If you’ve been following this blog, you are aware that the Playa Vista Yarn Crafters are creating a Valentine Afghan for Project Linus. So that everyone in the group could participate in the project, everyone was presented with an opportunity crochet/knit a square. If you are a yarn crafter, like myself, you know that more often than not, the squares are not always the exact same size – even the five I crocheted had a different number of stitches on each side.
In the picture above, I used a half double crochet border and joined the squares together with a slip stitch, which created a ridge that kind of hid the half double crochet border — I’m liking it.
The last time I joined squares together — My Baker’s Dozen — I used a granny stitch which was a bit simpler as I could use stitch markers to indicate where the grannies(?)/petals(?) should go. This time I wanted to create a more solid border, but my dilemma was the difference between crochet and knit squares.
After about six hours, I finally was able to finish border a knit and crochet square with the same number of stitches for ease in seaming them together. About an hour later, I perfected my formula and I am now sharing it with you so that you can save yourself some time.
- First pick the square that you think would be most easy to border. Keep track of the number of stitches that span one side. This will be your Target Number of Stitches (TNS).
- For each subsequent square count the number of stitches on the first side – especially when bordering a knit square, though just as applicable in case you screw up a crochet square, like I did. This will be your Stitches per Side (SS). Subtract TNS from SS.
- The result is your Number of Spaces (NS). At this point I make my space indicators (/) on a piece of paper.
- The next number you will need is the Number of Clusters (NC), which will be one more than NS and are the spaces between the /s
- Now divide the TNS by NC to the nearest whole number quotient. This Median Number of Stitches per Cluster (MNSC); the remainder will be your Deficit (D)
- Insert your MNSC between the spaces, splitting the deficit evenly between the remaining clusters.
As you can from example one in the image below, I counted 45 stitches on one side (SS) and subtracted TNS (38 stitches). The sum of 7 represents the NS needed and increasing by one provides the NC. Next I divided TNS by NC. My quotient of 4 represents the MNSC with a D of 6. In my first example, I wrote 4 all across my template and then added one stitch to each of six clusters.
This can be a bit confusing — evidenced by the time it took me to figure this out — so if you need help, please do not hesitate to contact me.
