Ok, so this probably doesn't look like much of a TA DAH. Something being knitting in the round? Not really, it's a square. Sure it is, said my hubby when he saw it. It's December's cotton cloth for DD for my Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge. Well, yeah...I see Christmas colors...but?
Making progress, if fact you might have seen this picture a few days ago for work in progress Wed. This is a mitered square. When I started the pattern, it didn't really make alot of since to me. But, I liked the look when I saw the picture on the pattern and decided to give it a try. I've seen these types of squares and thought they were neat, but looked complicated. At first glance I thought you make a square and knitted or crocheted around 2 sides only to get this effect. You don't. You knit 2 sides at the same time. Look above in picture 1, the green is the cast on. Here I cast on 61 ( you always want an odd number in your cast on). You're knitting one side, making a point which is actually where you decrease, then you knit the 2nd side. Each row get's smaller and smaller on the two sides, bringing the center area closer and closer together.
TA DAH. Visually, the colors in the last picture aren't are as true as it is in real life. And the square is truly square, which in this picture looks a bit off...believe it's a visual because of the color combination and the big to little look of it all. I need to finish tucking in the yarn changes. Normally I do that as I go, but since this was a first for me doing a mitered square...left them...in case I had to frog it. There is 1 mistake, but I didn't frog it.
So even though this is just a little cotton washcloth for my DD, it is a TA DAH for me, because I learned to do something new. After you cast on you knit x amount of stitches, you do a decrease by slipping off 1 stitch, then knit 2 together, the pass the slip stitch over (sl 1, k2tog, psso), then knit the same x amount of stitches. The next row is straight knit.
So....Decease a row
Knit a row
Decrease a row
Knit a row. The trick is to remember, or write down (I use a counter and have it written to see where I am) in order to know how many stitches you're knitting.
Example my first row was a knit 29 on each side of the decrease, my next decrease row was knit 28.
Cast on 61
knit 29, do the decrease, knit 29
knit a row
knit 28, do the decrease, knit 28
knit a row
keep going until you have 3 stitches left and do your bind off.
*determine how many rows you want to do before changing colors and have fun. I liked doing the mitered square, liked the way it ended up and plan to do it again.
Oh, I should add this is Cotton Cloth #9, only 3 to go to finish my Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge, with the months of Jan, Feb, and March being the last 3 to do.
These crocheted mitered squares were donated for Bridge and Beyond. Been doing LOTS of design work lately, lining up designs in que to assemble into afghans. I've not worked with crocheted mitered squares before and think these might work best solo...that is to say here all together vs mixed with other donated squares. I call this design window panes, with all the squares going the same direction. These are small squares and so I'll need to add. Perhaps I'll only add to 2 sides, perhaps...all the way around? Thoughts on which would be best? At this point, I assume I'm going to use cream/offwhite/ivory...
This design I'm calling Green Boxes. They would be stitched together (4 squares each to make 1 larger square). Again using ivory/offwhite/cream, I would enlarge the 4 larger squares.
Mixed windows....windows facing each direction? Mixed Squares? In my mind, I think I can see this might look more modern? That is if, I added only to 2 sides of each square, but made it offset, such that the green square would be in the upper corner of one block and the lower one of the neighbor block? Then again, maybe just adding to one side making them rectangles to enlarge and then joining them?
