How to design your own baby blanket, or, how to make sure your piece will be a proper square!

Step 1: Swatch like crazy. I used four different yarns from my stash:

• Rowan Lenpur Linen
• Knitpicks Gloss Fingering
• Knitpicks Shine Cotton/Rayon
• Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton

Step 2: Choose which one you like the most, or, if you’re not picky, choose which one you have enough yarn for. For mine, I had enough Lenpur Linen and Knitpicks Shine, and not enough of the others. I decided I didn’t want to go out and buy more, so I went with Lenpur Linen. The baby blanket is for an L.A. couple, whose baby is arriving in the summer time. Knitpicks Shine was too wooly for summer in LA. The Lenpur Linen also happened to be the one that I had been sitting on for a while because it wasn’t very fun to knit with (very splitty and no stretch), but it had the better color and feel to it.

Step 3: Math time!

• Measure your GAUGE.

• Measure swatch AREA. Eg, if your swatch measures 6.62” by 5.25”, the area is 6.62 x 5.25 = 34.75 square inches.

• Weigh each swatch on a kitchen or postal scale. Convert Ounces to Grams since most balls are measured in Grams. Hint: 1 oz. = 28.35 grams

• Divide the swatch AREA by swatch WEIGHT (in grams). 34.75 ÷ 14.175g = 2.45 sq. inches per gram.

• Figure your total weight (in grams). Example: I figured for 6.5 balls, each weighing roughly 50g the total equals 325g. (6.5 x 50 = 325)

• Multiply total weight by square inches per gram. Eg: 325 x 2.45 = 796.25 square inches

• Take the square root of that number. Mine comes to 28. So, I have enough for a 28 x 28 inch blanket.

• Now, use your gauge measurements to figure how many stitches to cast on. Eg: My gauge is 5.7 stitches per inch. So, 5.7 x 28 = 159.6, or 160 stitches.

Step 4: Create a chart, or cheat sheet. I like charts.
My stitch pattern, Lattice Stitch, repeats every 16 stitches. Divide total stitches by that number. 160 ÷ 16 = 10. But I need borders. Hmmm. well, if I have 8 stitches on each end for the border, the math works out!

Step 5: Cast on, and let the knitting begin!

Epilogue:
Turns out the math really works.

I used up everything I had, with about 4 rows to go to complete it. Luckily I had a swatch from the 8th ball in the stash, and so I took from that.

If you’re using stash yarn, and it’s discontinued or you don’t want to buy more, simply cast fewer stitches, thus underestimating your finished dimensions …Always begging the question: Is it better to have yarn left over, or to use up every last inch of it?