labor is hard on the old bod and it does come back to bite you later.
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