Patchwork knit along

This year I have set myself a challenge to knit a patchwork square every week to create a patchwork baby blanket of different stitches. If you fancy knitting along I will share each pattern piece here.

I am using a DK yarn. Everyone's tension is different, so you may wish to knit a tension square to check yours. Ideally you want a yarn that is 22st x 28 rows on 4mm needles as pictured below.

This will make knitting a 10cm square easier as you will just need to aim for the number of stitches/rows as on the label.

Week 1: Garter stitch. Garter stitch is a beginner stitch comprised of only knit stitches.

So for this square, you will want to cast on 22 stitches.

If you find your square isn't 10cm on 22 stitches you can do any of the following...

A) stick with the size it is but note the size so that you can match the rows to make it square and you can also then match future squares

B) size up or down your needles depending on whether your square is coming out too big or too small. If your square is smaller than 10cm use a bigger needle size, if it is larger than 10cm, try a smaller needle size.

C) adjust the number of stitches - for me my tension is quite tight so I found I needed 24 stitches to make 10cm.

Garter stitch rows are quite condensed so you will need more than the 28 labelled on your wool ball band. For this it will be best to knit every row until your square measures 10cm from the cast on edge to the needle, or whatever length you need to match your width. For my square I knitted 43 rows.

For the garter stitch square I like to finish after a front facing row and cast off from the wrong side row, but this isn't essential and is just my preference.

If you have any questions or need any help, please reach out and I'd be happy to help you.