Here are generic instructions for making a rectangle out of mitered squares. You can choose the yarn, colors and arrangement of squares to suit your taste. The photo at left shows a blanket made of worsted weight squares arranged in a 4-patch pattern with solids and variegated yarns. Extra technique explanations are given so the pattern can be used with new or beginning knitters.
Materials and Gauge: Any weight of yarn that you want to use. This project can consist of small squares from sock yarn, up to large squares from a bulky weight. Use something you have a lot of. You can use solids, self-striping or other types of yarn, and can use one color or multiples.
Needles: Use needles that give you a nice, solid garter stitch with the yarn you choose. I’d recommend for the average knitter, size 2 or 3 needles in fingering, 4 or 5 in sport, 5 or 6 in DK, 6-8 in worsted, and 8-10 in bulky weight. Use what you think looks good. You can use straight or circular needles.
Abbreviations and Techniques:
K = knit
K3tog = Knit three together OR any double decrease that appeals to you. I like [sl1, k2tog, PSSO (pass slipped stitch over)] and [Sl 2 tog as if to knit, K1, PSSO]. For a uniform look, pick one decrease style and stick with it.
Sl = Slip: move the next stitch to the right needle without knitting it. Be sure to move the yarn between the first and second stitch. This creates an easy edge for picking up stitches.
Pick up = Picking up stitches means to build a new row of loops on the edge of a piece of knitting. Usually, if you have slipped the first stitch of each row, you can create one stitch for each loop along the side. To do this, put the needle under the edge loop, wrap yarn around it, and bring it up, creating a stitch. Do this for each look. To get started, double the yarn for 2-3 inches and bring up the first look with from the loop this created, then for the first two or three stitches you pick up, use both pieces of yarn to anchor it. You can weave the rest in later.
First Square
Cast on 41 stitches.
Row 1 (wrong side): K across
Row 2 (Right side): Sl 1, K 18, K3tog, K19
Row 3: Sl 1, K across
Row 4: Sl1, K17, K3tog, K18
Row 5: Repeat row 3
Row 6: Sl1, K16, k3tog, K17
Repeat the pattern you see in rows 2-6. Slip one, knit to the center 3 stitches, knit those together and knit to the end, then Slip one and knit on the back side. Eventually you will have just 3 stitches. Knit them together and fasten off (if you are using one color, there is no need to fasten off).
Rest of First Row
Pick up 21 stitches, starting where you left off the previous square and going down, toward where the k3tog of the first square started (this will keep them all going the same direction—see illustration at the end). The last stitch will be in the corner. Cast on 20 stitches using the knitted cast-on method.
Row 1: K across
Rows 2 and forward: Same as for first square.
Repeat this square until your blanket is as wide as you want it to be.
Second and Subsequent Rows
First Square: Cast on 20 then pick up 21 sts in the loops on the top right square. Start in the corner. Repeat mitered square instructions from the first square.
Rest of row: Pick up 20 stitches down the side of the square you just finished. Pick up ONE stich in the center between the two squares you are working off. Pick up 20 more stitches across the square in the previous row. Repeat mitered square instructions.
Keep building rows of squares until the blanket is the size you want it to be.
Border
It looks nice to finish these projects with a garter stitch border. I usually pick up one stitch per loop across the top and knit in garter stitch for at least an inch in a color that coordinates with the project. Then I repeat at the bottom (you will be picking up from your cast on, but the knitted cast on makes loops it is pretty easy to pick up from. When you are finished with that, pick up across the border, the squares and the other border for each side.
Another option is to do it like a log cabin quilt and do the top, then a side, then the bottom, then the other side, picking up from each border you add as well as the squares.
Finishing
Weave in ends. If you do this neatly, the back will be nearly as pretty as the front.
This picture shows a blanket in progress. It is made with a DK weight self-striping yarn (James C. Brett Marble) in a variety of colorways, creating diagonal stripes from the squares.
©2011 Sue Ann Kendall
PS: I'm no longer sending out PDFs of this, because I no longer use that email address. But if you want the pattern, click the Ravelry link above. (February 2016)
