Moving on from plain knitting and note on knitting squares
Once you have mastered simple knitting in the round you may wish to try a pattern. One of the simplest things to knit is a hat. NOTE: The hat pattern which will be published later in this series of knitting in the ’round’. is worked in rib to make it stretchier, so purl stitches are used.
To knit a square you will require 5 needles, one for each side of the square and one to work round the knitting. Squares are usually knitted from the outside towards the centre and often incorporate lace patterns.
Sometimes, as in the case of Shetland lace knitting, instead of casting on the first round a strip of edging is knitted, this is joined to form a circle and the stitches are picked up around the inside edge of this strip. The stitches are evenly divided over four needles to form the four sides of the square.
As the square knitting is worked decreases are made at the corners, with fewer stitches on each successive round. As the centre of the square is reached it becomes more difficult to knit on the decreasing number of stitches, so the stitches are usually drawn up by threading the yarn through these last few stitches and fastening off.