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Knitting. a dumb question.

I have knitted things for years, then have been in a big slump. After all the talk I had the urge to have needles and yarn in my hand. Sooo I was in Joannes and found a couple of patterns. One was dishcloths, no problem the yarn was on sale. I still have to finish the stadium blanket for DGS.

The other is where I have the question. I bought a LA book of 7 Quick knit Baby Afghans, figuring I could donate then somewhere. I also picked up a 1 lb skein of Caron YARN iT APPEARS TO BE WORSTED. i FIGURED ALL WAS FINE, UNTIL i LOOKED AT THE la BOOK. tHEY ARE ASKING FOR (sorry, caps lock got stuck.)

Anyway they want Double knitting weight wool. Looking at the gauge things look way off. Would this be sports yarn??

I remember DK from my years living in UK, but haven't seen it applied to an American pattern.

All help from my fellow stitchers here is appreciated, or else I will pose my question to RCTY.

This is just for idle time when I want to WATCH the program, rather than listen.

Thanks a lot

Gillian

Reply to
Gillian Murray
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I always thought of double knitting as a lighter weight worsted, but heavier then sport yarn. Now I'm not so sure. It used to be that worsted weight was around 20 stitches to the inch and now it's mostly listed at 18 or less. Why not just follow the instructions in your book and call them crib blankets instead of afghans.

Lucille

Reply to
lucille

If you want to donate consider this

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Reply to
lucretia borgia

I was looking at the book and it basically calls for 13 or 15 needles. Heck, The yarn was on sale at Joanns and i have coupon for next week...so I am sure i can find something quick. There is absolutely no purpose or goal in this, other than the comfort feeling of knitting while watching TV. Some can crochet, and some can knit without looking, and I am one of the latter.

Have to finish the stadium blankie for DGS first!

G
Reply to
Gillian Murray

If it calls for a 13 or 15 needle it would have to be a bulky weight, or maybe they want you to use two strands. Anything lighter then bulky with such a fat needle would come out awfully loose.

If you really want to do some mindless knitting, look into the Warm Up America afghans that Michaels collects for charity every year. For them you just make 14" (?) squares and either you put them together as an afghan or you could just drop them off and someone else came to the store and crocheted or sewed them together. I used up lots of odds and ends of yarn doing them and I had fun just doing whatever pattern I felt like doing.

Lucille

L
Reply to
lucille

Double knitting a.k.a. DK is slightly heavier than Sport. It's IME/references called "light" in the yarn weights, and is a Light Worsted. Standard gage in stockinette, 4" swatch, is 21-24 sts on size 5-7 needles. Sport gages at 25-26 st on size 3-5 needles. Usually DK is in with the kiddie yarns, it may be the heavier of all those light yarns. It's pretty interchangable with Sport yarn - depending on your use.

See above. When I went on the baby sweater binge, I found a lot of patterns calling for DK. At the LYS, or straining my brain, we can work thru what will substitute in. For me, it's all about gage and weight. I don't really understand why the name for DK, and the LYS owner did explain it to me, but Ive forgotten.

Have fun - hope this answered.

Ellice

Reply to
ellice

If it's calling for size 13 or 15s, that's generally the Super Bulky, #6, yarn - and will work up really fast.

Ellice

Reply to
ellice

Thanks Ellice,

I will just try a 4 inch swatch, and see what I come up with. In the light of day, I noticed the book commented that any yarn that had a gauge as 5 1/2 sts to the inch would work.

In my youth I think DK was the heaviest wool you could get in England; I knitted my first thing at age 4...a scarf for my teddy bear. It looked a bit strange as I would lose stitches, and make stitches, but I was proud of it, and remember it was yellow!

As Mirjam said in an email...always try a swatch first, and I usually do. In something like this if it is close, that will be good enough.

Gill

Reply to
Gillian Murray

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