[music playing] simple gifts hi. my name is cheryl brunette and thank you forstopping by my knitting channel where you will find tips and techniques complete workshops and answers to your most perplexingsweater questions. today i want to do three things. first, i want to show you how to knit thisgarter stitch mitered square.
it's not the only way to make miteredsquare but it is one that i like because it isvery simple, it is impressive when it is done, and onceyou get past the first row, he cast on and first row, and mark the central stitches, it is automatic pilot knitting. and every once in a while i like that inmy life. second, i am going to show you how to join them as you knit
so that you could make a blanket thathad a hundred of these squares and never have to sew a single seam. you would do it as you went along. and third, i want to mess with your medial prefrontal cortex. which is the place that lights up whenyou change a belief. as for example if you go from
"oh man, that baby is coming in five months. i had better find a pattern." to . . . " well, maybe i don't really need a pattern. maybe i can do this," to . . . "i do not need a pattern. it isjust a blanket." so let us begin with the mitered square. in order to make it you need to know how to do four things:
how to count, how to do a long tailed cast on, how to form a knit stitch, and how to make a double decrease. andi am going to show you two techniques for that last skill. so let us get started. garter stitch is a perfect fabric fora square because it has a square gauge. the width of one stitch
is pretty regularly equal to theheight of two rows. you can make these out of any weight yarn with appropriate size needles. today i am using worsted weight yarnand a pair of size 8 needles. to begin, use a long tail cast on to cast on an even number of stitches plusone. notice i did not say an oddnumber of stitches. we will revisit this later. i have twenty-one stitches here.
then we follow a simple two row repeat. row one, which is a wrong side row,is simply knit all the way across except we are going to mark the center three stitches.to find the center three stitches take your total number of stitches, mine is twenty one today minus the three in the center gives me eighteen. and then you divide that number by two.
i get nine. so i work nine stitches before i place the first marker. then i work the center three stitches and place the second marker. thenthere should be nine stitches left. it does not matter how many stitches you have. this is the way you get that number. seven, eight, nine . . . place your first marker.
knit three . . . and place your second marker. and finish up that row. now we are ready to start row 2, a rightside row. we are going to knit it and combine these three center stitchesinto one. i am going to show you two different waysto do this and they look a little bit different. the easiest way
is simply to knit all three of thosestitches together, and this is what you get. it is a nice diagonal. it is maybe not exactly onthe diagonal. but it is still really handsome and serviceable. this is the other method which usesthe center stitch. we are going to slip a couple ofstitches as if to knit, one stitch, and then do some pass over. this is a little bit more centered thanthis other one.
but it is also bumpier. this one lies alittle bit flat. it is strictly personal preference as towhich one you would like to use but i am going to show you both. we will start with the knit three together. first you knit up to the three centerstitches. notice these markers . . . you will know when you come up to threestitches that you are on a right-side row. you just pass that marker over and knit all three of them together.
it is a little bit tight sometimes. here we are again at the same middlethree stitches and i am going to show you the other double decrease. it is where you slip two together asif to knit. move the marker. slip but do not work them. then knit the next stitch and pass these two stitches
over that knitted stitch. slip your marker and continue. you can see how this particular one brings that center stitch to the center of that decrease. as i approach the end here, i almostdo not need these markers anymore because i can just see how many stitches i havebut
i will just show you how i have been moving them. i take that one off, move it back one stitch. i will confess to you that the way my arms are,knitting this, it is not my most comfortableposition, but i want you to get good close-ups. let me put that one back on. i lose a few markers, let metell you. this is why i like it with that centerstitch because now
when i come back i see three and i knowi have to knit those three together, whereas if i just have an even number of stitches with a marker in between them then i have to count my rows. i have to figureout where i am and sometimes i just like some pretty mindless knitting. that knit three together, which is whati have been doing here is pretty tight sometimes. knit two . . . okay
i am going to get rid of the markers now.i only have five stitches left. and this much i can remember, that this is a wrong side row. i will get rid of that marker. and that marker. and knit three together on this row. this is my penultimate decrease row.
this is a little bit distorted because it is on straight needles, but once it has been off theneedles for a while it will come right into a square shape. we do knit this last wrong side row. and then the very last row, knit three together. let me break this off. rather than pull this thread throughthe loop like i ordinarily would
i just pull through like that. it is a little bit better corner. ok and it will bring itself back into shape before very long. okay. now that it is at this point you have a couple of choices as to whereyou want to build
on to this square. you can start over here and attach a square over here. so you could in my case cast on ten stitcheswith a long-tail cast on. then i would pick up one rightin that corner, and i would pick up ten more stitchesall the way up and that would give me twenty-one stitches. but for today
i am going to pick up this one and go up. it does not matterwhich one you make next, but you can see that withthis one you pick up stitches first and then i am going to cast on. i cannot use a long-tail cast on here so i am going to show you a different cast on. we want a total of eleven stitchesbefore we start casting on. so where are we going to find them? there is one. there is two.
we are looking for what appears to be little knots. three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. there is numbereleven. so we are going to insert in this littleknot right here. you can insert in different places when youare picking up these stitches, but the most important thing isto be consistent. there is a little knot, then there is a ditch. i prefer to pick up in these little knots.
and the reason is that i like what it lookslike on the wrong side. so, right there. that little guy. i am pretty close on this. i am hoping you can see. right there. you have like a front stitch. and a back stitch, and then this littleknot in between.
and really, if you pick up in that back stitch, itlooks almost the same. and it is a little bit easier. so you get to determinewhere this is. there is that little knot right there,sticking out. often it just sticks out for you. it is the first one you meet. sometimes these rows want to fold in on you and so you
just have to pay attention. just stop and count to make sure youget a right number. sometimes i get it wrong. two, four, six, eight, nine. there is my ten. see how thatone is kind of going off in that direction? here is my number ten. i was telling a friend the other day that i think i learned to count by twos beforei learned to count by ones because my mother was always counting her stitches.
then at the very end here, this iswhere the cast on was. just find a loop in there and use it. because that is your corner stitch. and i am going to show you what this looks like when i flip it over. see how neat that is? you can barely tell that it has been picked up. let me giveyou a good shot of that. the contrast colors are not too strong
but they look like they have just beenknit together. okay so here we are. we are going to go up in this directionbut, i cannot do a long-tail cast on because i do not have a tail. so i am going to cast on instead with a knitted cast on. i have to do it from the back because i am building off in this direction. there are a couple of ways to do this but this is my preferred way to stick the needle between two stitches, knit it. now look at how i am twisting it
and put it on the needle. also lookat the size of that loop. that is like a double size loop that i have on there. that is because what i am building is is an edge that has a loop that goes this way and a loop that goes up. 0:12:44.090,0:12:48.640let us do it again.go between those two stitches, pull a nice long loop, come over on this side of the stitch to give it a twist. the reason i am knitting between stitchesand not into the stitches is
because i think thisgives a much nicer, firmer more rope-like edge thanknitting right into the stitch. i hope i am showing you slowly enough. this is the piece you need to catch . . . come under and get the loopfrom that side. knit between the stitches. pull it off, pivot it,
come around like that. see what a nice edge that gives you? how many do we have here?two, four, six, eight. see? that loop needs to be nice and long.i made that a little bit tight. i want to get between those two stitches. i think i split my yarn there. okay, so there we have it. we have our twenty-one stitches. we do not want this to be too tight. we want this to give us a good edge,
not a tightened edge. this is going to be our right side. and now, again, our first row is going to be a wrong side row. so . . . you are back to your two row pattern. once you know how to knit them, and join them while you are knitting, that is when the fun begins. remember when i told you to choose aneven number plus one?
that is because the even number that youchoose and then you add that one stitch that becomes the decrease stitch in the center . . . that number, the even number, is the onethat determines whether or not you have a ton of design possibilities or whether or not they are more limited. let us look at some numbers. this is the schematic that lion brandput out for that afghan that i am making, except this is a schematic for crochet. i did not enjoy crocheting the squares,so instead, i chose to knit them.
but i had to make up my own number ofstitches and i just tried to guess. i wanted it about forty eight to fiftyinches wide. i had a good guess. i cast on a hundred stitches plus one for my big squares, so i havefifty and fifty . . . and then on my small squares i have twenty-five and twenty-five, againagain with that center stitch. but let us look at some other numbers. once i started playing with some othernumbers i saw some interesting things.
i chose one hundred but what if i had chosen ninety eight as my number? that would be 98 total which would be 49 in thisdirection, 49 in this direction and, of course, myone extra one so that would be 99 stitches. i can not divide 49 evenly in half so i just have one size of box i can work with. i could also workwith sevens like work with a
whole bunch of 7 times 7 boxes, but that does not sound like a whole lot of fun. so then i tried 104. if you have a 104 stitchesyou get 52 in this direction, 52 in this direction. and there is your extra one so that you actually havea hundred and five. well, i can dividethat a couple of times. i can divide into twenty-six.
and i can divide it again into thirteen. these are all quarters of one another. so in this case i am picking up 105 stitches. this is 53 stitches,and this is 27 stitches. but you know what the magic numberturned out to be? the number was 96. if i am going to do thisagain i am going to use 96 and the reason is this: you start with 48
on a side. it is just the versatility that is so much fun. you actually cast on 97 because there is your center row. but then you candivide it into 24 . . . 12 . . . 6 . . . and then, the other magic piece comes . . . 16 also goes into 48 threetimes. then you can have some that are 16 stitches on the side (always you are adding that extra onestitch, right? and then it goes to 8, so look at the different sizesof blocks you can have.
i got out some graph paper and i encourage youto do it too, and made these blocks 48 stitches on a side. each littlesquare is worth eight stitches, so 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. and you can go on forever, and i juststarted playing with the different size blocks that i could use. some ofthem could be the full 48 stitches, and remember, always you have got that onemore stitch. that is 48 plus 48
plus the center one, plus thecenter one. these are just the sides that i am defininghere but i would love to play with all these different possibilities. get out your colored pencils, and play with them. the only problemthat i can see with this is when you have to pick up that extracorner stitch, so that actually your you arecoming in to get 25. but usually you can squirrel in there and just find that extra stitch. you are finding some extrastitches: 1, 2, 3, 4 in this case,
so that is pretty dramatic. one, two, three,in this case. but you are just turning a corner, andyou should be able to play around. it really is not rocket science and as longas it looks good it is just fine. so i encourage you toplay with this one. there we have it, a simple littlesquare that can be a stepping stone for you to design colorful, interesting, and easy to makeblankets and afghans and shawls, and you are officially declared
free of having to follow anybody else'spattern to do it. i have included a link to your handy-dandyreference, "afghan 101" once again below. do not forget to subscribe to my channeland sign up for the email option so you know when newepisodes come out, until i see you again . . . be brave, be . . . brave . . . and enjoy your knitting. okay. got my new haircut.
this sweater makes me look fat. i'm cheating today. i do not have my contacs on, so i am kind of blind as a bat. but i know where the camera is. afghans, baby throws, whatever . . . no, that did not sound right. we do notthrow babies. so there you have it, a hi . . . a beautiful . . . [laughter] i do not know what you have.
[music playing, simple gifts]