Tuesday, July 23, 2013

A Test Fish


Last Christmas, I gave my MIL samples of yarn so she and my FIL could select colors for an afghan.  She has some crochet afghans (granny squares) and requested something with fewer holes.  When looking through patterns, she selected the A Recipe for Fish pattern and wanted a cotton blend yarn.  I knew that Simply Cotton from KnitPicks is soft with great drape and would make a fantastic afghan.  


I am knitting up this test fish to see the size and to help estimate how much yarn I will need for this project.  Thankfully the colors she selected (in May) are still available via KnitPicks!  

I didn't measure weights to start, but instead weighed the final fish.  How long does it take to finish one fish?  Are they annoying to make?  These are the questions I hope to answer.  


I swatched the yarn held double on both size 10 and size 11 needles. The size difference (6 mm vs 8 mm) is pretty big for just a differnece of one needle size.  I will knit the fish on the size 10 because it still is cozy and has decent drape, but also a better stitch size.  

It took me under 45 min to complete one fish.  I decided to make a second fish for the test.  21g per fish.  Each fish was 8.75" long.  Two fish together are an average of 7.5" high.  


I drew a 6x8 schematic - would give us a blanket of 52.5" x 30" (4.375 ft x 2.5 ft.)  Playing around in Excel, I decided that I will aim for a 6 x 12 (or 6 x 11) tile blanket, which would require just over 30 (!) balls of yarn, assuming that each ball of yarn averages 50 g.  If each ball averages 45 g, I would need just over 34 balls.  I'm ordering 16 of each color (since I started with two.)  If I start to run out or consume it faster than expected, I can always order some extra.  


Now I just have to wait for the yarn to arrive and try to finish this by Christmas!