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

[aquaeri]

Yeah, your "how many decreases per row" problem on the inward-knitted squares depends on the stitch you're using, and your particular knitting style. If your stitches were perfectly square, three->one in each of four corners would work perfectly. Two rows of garter is close enough to square for most people for this to work every second row. But for other stitches, you have to adjust so you decrease often enough, but not too often. Every two out of three sounds, like medrin says, a good one to try with a typical stocking stitch pattern. If you've got ribbing or lace or anything else, you'll need a gauge swatch and a bit of maths. (Which I will happily help you with if that's an issue.)

And from my experience with hats, yeah, the 12-stitch row is probably the one to bind off on unless you're fond of nipples.

[jackandahat]

See, I was all nodding along, and yep, that's good advice, I'll try that... and then I got to the last line and cracked up. *grins*

Thank you - yeah, I hadn't taken that into consideration. Which might be what I get for knitting at 6am, frankly.

And that's exactly what I was wondering - I knew it must be possible to do the squares like that, I just knew "3 stitches every other row" wasn't working, and couldn't wrap my head around what number/how often it should be.

Cheers!

[aquaeri]

Getting you to crack up was all part of my evil plan. I'm glad you sound all set to tackle this now.

[jackandahat]

You are evil, and I shall remember this. *nods*

Actually, this is all my Evil Housemate's fault. She can't even knit, but she's willing to listen to me talk about mine, and she is encouraging me to make an afghan. And keeps coming up with ideas, usually late at night when I'm highly suggestible, and then next thing you know you have four cabled owls and cotton tied around your wrist with a 3.25 dpn stuck behind your ear...