Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Community Make-a-Square Project


Here is our first blanket - all finished!

M A K E   A   D I F F E R E N C E
To benefit residents at Newark-Wayne Community Hospital.
During January and February, bring your squares to the library.

Knit or crochet an 8 x 8” square. 
Volunteers will join squares together to create colorful, warm, soft twin bed-sized blankets. 


  • Please use soft acrylic yarns or cotton blends for non-allergenic properties and ease of care in washing/drying.
  • Making the squares as consistent in size (8x8”) and weight (worsted yarn) as possible helps volunteers to join the squares quickly and easily into blankets.

  • Get creative: If you know how to knit and/or crochet and enjoy working with different stitches, or a combination of stitches and patterns, then please feel free to be creative with your squares, as long as the finished square measures 8x8”. 

Knitting  instructions


FOR ONE 8" SQUARE, you will need:
  • acrylic worsted weight yarn (approximatley 3.5 oz ball)
  • Size 7 or 8 needles
  • A yarn sewing needle
1. Cast on 30 stitches (try to make your stitches neither too loose nor too tight to help ensure uniform squares) Check your gauge.
 
2. Row 1: knit


3. Row 2: knit. These two rows form the 'garter' stitch knitting pattern for your square


4. Continue knitting as per these two rows until you have knitted a square


5. To ensure you square is 8"/20cm either use a tape measure or form a triangle by folding one corner of your square over to meet the opposite corner as shown - if all sides are equal - then you have a square!


6. Cast off
 

7. Use your yarn sewing needle to sew in all the yarn ends using a darning method

VERY IMPORTANT
Leave 1.25 yards length of your yarn attached to your work after you have cast off. This will be used to join the squares together.


Crochet instructions

FOR ONE 8" SQUARE, you will need:
  • Acrylic 8 ply, worsted weight yarn (approximatley 3.5 oz ball)
  • Hook Size: J/10 6.00mm
  • Gauge: 11.5 sts x 5.5 rows = 4"
Abbreviations: Ch(s)-chain(s), dc-double crochet, rep-repeat


Row 1. Ch 24, dc in 3rd ch from hook & each ch to end (23 sts including chs), turn.
Row 2. Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc here and throughout), dc in each dc across, turn.
Rep last row 11 times. Finish off.

VERY IMPORTANT
Leave 1.25 yards length of your yarn attached to your work after you have cast off. This will be used to join the squares together. 

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day




Our library will be closed on Monday, January 21 in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Friday, January 11, 2013

January Book Club

The book club will meet January 16 at 6:30 PM
to discuss  MAKING PIECE: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Pie, by Beth Howard.

 
All are welcome to join.