Sunday, September 25, 2011

Traveling Double Diamonds Tree of Life Baby Throw - Pattern

DetroitKnitter's Traveling Double Diamonds Tree of Life Baby Throw
(updated 11-27-14)
Now available is my latest version of the beautiful miniature Tree of Life Afghan by Nicky Epstein.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!! My Traveling Double Diamonds Tree of Life Baby Throw pattern is uploaded if anyone else wants to knit it this way. This link will take you directly the the PDF pattern which I have uploaded to my DropBox.  Browse through other Ravelry members Baby Tree of Life Throw projects.

UPDATE: CHART for the Double Diamonds can be viewed here DropBox

Twining Trees with new dividing pattern shown
So what’s different between this one and the LionBrand pattern? The most noticeable things are that the flower garden has been exchanged for a cable pattern I wrote, “Traveling Double Diamonds” and I used a seed stitch border with a chain edge again. I added a dividing pattern back in again, but changed it and I LOVE IT too!! The garter rows on the original just left something to be desired and not doing a dividing row like my previous blanket left it missing something. The dividing pattern is also my design and required a lot of “scrap” knitting before I got something I liked.

Is this hard to knit? While I hate to say it’s “difficult” it definitely requires some good knitting skills including ability to follow a pattern, reading stitches so you can KKPP and some solid knowledge of cabling - two of the cable stitches require the use of TWO cable needles for one stitch!

Personal notes follows:
Needles: I CO using Caron circs size 7 with int size 5. The Caron circs are too blunt for cabling. CO edge turned out good though.

After knitting TDD (traveling double diamonds) #1 and TDD #2, I only had a fist size ball of yarn left. TDD #2 may use a bit more yarn so to make two from one skein could possibly come up short.
Use pointier needles! Way to difficult to work 4st cables and nearly impossible to do the CDI with the stubby grey Caron needles.

My own design: Traveling Double Diamonds
The TDD takes forever to do, so don’t be in a hurry to finish!

The width is pretty consistent throughout. There is no noticeable distortion along the cable section. There is a very tiny bit of widening when starting the 2nd set of trees, which is most likely being caused by the dividing row and the trunk of the trees.

Consider writing pattern with just one border set instead of two for the TDD version. CO would be 113 and would therefore eliminate the inc/dec to 113 as is needed to begin/end the TDD pattern.

BO: 2 lengths of width of blanket was enough to do the sewn bind off. Using a moderate tug/tension during the BO kept the top edge from flaring out. Nice finish! Finish the last 2 sts of BO by sewing back 2 then 1 forward as usual then drop both sts of LHN instead of just the one. No need to do anything further with the last st. Weave to the left.

11 comments:

GDA Mom said...

A question: I noticed in the errata for the Dividing Pattern it says, "had rows 5 and 9 as K92 when it should have been P92. However, the directions in the pattern itself don't seem to have been changed to reflect that. Am I correct?

Marlene and Dave said...

I cleared that up! The errata is wrong (doh) and the pattern is correct. Now changed :)

Blessed-1 said...

I just found this site...quite by accident, but it looks so interesting and informative! Thank you for sharing this pattern! It's so timely that I found this, since I just looked at that pattern yesterday and considered doing it for my newest gr.grandchild that's coming. I like what you did to this blanket way better! It's beautiful!!! I know my granddaughter will love it too.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so very much for this pattern! I absolutely adored the tree of life baby blanket, but the original central pattern was not baby safe. I actually like the look of this one better anyways. Just adore this blanket and can't thank you enough for the wonderful instructions.

Amanda said...

Hello, I'm making the Lion Brand version of this primarily, do you think it would be possible to just use your TDD for the middle section? It looks okay to me, but I don't consider myself advanced enough to be certain. Thank you!

Marlene and Dave said...

@Amanda - Yes, you can use only the TDD for the middle section. The number of cast on stitches is for the TDD *AND* the chain edging with the seed border. If you would like to see other knitters variations of the blanket you can find a lot on Ravelry. This link should take you to the projects page for this pattern - http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-tree-of-life-throw/people

Unknown said...

hello there... is there a mistake on row 12 of this pattern? the end of the repeat section said to purl 10 stitches - but I have 4 stitches left in my section before the next twining trees section begins... ???

Marlene and Dave said...

@Diana Turnbull - No there is no error. Here's a break down of the stitches in the repeat of [p14, 2/2P-RC, k3, M1, k1, p8, k1, M1, k3, 2/2P-LC, p10] which adds up to 50 stitches.

Here's a break down int he () indicates the number of stitches involved.
Purl 14 (14)
2/2P-RC (4)
k3 (3)
M1 (+1)
k1 (1)
p8 (8)
k1 (1)
m1 (+1)
k3 (3)
2/2P-LC (4)
P10 (10)

The final stitch count is 126 and is an increase of 4 from the previous row by way of the 4 M1 stitches. Before starting the row you should have 100 stitches between the border stitches and after working row 12 you should have 104 between the border stitches.

Unknown said...

I am working on the Lion original Tree of Life Afghan, do you happen to have the TDD pattern for the original 180 stitches? I have been racking my brain for two days to get the stitch pattern down.

Love the baby blanket! I am going to put that on my to do list for my next grandchild!

Thanks you!
CeCe

Marlene and Dave said...

@CeCe - I don't have the pattern written for the original 180 stitch afghan. The TDD was written as a replacement section for the baby size throw which can be viewed here http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/90430AD.html?r=1

Also a fellow Ravelry member created a chart that may help you figure out how to apply the TDD to the blanket size version - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32327954/Chart%20-%20Traveling%20Double%20Diamonds.pdf

Best,
Marlene

Marlene and Dave said...

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/DetroitKnitter/baby-tree-of-life-throw-6

Please use this link to find references to the pattern.