Guest Author - Eva Owsian

By Eva Owsian

One of the easiest ways to make a square is to start at the bottom and work back and forth all the way up to the top. You will have to continually check to make sure that all four sides end up being exactly, or almost exactly, the same length. You begin with your base row (cast on, chain, or what ever method you are using), and to check the sides’ evenness you will fold your piece into a triangle: lay piece flat, fold bottom right corner to upper left corner. Sounds pretty easy right? Unfortunately this method does not always turn out right and for me, 9 times out of 10 they end up looking more like a deformed rectangle rather than a square. Now don’t get me wrong, you can use this method to make smaller squares, but in my honest opinion it is best to make a larger square working from the inside out.

Before we begin, it helps to think/imagine that in order to make it “square” you will need 4 corners at all times. I highly recommend using markers and yes I use them. For crochet, nalebinding, and toothbrush you will begin with a circle. Inside that circle you will need to create 4 sides and 4 corners. I will use crochet terminology for this but you can just exchange it to either the nalebinding or toothbrush: ch 6 join to form a ring (this is our circle). Ch 1, in ring work [2 sc, ch 2 ] 4 times join. **this created your 4 sides (the sc’s) and 4 corners (the ch 2’s)**. Next row: Ch 1, [sc in next 2 sc, sc in next ch 2 loop, ch 2, sc in same ch 2 loop] end with sl st into first sc. Next row: ch 1, [sc in next 3 sc, sc in next ch 2 loop, ch 2, sc in same ch 2 loop] end with sc in next sc, sl st into first sc. See how the numbers in bold will increase by 1 every round, so your next row you would sc in next 4 and at the end you would sc in the next 2 sc. Simple right..

See how it is working, with every round you are making your sides and your corners larger. Basically you are just increasing in the corners you created each and every time. Now if you do not like the look that a ch 2 corner gives you , get our your markers and you can do: ch 6 join to form a ring (this is our circle). Ch 1 , in ring work 12 sc, join. Ch 1, [sc in next 2 sc, 3 sc in next sc, place your marker in 2nd sc (this is the middle stitch or your 3 sc and of course this is creating your corner)] 4 times, join. Next Row: ch 1,[ sc in next 3 sc, in marked stitch work 3 sc and place marker again in 2nd stitch ], 4 times, join. What you are doing here is instead of using ch stitches to make increases or corners you are using actually stitches and remember just like the ch 2 increase method, the number of stitches in bold will increase every time..