Wednesday Question: How To Join Knitted Squares?

All knitters have questions about the best way to do things, why different things happen while they are knitting, how to fix knitting mistakes and more.
Here is this weeks question  This is a question I was asked yesterday during a charity knit in-  How do you join knitted squares together?

Answer: 

I have been doing this for some time and i have seen quite a few ways of joining the squares, and some methods of joining them are better than others. This is the method I prefer as it is a very secure method of joining and is quite unobtrusive both visually and comfort wise.

Place your squares so that the direction of knit for each one is perpendicular to the next one, so one vertical and its neighbours horizontal, as below. If you're a quilter then it's like 'post and rail'.

Place your squares flat on a table, right side up and arrange the colours in a pleasing manner.

Thread a wool needle with either a long length of yarn leftover from the cast on or bind off, or join in a new length, about one and a half times the length of the section you will be stitching.

Start with a figure of 8 knot into each corner stitch, from the right side down and through then

up over to the other side and right side down and through again. Repeat this twice so that each of the 2 corners has been stitched twice.

Next you'll start joining the two selvedges, one is a garter stitch side edge and the other will be a cast on or bind off edge. If you look closely you'll see what i've done.

Matching stitch on one side by knitted row on the other, you pick up a horizontal bar from each side in turn, pull the thread all the way through for each stitch and pull the stitch firm but not tight. Choose an edge stitch or at most one knit stitch in from the edge. Sometimes you have to make a decision as to which one to choose but try to make a rule for yourself so that you always choose the same way.

When it's done right you'll find that the stitches disappear and the end result is very neat and flat, see below. I found this method a little tedious at first while i was learning it, but now i love it as the final wrap looks lovely and i know it's going to stay together for many years no matter what harsh treatment it gets.

I have been doing this for some time and i have seen quite a few ways of joining the squares, and some methods of joining them are better than others. This is the method I preferI as it is a very secure method of joining and is quite unobtrusive both visually and comfort wise.

Place your squares so that the direction of knit for each one is perpendicular to the next one, so one vertical and its neighbours horizontal, as below. If you're a quilter then it's like 'post and rail'.

Place your squares flat on a table, right side up and arrange the colours in a pleasing manner.

Thread a wool needle with either a long length of yarn leftover from the cast on or bind off, or join in a new length, about one and a half times the length of the section you will be stitching.

Start with a figure of 8 knot into each corner stitch, from the right side down and through then

up over to the other side and right side down and through again. Repeat this twice so that each of the 2 corners has been stitched twice.

Next you'll start joining the two selvedges, one is a garter stitch side edge and the other will be a cast on or bind off edge. If you look closely you'll see what i've done.

Matching stitch on one side by knitted row on the other, you pick up a horizontal bar from each side in turn, pull the thread all the way through for each stitch and pull the stitch firm but not tight. Choose an edge stitch or at most one knit stitch in from the edge. Sometimes you have to make a decision as to which one to choose but try to make a rule for yourself so that you always choose the same way.

When it's done right you'll find that the stitches disappear and the end result is very neat and flat, see below. I found this method a little tedious at first while i was learning it, but now i love it as the final wrap looks lovely and i know it's going to stay together for many years no matter what harsh treatment it gets.

These 4 squares have all been stitched together this way, can you see the stitches in the seams? No lumpy seams to rub on the child or frail elderly person who ends up with this wrap. Also the squares cannot be pulled apart without a lot of intricate effort.

Weave all the ends in on the wrong side by following the line of knit for about 8 stitches then back again to the edge. 

If you have a knitting question for Knitting Galore, please email it to : dbjones5559@hotmail.co.uk  or  Please  post it as a comment here.  All questions will be answered, and many are selected and answered each wednesday here on the Blog.