Stitchboard Admin message #2
Re: New to Knitting: Want to Make Blanket for Friend's Birthday
August 4, 2015 at 2:57:59 AM  (in response to Grace5155 message #1)
 
Grace,

Welcome! 

First and most importantly, you must do a gauge swatch.  I know, nobody likes doing those, groan, but that will ultimately tell you how large your design will be.  This is why I can't say how many stitches you'll need, because it depends on the size of your knitting needles, yarn and tension, all things you'll know once you make a gauge swatch.  So there's really no way around it, I'm sorry to say.

Second, the chart produced tells you where to use the green as opposed to white.  If you're getting odd colors, it's because you've uploaded a jpg.  A png or gif would be better.

Third, since you're fairly new to knitting, I'd suggest starting a bit smaller than a blanket.  It's completely understandable to want to skip to the fun projects, but you'll probably find better ways of working the blanket if you understand more concepts first.  For example, if you don't have practice with ways of carrying/stranding your yarn, you may end up with floats on the reverse that are way too long and end up detracting from your work.  Or you may find you'd prefer to duplicate stitch instead.  Many of these are personal choices and/or choices based on experience, so I can't advise you on them, but working small to learn the basics is usually the best place to start. 

Hope that helps!

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