Saturday, August 10, 2013

Weekend Update

Based on my last few posts, it might seem like I'm not knitting or sewing.
But I am! Really!  I just haven't been as diligent with taking photos and uploading them.

I was also recently commissioned to make twin baby blankets for a pair of recently born fraternal twins.  So, that was taking a bit of my spare time thinking how I was going to make it happen by October.  Enter the knitting machine manual, a garter bar, and I'm finally on my way.  I'll be using Cascade Yarns Heritage Sock yarn thanks to a friend who wanted to de-stash and some local stores that are carrying it!  I still have to figure out what will happen with the border, but I get ahead of myself...

Here's the plan:
the plan of action

The new mom likes purples and pinks for the girl twin, and greens for the boy twin - check.

The swatch says it will work!

I had to figure out how much yarn was actually needed so after an initial gauge swatch to choose the best tension on the machine - I liked 6.25 - I did a test run.  The test blocks revealed that each 6" x 6.5" block takes circa 8g of yarn.  Which means when multiplying 8g x 48 blocks, 384 g total yarn is needed, and I have 400g of yarn (100g x 4 skeins).   In the plan, there's 12 pink blocks, 12 purple, and 24 white so it should be enough yarn!  Same with the greens: 12 dk green, 12 lt green, 24 grey blocks.  

yarn with previous plan of action
I'll probably add texture in the form of cables and random garter stitch just to change things up, but we have the main knitting settled.  Crossing my fingers it'll be enough yarn.

 lilac, pink, and white

greens and grey
If not, I'll reach into my stash and make it work...

I've also been working on a skirt which is eluding completion due to the fact that I somehow thought it would be a cool idea to have a side seam zipper as well as side seam pockets.  Yeah.  I'll see how that works out.
Have a great weekend!

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