Knitting a square & joining things.

[jackandahat]

(Forgive me, this is going to be a stupid question)

I'm trying to join some other pieces together by picking up a side from each and knitting a square in the middle, decreasing towards the centre.

But I'm struggling with the "How many and how often?" part of decreasing. Doing sl1 k2tog psso at each corner still gets me a lump in the middle.

How would you decrease to make a flat square?

Second, hopefully less daft question - how do you go about joining pieces using knitting? I'd like to make an afghan out of blocks, but I'd rather not do that amount of sewing if possible. Which is where I ended up on the problem above. All the patterns I've found so far are either log-cabin type where it gets bigger and bigger, rather than something you can work on in small pieces, or they're pieces sewn together after.

Comments

[pinesandmaples]

Knit the blanket in pieces then:

crochet them together.

pick up stitches and do 3-needle bind-offs.

pick up stitches and do some other bind-off you are about to invent.

sew.

If you are looking for speed and general appearance, crochet is your winner here.

Added: The joining things to things problem up top sounds like you are describing a mitered square. If so, you'll always have a ridge of bumps.

[jackandahat]

I don't know 3-needle bind-off, but it gives me something to google, so thank you. (That's part of my problem - I have no idea what to even search for - "joining squares" just gets me a lot about sewing.)

Like a mitered square, yeah, but I'm knitting inwards from all four sides rather than two. I don't mean the row of bumps, that's fine - I mean that it's not remotely flat, it looks like a hill - sticks up in the middle. So I'm obviously not decreasing *enough*, or fast enough or whatever.

(What I was doing was laying out the four pieces I had like a plus-sign with a gap in the middle, picking up the inside edge of each, and trying to decrease at each corner until they were joined by a square. Except, yeah, hello knitted!hill.)

[pinesandmaples]

Based on the questions you've been asking, I'm going to recommend you borrow or buy a knitting technique book. I think seeing the techniques and their common names (and some techniques have about 8 names!) presented would help you a lot in knowing how to tackle your problems. A lot of knitters panic in the face of the unknown; it's much easier to keep calm if you know that the problem can be solved by something called the Gargle-Leaped Twirl, even if you don't know how to do a Gargle-Leaped Twirl.

The Knitter's Companion by Vicki Square is a good start. And make sure to check your local library for their knitting selection, because every pattern book as a technique section that will explain the basics. Actually, the Stitch and Bitch series might also be a resource here...

You are decreasing too slowly. Rip and re-knit. Or why not just knit another square and seam them together using one of the above methods? Or heck, go all out and make the bottom piece a mitered square.

[jackandahat]

I'm not panicking, I'm asking questions. My library has a couple of books on kids' toys from the 80s, that's all, so I use the internet for the most part. I just thought I'd ask here in case anyone had some answers.

I figured I was decreasing too slowly, that's why I asked how other people would. This is just a practice, I was trying to see if it was a plausible technique.

[pinesandmaples]

Yes, you are just asking questions. But why not arm yourself with knowledge before you get to the questions? You seem to be reaching for technique names, and I'm suggesting that you could learn those things instead of asking us vague questions every time you come upon something. Make your knitting more triumphant with less commentary from the peanut gallery. Empowering the knitter, etc.

If you are using the internet, I recommend TECHknitting as someone who Knows Things™.

[jackandahat]

I'm sorry, I didn't realise that it was so frowned on to ask other people for help or want to discuss things.

I'm really not sure what makes you think I'm asking "every" time I come across something, but I'm sure you're basing your assumption on something.

[pinesandmaples]

Whatever. You want to ask vague questions that no one understands, please ask away. Sick of this.

[jackandahat]

Given several people have given me useful advice, I'm not sure why you think "no-one understands".

[nitoda]

oooh - idea! If you are trying to fill a square hole in the middle of other squares, could you start in one corner and knit like you would a triangular scarf, starting with one stitch and increasing and picking up at ends as you go making a diagonally knit square in the middle? Could make for an interesting texture?

[jackandahat]

That's actually my plan for stray corners, but as long as I'm careful with the decreases in the second half that could be a cool alternative to the into-the-middle square.