Shawl Geometry: Edge to Edge Square
This is the ninth post in a series about different shawl shapes and how to knit them. All the posts in the series can be found right here.
Edge to Edge Square
The Edge to Edge Square is knit flat and worked straight from the cast on edge to the bind off edge, with no increasing or decreasing. It’s one of the easiest shawl shapes there is to work, and because of this, it’s a fantastic shape for getting your feet wet adding stitch patterns to shawls.
Calculating your cast on and row count
Determine your final gauge, and desired dimensions.
[Stitch gauge] x [desired width] = [# of sts to CO]
[Row gauge] x [desired height] = [# of rows]
Knitting Instructions
CO [# of sts to CO].
R1: knit across.
R2: purl across.
Rep R1&2 until [# of rows] have been worked.
Bind off loosely.
If you want to incorporate a stitch pattern or motif, make sure your cast on number is divisible by the number of stitches in your stitch repeat, and your number of rows is divisible by the number of rows in your stitch repeat.
The previous post: Side to Side Triangle
The next post: Bias Square
process or product?
Process or product?
Do you knit for the process of knitting, or the product you’re producing?
I would suspect that for many of us it’s about both.
I love the process of knitting.
The basic act of pulling loops of string through loops of string.
I find it as natural as breathing.
It’s a meditation. Embodying ease, rhythm, fluidity, flow, peace, knowing.
Every time I pick up needles it’s an act of affirmation.
I know that I know how to knit.
But at the same time, I don’t knit just to knit.
I knit towards something.
Not necessarily towards a finished object, but maybe. Or maybe it’s a swatch, or an idea, or a thought.
But I don’t knit for the sake of knitting.
I may not always get where I was planning on going, but the intention is still there.
The intention shapes what, how and where I knit. But the intention isn’t the process, and it’s not the final produced, even though it shapes and guides both.
Do I knit for an intention?
I don’t think I knit for it, but I certainly knit with it.
I knit for the sake of creating.
I knit so I know that I know how to knit.
I knit to strengthen the connections, and reaffirm the process, to confirm that I can still pull loops of string through loops of string.
I engage in the process with the intention of creating a product.
But when it comes to pulling loops through loops, and piling stitches on top of each other, I knit so I know, that I know, how to knit.
I knit so I know, that I know, how to knit.
It’s the process that I’m engaged in. Maybe the product is more of a planned afterthought?
I've always just knit. I've never really asked why before. I just knit, because I knit. So this is me trying to tease out the why. And if I know me, tomorrow I'll disagree with half of this, and think the other half is trite. But that's tomorrow. For now, here we are.
Wednesday Friday Mashup
It’s not Wednesday or Friday, but I have an FO/WIP mashup.
I’m busy working on swatches for the planned Shawl Geometry II. A bunch of the swatches are done, but there are still some more to go.
The current plan is to have Shawl Geometry II focus on subtracting from and dividing basic shapes to get new shapes, and then have a Shawl Geometry III that focuses on adding onto the basics. But that plan might change/get added to. Because Shawl Geometry II & III certainly weren’t in the original game plan.
Here’s the info about Shawl Geometry.
So instead of an FO tomorrow I think I’ll be talking about either why I knit, or the mess that comes from being a maker and trying to distinguish the “what I am” from the “what I do.”
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