Tiled Blanket pattern

New pictures - smaller but better!

The right side up close. It's quite pleasant!

I made this blanket for my aunts' Christmas present. I actually tiled the blanket, but it ended up taking really long to sew, so this is my amended version, and I hope it works. Please change this pattern to see fit to how you like it. Always knit a swatch and block it before going ahead of this project, because it uses a lot of yarn.  This is not a double knit! It requires knitting back and forth on the loom. I took the pattern from knitting on the net squares in squares stitch. I tried to mimic the pattern in 3x3 squares in squares. I would say this is an intermediate pattern, but it really isn't. It's just that it is a tedious pattern and you need to be committed to it to finish it; the hours are long, but you have something very warm at the end. You also must be comfortable at purling stitches, and you will need to block each panel.

Onto instructions, patterns and extra links


You can also mark your progress on this project on Ravelry.

Items you need for knitting:

• 36-peg round loom (knifty knitter, loops and threads, and the large wal-mart looms are all the same)
• bulky yarn - I used 3 300g balls of Bernat's Chunkee Ombre in Wedgewood - they are considered 6, super bulky, so you can double up worsted yarn or find another bulky yarn
• sewing needle

Pattern for each panel:
Cast on using any sturdy cast-on (do not use e-wrap knit over cast-on) on 32 pegs.
Row 1 and 2: Knit.
Row 3 and 4:  Knit 2, *purl 8, knit 2, repeat from *.
Row 5 to 10: Knit 2, *purl 2, knit 4, purl 2, knit 2, repeat from *.
Row 11 and 12: Knit 2, *purl 8, knit 2.
Row 13 and 14: Knit.
Row 15 and 16: Purl.
Repeat pattern (Row 1 to 16) 3 more times, and then repeat the pattern from row 1 to 14 once.
Cast off.

In total you should have 5 "tiles" of the square repeats. This is one panel.

Make 3 of these panels altogether, block them, and sew them together.


Links that should help:

Sewing - I used the mattress stitch - which means that you will notice the seam on the wrong side - it's not that bad looking, but you can also think about slipping the side stitch when you start the next row and sewing it in a different manner. Do not be scared of trying it out (though I would recommend you making 2 small samples of the pattern and then sewing them together). I avoided sewing like the plague, but this is easy, straightforward and fun! It may require for you to look at more than one website - to complete the picture in your mind on how to do it.

• http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-join-knitted-pieces-with-the-mattress-stitc.html - This is the dummies version that gives you a drawn diagram on how to do the mattress stitch - I like how it is drawn - it is neat. You can clearly see how to start sewing, but it is hard to see the "ladders" you use because the picture does not show depth.
• http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring04/mattress.html - Knitty has a great tutorial (and they are located in Toronto!!) on how to do the mattress stitch for different seams. Of course, this project is just seaming the stockinette stitch. This is possibly my favourite instructional webpage for the mattress stitch. You can see how you you have to pull your stitches apart a little to find the running ladder. They also have some good tips that other pages may not talk about.
• http://www.knittingdaily.com/blogs/howto/archive/2009/04/10/mattress-stitch-tutorial-vertical-seams.aspx - I don't really like the tutorial as much, because it is hard to see where the running ladders are - but (! sorry for the exlamation marks by the way) they have a good picture of how your the seam looks on the wrong side of your knit. This is so you won't be surprised at how it looks like.

Blocking - Acrylic requires heat to block. If you don't block this big project, it will be all wavy - the easiest way is to throw your project in the dryer since this project is pretty big.

• http://rainyknits.blogspot.ca/2006/08/blocking-acrylic.html - no pictures, but this tells you how to lay out your for blocking and what kinds of things to use (an iron) to block. I found this more informative than the other articles, because the other posts were smaller projects.
• http://beadknitter.blogspot.ca/2009/03/you-can-block-acrylic.html - Pictures of an acrylic shirt pre-blocked and blocked
• http://a-modicum-of-ingenuity.blogspot.ca/2012/03/tutorial-blocking-acrylic-yarn.html - Another pre-blocked, blocked post, this time of blanket/afghan squares. Your project would be substantially larger (and I wouldn't recommend knitting squares because sewing is very time consuming - even more so when you do horizontal seaming)

Have fun, and if you have any questions, please ask! I must remind you this is a very time consuming project, and that patience is very important (to finish this project). It took me 8 days to make. This was also because I knit in squares, and then had to learn how to sew them together (which I regret a bit - I messed up a billion times).

The wrong side also looks really nice! My sister liked the wrong side more.

Happy New Year! I am late

Hi everyone! I have been so busy lately I haven't been able to post. My research project took up a whole chunk of my time, and after that, I was working on finishing my Christmas presents! And now a new (and hopefully) final semester has come

I only have big looms, so I had to nix the idea of making everything using a loom, since chunky knits can use up a lot of yarn. Don't judge. I gave away 29 presents to my family members this year, although most of them were not knitted products! I am not even including acquaintances here.

Baby keyhole knit scarves, style a la anthropologie

I messed up the purple cast off (which I later fixed). The difference in size is because one baby is older than the other.  I'm sure you can make something similar on the loom, but the stitches would be bigger.

Loom knit lap throw

Mattress stitching this baby up. The giftees love colour. I regret that I could not do this project in one colour - this was the only bulk yarn with 3 rolls left during holiday time... but they still like it. It's super warm. (The next post shall be...)

I did use a loom! I made a tiled blanket of a squares pattern for my aunts.  Unfortunately, I should have thought ahead and made 3 long panels. I ended up making 15 squares for the blanket and sewing them together. I actually like sewing...but the weaving in the ends was the most annoying part. I'll probably post a pattern later in the week. Acrylic is a pain to block, and I unfortunately finished the blanket too late to be able to throw it in the washer and dryer...so hopefully they'll do that to straighten it out.


Some other news: I will be having a minimum post a month.  They may not be tutorials or anything...but possibly even projects I did, because those posts take up less time. Fingers crossed that I will be able to do my schoolwork and post and volunteer. I also apologize for the photos taken from my cell. I totally regret that.

Toe-up cable booties

I made these earlier in the summer.  After successfully and easily finishing my 2-coloured sock, I wanted to try something else. I saw someone's toe-up sock (I'm sorry, I don't remember which blog it was), and I thought to myself, why not?

Sorry for the bad picture. Anyways, notice the weird bumps near the toe? Since I did a cast-on where the toes were, I found I had to knit over very loosely at the beginning so that my loops would eventually be able to be stretched over 24 pegs (I started at 12).  This could also be because the yarn didn't have a lot of give. I had extra baby yarn so I had to triple (or was it quadruple) knit with the loom.

This is different from a toe-down sock where you would stitch your sock closed at the toes.

I find the 24-peg loom pretty ugly for these cables; I guess big gauge socks are pretty ugly... but I guess using this loom would be okay for booties. 

What's in your yarn bag?

I finally finished crocheting my yarn stash bag and have slowly been transferring my yarn stash into it.



I've been practicing herringbone, as you can see. Not pictured: a dozen type of cables and a mesh t-shirt on looms, and a crochet sweater I need to start.

Youtube Round-Up Comes Back for Some More!

I'm back! Long story short, a break from the internet became an even longer affair after those Olympics set in...and then the Paralympics.  I turned into a total sports zombie (even though I promised myself that I wouldn't go nuts during the Olympics again). Crazy sport-nut that I am, I was in bliss for a while.

Anyway, onto the links!  Today I go back to the basics! I love Isela Phelps.  Her videos are great, and they're pretty short, too!

• Simple Crochet Bind Off
• Basic Bind Off
• Knit stitch (the normal one, not that e-wrap one)

Zig-Zag Spring Hat Pattern

Here is my pattern, finally! It's ridiculously easy!  I saw a beret by Debbie Stoller (Stitch Nation) in Vogue Knitting.  I changed it by doing the first section as a k2tog instead of an ssk, but that's the only difference I made.  Unless you increase your stitches off the loom, or make wedges, it is difficult to make a beret, so it is just a toque. Sorry if I'm not very accurate; I really like to be flexible with patterns and therefore, I don't have any row numbers for hats. You can adjust if you want it to be a beanie (which is shorter).

41 or 40 peg loom (Knifty Knitter/ Michaels/ Wal-Mart brand does just fine)

Some people still have the 41-peg knifty knitter looms, but this pattern works best on any multiple of 4 (so you can also do it on a 36 peg loom).  For the 41 peg loom, the last peg should be purled.


Yarn size and gauge don't really matter, but I used Red Heart Super Saver Yarn and doubled it up.  You just need a fairly thick yarn (5 and up, or doubling up yarns) for the 41-peg loom. I broke the pattern down into 4 parts.

Stitches you need to know:

Knit (k) - normal stockinette stitch. Do not use e-wrap (twisted stockinette) stitch

Purl (p) - if you do not know how to do this stitch, please see this past post of Youtube compilations

Knit 2 together (k2tog) - In the pattern, for the first repeat of the ladder slanting to the right, your first k2tog occurs on peg 4.  To do this, take the loop off of peg 3, and then put it on top of peg 4. Yarn over peg 3 and knit together as 1 on peg 4.

Slip slip knit (ssk) - ssk - slip slip knit. This is weird in loom knitting because you don't have to do anything (whereas you have to slip the two stitches off the left needle, but I digress).  To make a ladder slant to the left, you take the loop off peg 3, and put it above the loop on peg 2, which will now have 2 stitches.  Knit those together as 1, and yarn over peg 3.

Yarn over (yo) - this is mentioned in combination with the k2tog and ssk. You do a yo before a k2tog. Basically bring the working yarn in front of the empty peg (because you moved the stitch to the next stitch for a k2tog) very loosely.  Do not e-wrap. You do a yarn over after the ssk has occu


PATTERN:

CO: 
Use whatever you like. I love the cable cast on for hats, because it looks like a thin line from afar and is stretchy. A long-tail cast on is a bit thick, but it also works nicely and is elastic.

Rib stitch
Row 1: *p2, k2
repeat row 1 until 1" is knitted

Ladder slant to the right
Row 1: *p1, k1, yo, k2tog, repeat *
Row 2: *p1, k3, repeat *
Repeat row 1 and 2 until you have knitted 4" for a beanie, or 4 1/2" for a regular hat

Ladder slant to the left
Row 1: *p1, ssk, yo, k1, repeat *
Row 2: *p1, k3, repeat *
Repeat row 1 and 2 until you have knitted 6" for a beanie (or even less, if you like them really short), or 6 1/2" for a regular hat

Decrease
Because the second half of the hat uses ssk I did a decrease using ssk instead of k2tog.  I didn't touch the purl stitches and only decreased on the knit stitches trying to maintain the pattern of the hat. After doing the amount wanted, bind off and weave in ends.

If you are having trouble, please read more.

Weekend Youtube Roundup

Finally! I was supposed to finish this post two days ago, whoops! My excuse is that it was my birthday.  Anyways, most of these posts are new videos that go along with articles from loom knitters circle! These are great, especially Bethany Dailey's bind off/cast off comparison.

Today's videos will show you:

• Chain lace stitch
• Bind off / cast off comparison for loom knitting
• slip one knit one pass over slipped stitch