I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m slowly knitting a blanket one square at a time and trying to use up the wool supply I had, but I obviously needed to buy more, it’s a blanket, it’s going to need a lot of wool.
After three garter stitch squares and three stocking stitch squares I decided I needed to expand my skills, slowly but surely. And three squares seems like a good number to practice without getting too bored of repeating the same pattern.
A friend suggested that diagonal knitting could be a good next step. So here we are, two diagonals in - I wonder if there’s a technical way of describing this.
The first pattern I read suggested to knit one in the front and one in the back of both the first and last stitch in alternate rows. And then to knit two together on the first and last stitch of those alternate rows when you wanted to start decreasing.
The second pattern I read suggested to knit one in the front and on the in back of just the first stitch in every row. And then to knit two together of just the first stitch in each row too.
Being an experimental, skill growth project I decided to try both. And I present them here today.
This is the alternate row, first and last stitch version. Pretty good though there may be a skipped increase or decrease in there.
This is the every row, first stitch version. This one seems a bit weirdly out of shape, but maybe that’s due to the fact I finished it after two glasses of wine on a video catchup on a Friday night after a big week… but really on closer inspection both the increasing and the decreasing sides aren't as neat (the increasing were wine free).
I have a third square to compete my trio and match the quantity of my others, so I now have to decide whether I follow the first or second pattern. The first pattern is certainly neater but harder to remember, which row am I on (particularly on the last stitch when you just want to finish the row). The second pattern is easier to remember because you start every row with an adjustment but the misshapenness and the edge...sorry pattern 2.
Then I’m going to try three more on the diagonal (bias?) but in stocking stitch, using pattern 1 will also mean my alternate rows can simply be stitched on the purl row. But I would like to learn how to increase for the purl rows, does knit one in the back and one in the front become knit one in the front and one in the back?
After those three squares I’ll have to find a new stitch to learn.
I’m trying not to think about how exactly I’m going to stitch these squares together. But I suspect it may start as a skinny throw before growing into a fully fledged blanket. I have 9 months now until winter at least.
I had to laugh at the 'wine free increases' :-DDD I think both techniques are ok, as you will sew the squares at their sides and I guess that the "untidy" stitches are not visible after sewing. But I am not a big blanket maker, so I am no real help here. And as I am lazy I would use the technique which is more comfortable...
I hadn't considered that I'd been sewing the sides away! For some reason I found pattern number two to be hard to increase, the actual space within the stitch, maybe it's not as stable somehow. So I'm sticking with pattern 1 and my rubber band on the needle reminder :)
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STOPTry increasing not with kfb-stitches at the start of the row, but at stitch No. 2. That makes nice borders (edges? There's still room for improvement in my knitting English). Theoretically you can use the kfb on purl rows, too - but I don't like the look of it. I'd use M1, "make one" between the first two stitches, where you take the thread of the row before between the two stitches on the needle and purl it (or knit it, in knit rows). And I wouldn't bother with M1r or M1l - I always use the same one ;)