For our Ultra Alpaca MKAL, we each designed colorful, modular garter stitch squares inspired by Housetop quilts. Knitting this kind of block is really simple and fun! For my block, you begin knitting in the center, alternating between lavender and white. Then, leaving those stitches on holder, you pick up and knit with the white yarn along each side. You continue in this manner, working back and forth on sides and ends, until you have built a 12″x12″ square.
Here is the order and direction I worked in for my square.
It ends up looking like this!
Picking up stitches along a garter edge can be tricky at first, but I quickly got the hang of it. Follow along this video to see how it’s done.
Stay tuned for the next blanket square coming July 14!
Emily
What a simple but illuminating lesson. I just learned that I’ve been picking up stitches incorrectly all these years! Thanks for the helpful demonstration.
I’m so glad it helped! The thing I love about knitting and crocheting is that there really isn’t a right or wrong way to do things. There are many ways! And there is always a new technique to learn.
I was doing some erase archon vintage garter stitch knitting and I stumbled across your blog. Your charting is very similar to a charting method developed in the 1940s by a knitter named Virginia Woods Bellamy. She was actually able to PATENT her modular Gater stitch charting and knitting method in 1948. She even wrote a lengthy book featuring 75 garter stitch designs. Her book is called “Number Knitting: The New All Way Streth Method.” I recently started a Number Knitting group on Tavelry and would love for you to check it out. We are reknitting all of the patterns from the book. http://www.ravelry.com/groups/number-knitting
Your deign on this page is very similar to the Two and Two Design Bedspread, only your starts with a larger center square. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/two-and-two-design-bedspread