Finished Lilac Stripe Afghan

This is the underside of a hemmed edge. Weaving through both layers covers the hem.
I've been tugging on the mesh to keep the tension of the yarn from puckering the mesh. When I worked the hem edge, I had to leave a little puckering to keep the mesh from rippling on the edge.

 

 

And the finished product, trimmed and ready to use.

 

I have several projects in mind. I may have to draw ideas out of a hat to figure out what I'm doing next. You'll hear from me soon.

 

Thanks for visiting with me,

 

Kathi Linz

Adjusting the Edge - Part 2

When I finished the last stripe, I needed to deal with the extra rows at the edge of the afghan.

I trimmed off the extra rows - MAKING SURE TO LEAVE ENOUGH FOR A HEM!
Don't trim it to the last row that you are going to weave. Leave enough to turn under. Five or six rows are good for a hem.

 

 

The last step is to loosely baste the hem under. Then you can finish weaving your work. Knot the fringe and trim it. And you have completed a beautiful piece of yarn art.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi Linz
 

Adjusting the End

Even though I counted the mesh at least three times, I've obviously miscalculated somewhere along the line. There should only be five rows left on the outer edge after I finish the last two purple rows.

I am not panicking. I am not going back to shuffle the number of rows in any given color. This is an easy fix. I'll be back in a couple of hours to show you what I do about it.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi Linz

More Than One Needle

I've woven most of this afghan with one needle. I tried using two at a time and it worked pretty well. So I dug deep and found, not one, not three, but eight needles. Using them all at once would finish a whole inch in one pass across the afghan.

I've done this weaving before, but I'm doing some experimenting this time around. Let me tell you that this particular experiment was less than a glowing success!

I had trouble moving each needle from one side to the other of the table without dropping one or more other needles off the edge.  The yarn was not cooperative as you will see shortly.

 

 

I discovered that it is much easier to make a mistake than it would be with a single strand at a time.

 

 

Which I pulled out and rewove working between the other strands already in place.

I did figure out an easy way to keep the needles organized. You stick the point into the fabric in the correct order.  Then you know which one to use next as you work across and they don't fall off the edge of the table.

 

 



I think I will stick to using fewer needles from now on.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi Linz

P.S. Three needles is do-able. After that, you have to be very careful.

 



 

Figuring Your Yardage

Knitters and crocheters have to use the draconian measure of working a row, pulling the yarn loose, and then measuring the yarn in order to figure out how much yardage they need to complete a project.

Another possible option would be to finish the project and write down how much they used. This would help any future purchasing of yarn for doing the same project but doesn't do much to help the person who works the pattern first.

How much yarn you will need for mesh weaving is fairly easy to figure.

1. Measure the length of the mesh.
2. Add about 12-16 inches for fringe and the natural up and down of weaving.
3. Count the number of rows per color.
4. Multiply length times the number of rows. Make that into yards.

My current project is just under 400 rows wide. (Figure 8 rows per inch.)

 

I am making 9 stripes. There are 4 rows of purple per stripe. That makes 36 purple lengths.

 

Each stripe is 9 rows across. I adjusted the center row by adding an extra 2 strands. That makes 83 lengths of variegated yarn.

 

36 + 83 = 119.

 

Subtract that from 400 and I have 281 strands of lilac (or a few less).

 

Multiply by 2 1/2 yards and these are the amounts of yarn that I currently need:

 

Lilac - 702 1/2 yards

Purple - 90 yards

Variegated - 207 1/2 yards

 

The shopping then becomes easy since skeins/balls of yarn are labeled with the yardage.

 

Thanks for visiting with me,

 

Kathi Linz

 

Flipping the Afghan

Sometime back, I said that when the finished work became too cumbersome on the side nearest to me, I would turn the work. That puts the empty mesh over my lap. The table supports the heavier finished part of the afghan.

I've arrived at the halfway point and it was more than time to turn the afghan around.

 

I finished the knots on what used to be the beginning of the rows, so now the first half of the blanket is knotted at both ends.

 

 

 



When I flipped the chevron pattern baby blanket, I had no problem continuing with the pattern. Since the visible mesh didn't matter as part of the pattern, I could always start weaving going down into the first hole.

 

(Just to remind you how it looked)

 

 



But since I now have to consider the pattern of the mesh, I've discovered that it was easier for me to hit the first hole when I worked above the finished part. My mind has to work harder to figure out the pattern working below the previous rows. I can't tell you why that is. I'm simply reporting my observation.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi Linz

Making Progress 2

I'd planned to be on the fourth stripes by tonight, but I foolishly went and bought groceries after work instead.

Tomorrow is another day. I should be nearing the middle before I sleep tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi Linz