Alright - here I go one more time!
This is what I have found in finishing the afghan. First, it is a must that you have the same amount of stitches on each side of a square, and the same amount on all squares. You can fudge by a couple of stitches as long as you have the same amount of loops on the side once you border the square!
The formula for the edging is to divide the amount of stitches you have by 3 minus one. So if you have 44 stitches, you first subtract one stitch (it takes four stitches for the very first pattern) - 43 divided by 3 gives you 14 plus one stitch left over. When you start the pattern you use four stitches, then will have 13 patterns left to make and along the way instead of skipping two stitches you can skip 3 to incorporate that one left over stitch.
Lets say that you had 38 stitches. You subtract one and have 37, divide by 3 and have 12 with one stitch left over. So if all your squares have 12 then you do as above. However, if most have 13 patterns, then you have add a pattern to this one. We know that you need 3 stitches in a regular pattern (each pattern shares one stitch except the first one), but if you want to add patterns you can do it by skipping one stitch instead. Each time you skip one stitch instead of two, you have an extra stitch to use to add a pattern. As in this example you already have one extra stitch, you only need to do this one time. Therefore, a pattern near the beginning and a pattern near the end of the side can each be one skipped stitch and that gives you enough room for 13 patterns down the side to match the other squares.
I found that at the corners I had to improvise a bit. It depended on how many stitches I had per side of the squares - remember I didn't get all mine exactly the same (shame on me!!!) so I had to work out the corners as I approached them. Most all of the squares ended up with 14 patterns per side, but a couple had 15. That made the stitching together a bit wonky, so I can't emphasize enough to get the counts right on the squares before stitching them together. Make sure you have the same amount of patterns down each side.
The problem I ran across in the way I did the corners was that when I put the squares together, the end of the row of joined squares looked like it was missing patterns. It had a rather large U look to it....so before doing a full border around all the squares I had to go in and add a pattern at the end of the joins so that it looked like the squares already had one border around them. I am going to work on the way to first edge the corners and see if there is a way to put more pattern in the corners, or change the way they are there in order for that empty area not to be there. You can see it in photos 18 and 19.
If this is as clear as mud, I'm sorry!!!!!
I hope these photos are self explanatory. If you have any questions, let me know!
This is what I have found in finishing the afghan. First, it is a must that you have the same amount of stitches on each side of a square, and the same amount on all squares. You can fudge by a couple of stitches as long as you have the same amount of loops on the side once you border the square!
The formula for the edging is to divide the amount of stitches you have by 3 minus one. So if you have 44 stitches, you first subtract one stitch (it takes four stitches for the very first pattern) - 43 divided by 3 gives you 14 plus one stitch left over. When you start the pattern you use four stitches, then will have 13 patterns left to make and along the way instead of skipping two stitches you can skip 3 to incorporate that one left over stitch.
Lets say that you had 38 stitches. You subtract one and have 37, divide by 3 and have 12 with one stitch left over. So if all your squares have 12 then you do as above. However, if most have 13 patterns, then you have add a pattern to this one. We know that you need 3 stitches in a regular pattern (each pattern shares one stitch except the first one), but if you want to add patterns you can do it by skipping one stitch instead. Each time you skip one stitch instead of two, you have an extra stitch to use to add a pattern. As in this example you already have one extra stitch, you only need to do this one time. Therefore, a pattern near the beginning and a pattern near the end of the side can each be one skipped stitch and that gives you enough room for 13 patterns down the side to match the other squares.
I found that at the corners I had to improvise a bit. It depended on how many stitches I had per side of the squares - remember I didn't get all mine exactly the same (shame on me!!!) so I had to work out the corners as I approached them. Most all of the squares ended up with 14 patterns per side, but a couple had 15. That made the stitching together a bit wonky, so I can't emphasize enough to get the counts right on the squares before stitching them together. Make sure you have the same amount of patterns down each side.
The problem I ran across in the way I did the corners was that when I put the squares together, the end of the row of joined squares looked like it was missing patterns. It had a rather large U look to it....so before doing a full border around all the squares I had to go in and add a pattern at the end of the joins so that it looked like the squares already had one border around them. I am going to work on the way to first edge the corners and see if there is a way to put more pattern in the corners, or change the way they are there in order for that empty area not to be there. You can see it in photos 18 and 19.
If this is as clear as mud, I'm sorry!!!!!
I hope these photos are self explanatory. If you have any questions, let me know!
I hope these photos show you what I do.
Let me know if this makes sense to you. THANKS!
OH - and please excuse the blatant advertisement for Paula's stitch markers! I needed a way of showing how many stitches I was skipping and they seem to be the perfect way to do the demonstration. :o)
you are THE woman ! ! ! ! !
ReplyDeleteYou have quite a collection of stitch markers too :0}
AND . . . I have meant to tell you this for months, I use your "air crochet" now when I add a color. Well, I forget once in a while but it is SO EASY once I got the hang of it. Thanks for introducing it to me.
jou have a beautiful blog
ReplyDeleteThank you crealientje! And you too Paula! So glad you can use the air crochet now!!!!!! Makes it much easier for me to change colors, and have used it so long now it is hard for me to remember how to handle a chain two or chain three!
ReplyDelete