Thursday, February 26, 2015

cabled wedding blanket - my version

This is my take of the Cabled Wedding Blanket.
The original pattern calls for super-bulky yarn.  What I wanted to use was worsted-weight Red Heart's Fleck in Oatmeal.  I already had the yarn in my stash as a partially done, crocheted afghan.  I had decided I would not finish it due to the strain on my hands from crocheting and the amount of yarn the afghan was sucking up.  I knitted this whole afghan (48" x 72") with about a skein leftover from about a 48" x 36" partially done crocheted one.

I decided on 12-inches of my favorite basket-weave pattern around the center panel.  Then I decided 5 cables in the 24" x 48" center would fill it nicely, 2 Celtic braids and 3 Aran braids on reverse stockinette.
I knitted it on a 40" US #6 circular needles. My gauge was 5.25 stitches/inch.  So needless to say I did a boat-load of swatching and research to get it to work.

One thing I learned was that cables pull in and you will have to add stitches to get it to lay flat without heavy blocking when going from one pattern to another.  I had to add 4 stitches/cable on the set-up row before beginning the cables.

I still got some rippling after washing the afghan as you can see in the picture above.  I didn't dry it in a dryer so I don't know if it would have dried tighter or not. (Laundromat dryers are notoriously hot!)  Nor did I block it very hard.

The basket weave pattern I used is:
Row 1:  Knit
Row 2, 4 & 6: K6, P4
Row 3 & 5:  K4, P6
Row 7:  Knit
Row 8, 10, & 12:  P5, K6, *P4, K6*, to last 9 stitches then P4, K5
Row 9 & 11:  P5, K4, *P6, K4*, to last 11stitches then P6, K5
I cast on 250 stitches and did seven-n-half repeats to get my 12-inches of basket-weave.

I built myself a chart in Microsoft Excel for the center panel.



I highlighted the two spots I kept screwing up the crossovers.  It is a pain to un-knit that part of the cable and re-knit it up to get the crossing right when you notice you screwed-up several rows down.  And, I did it a time or two even after I highlighted it!  Shesh!!!
When you get to the last row of the center panel and are decreasing it helps to decrease the same amount that you increased!  LOL  I had to rip back the last row of the center panel twice until I figured out what I was doing wrong!

So there you have it!  I saw a concept on Ravelry that I liked and made it my own.  It only took me 3 years to finish it!  And no, my dearest sister I am not going to send it to you!  You have to knit your own.

I hope everyone is having a good day!

Judy

4 comments:

tracie c. said...

ohhh judy this is BEAUTIFUL!!!!! lady you are seriously talented!!!

Judy said...

Thanks! I've seen some pretty creative and talented projects over on your blog, too!

tracie c. said...

well thank you, but i am big time impressed with those with mad knitting skills. i do not knit, i only knot yarn and make a mess. this is a gorgeous blanket!

Judy said...

Before I learned to knit I was pretty intimidated by the whole process too. Get thee to your Local Yarn Shop (LYS) and take knitting lessons. I took a class on Saturday and by Wednesday I was cabling after watching a couple of You-Tube videos.

Do you crochet at all? If you do, find someone who will teach you Continental or German style. And best of all for me is Russian or Eastern Uncrossed.

Russian/Eastern Uncrossed has a different purl stitch which is way more logical than the Western Styles. Which in turn makes the knit stitch more logical.

The one style of knitting I haven't figured out is the Eastern Asian style which would be perfect for doing Stranded Colorwork/Fair Isle in the round. All the floats are on the top of your work, so then you don't have to worry about getting the yarn you are carrying across the back (floats) too tight.

LOL can you tell I love knitting!