beginner baby blanket?
Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at
12:51 am
I am a beginning knitter. For my first project I have chosen to make a baby blanket. I am increasing using a garter stitch. I am using 14 inch needles and am afraid of running out of space. Are bigger needles available? Or is there another technique I can use?
Filed under: Baby Clothes
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
You can get a 24" circular needle, and just knit back and forth with it. Even though it was designed for knitting in the round, you can use it for straight knitting.
A circ is a great way to hold the weight of a large project like a baby blanket in your lap, instead of carrying all that weight on your needles (and wrists!) with every stitch.
Welcome to knitting!
There are size 15, 17 and 19 needles. I’m not sure what you mean by running out of space; do you mean yarn?
My favorite pattern for making a baby blanket is Grandma’s Favorite Dishcloth pattern. You cast on 5 stitches. Then knit 2 stitches, do a yarn over [bring the yarn to the front as though you were going to purl], then knit across the rest of the row. Do this until you have it at the length/width you want [measure one of the sides; you are knitting this diagonally]. Then Knit 1, knit 2 together, do a yarn over, knit 2 together, and knit across the rest of the row. Do this until you are back down toi 5 stitches. Cast off.
Yes, you are best off to switch to a circular needle, though you shouldn’t need anything more than 32" in length, and knit back and forth on it, turning the needle tips when you get to the end of a row, just as you would switch hands with straight needles. This is the limitation of straight needles, you can’t knit wide widths without cramming stitches on uncomfortably. Even though it may seem that a circular needle only 24" long wouldn’t accommodate as much as the 28" of a pair of 14′ needles, you have to remember that you never have that whole 28 inches of needle space fully available for your stitches, but you do have all 24 or more inches of circular needle available which will accommodate more stitches. Circular needles are also easier on your hands, elbows and shoulders, because more of the weight of your projects (and even baby blankets get heavy after a while) in the center of the needle, supported by your lap than on straight needles. I knit on straights for over 35 years when I found good circs, and never looked back at straights other than double points.
Yes, get a long circular needle and use it as IF it were 2 straight needles (back and forth). Circular needles come in 24, 29, 36, and 48 inch lengths. How wide do you want your blanket to be?