For those of you bead makers in the Southern California area the next So Cal Flame Surfers meeting is September 17th and will be held at CBS, Coatings by Sandberg. Don McKinney will be demoing and CBS usually has a lovely selection of dichroic glass on sale. Come on down if you can. And for those of you not in the area…if you have any meetings I need to announce to the bead makers or other glass enthusiasts pass me the information and I’ll get it out into the internets!! The So Cal Flame Surfers are a regional group of the International Society of Glass Bead Makers…
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Get Your Squish on with This Cozy Blanket Knitting Pattern
I have recently gained a great affection for the knitting stitch known as fisherman’s rib. It’s sort of like brioche, but it’s easier to knit, and make sit super squishy, warm, non-curling fabric that is great for all sorts of projects.
A few years ago I knit a fisherman’s rib scarf for one of my daughter’s teachers, and that post is consistently one of my most popular, so I guess a lot of other people like this simple stitch, too.
The way it’s made is by knitting into the row below, which gives the ribbing more depth and stretchiness than standard ribbing. Once you get the hang of it, it’s actually really easy to do. I’m working a pattern in half fisherman’s rib right now (so that’s regular ribbing on one side and fisherman’s rib on the other) and I don’t even have to look at my knitting to know where to work into the stitch any more.
If you’re already a fan of this stitch, or you want to see what all the fuss is about, the Squishy Fisherman’s Rib Blanket from Bernat is a great place to start.
This pattern uses super bulky yarn, so you can stitch it up in no time. I noticed that for the yarn it calls for, Bernat Softee Chunky, you would only need three balls of yarn, which makes the cost of the blanket less than $15 (OK, maybe a little more if you have to pay for shipping).
The blanket is rated easy, and as knit comes out to about 38 by 48 inches, or 96.5 by 122 cm, which is a nice size for snuggling on the couch. But since the pattern is based on 1×1 ribbing, you can easily adjust the size to make it bigger if you want.
You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.
[Photo: Yarnspirations]