It's growing pretty quickly. While the squares are about the same size as the sock weight blanket, they have less stitches, so they knit up a little quicker. You can really notice the weight on this one - I wonder what the worsted one will be like?A few people have asked some questions about the Crackghan, so here is a little tutorial about how I'm doing it, that will hopefully answer them.
There aren't a lot of hard and fast rules about this blanket - needle size and tension aren't really critical, and if you can knit and purl, k2tog, and ssk, you can make it.
For the sock weight blanket I made 11 individual squares to start my bottom row - this made my blankie about 27.5 inches wide.
Here's how I made my mitered squares:
With a 2.5 mm needle, I cast on 32 stitches
First Row (and all right side rows): K
2nd row: K14, ssk, k2tog, K14
4th row: K13, ssk, k2tog, K13
6th row: K12, ssk, k2tog, K12
8th row: K11, ssk, k2tog, K11
10th row: K10, ssk, k2tog, K10
12th row: K9, ssk, k2tog, K9
14th row: K8, ssk, k2tog, K8
16th row: K7, ssk, k2tog, K7
18th row: K6, ssk, k2tog, K6
20th row: K5, ssk, k2tog, K5
22th row: K4, ssk, k2tog, K4
24th row: K3, ssk, k2tog, K3
26th row: K2, ssk, k2tog, K2
28th row: K1, ssk, k2tog, K1
30th row: ssk, k2tog,
31st row: k2tog, cut thread and pull through last stitch
Once I made 11, it was time to start attaching them - I did this by starting the second row. I know some people have sewn their squares together, and some people have crochet them together with black yarn (which gives it a cool stained glass look) but I was all for the quick and dirty method of knitting them together.
How do you do that? Instead of casting on for another square, simply pick up 16 stitches down one side of the previous square, and 16 stitches up the other side the next square:
Starting with right side facing and Row 1, work the square as before:
For the edge squares you are only picking up on one side of the previous row, and casting on for the other.For the right side: Cast on 16, pick up and knit 16 stitches up the side of the square in the previous row
For the left side : Pick up and knit 16 along the side of the square in the previous row, then cast on 16.
That's it - Easy as Pie!
For the DK version, I'm knitting 24 stitches on 3.25 mm needles. And instead of working horizontal rows, as you can see they go diagonal to create a straight edge, instead of jagged. To do this, simply start with just one square and build on either side.
You can, of course, make your squares any size and use any type of yarn. There are also other ways to do mitred squares - like I said, very few hard and fast rules!
And there's no end to what you can do with this check it out( Rav links below):
For example Just in the Knit of Time made a stunning baby blanket. I totally want to make one of these for some lucky baby. I'm trying very hard to resist the urge to make one for the cats. (Of course they've already claimed both Crackghans, so I guess I don't need to)
Here's one that shows the Stained Glass Effect I mentioned.
This one is cool - the squares go in different directions!
A piece of modern art? Pretty cool!
Project Bag anyone? That is sweet!
5 comments:
And what are you going to do with your finished crackghans?
Looks challenging, I am a hat and scarf knitter myself.
It really is easy to do. I love the stained glass effect with the black yarn.
Those little squares make me insane. You could do the stained glass effect by picking up the stitches in black, knitting a row and then changing to your sock colour.
It really looks like a great project...but I don't have any leftovers :-)
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