Hi, I am in dire need of help. I have tried every way I could think up and I cant get it

I need a diamond that looks like perfect rhombus with an a border:

(im trying to get this site to make my shape to come out right but the site only makes it look like a triangle sorry)

      ^ 
     ^ ^
    ^ * ^
   ^ * * ^
  ^ * * * ^
 ^ * * * * ^
^ * * * * * ^
 ^ * * * * ^
  ^ * * * ^
   ^ * * ^
    ^ * ^
     ^ ^
      ^ 

where there is an inner diamond and a outer diamond. I am working on the inner diamond because i feel if I can mast the inside I can probably figure how to put the border on it.

I have no idea what I am doing wrong. I have one side lines up perfectly but I cant get the other side to.
Note: I am not to use any manipulators such as setw() etc... and it must be in a sequential order for example the first row has 1 character, the second has two, the third has three..... and so on,.....

This is my code:

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
        int size, i, j, k, l;

        cout << "size = ";
        cin >> size;

                   for (i = 0; i < size; i++)    
           {  
               for (k = 0; k < size - i; k++)
                   cout << " ";
                for (j = 0; j < i + 1; j++)
                {
                    cout << "*";
                    for (l = 0; l < size - i; l++)
                        cout << " ";
                }
                cout << endl;
           }

           for (i = size - 2; i >= 0; i--)  
           { 
                for (k = 0; k < size - i; k++)
                   cout << " ";
                for ( j = 0; j < i + 1; j++)
                {
                    cout << "*";
                    for (l = 0; l < size - i; l++)
                        cout << " ";
                }
                cout << endl;
            }
        return 0;
}

Never mind I found the answer i did incorporate any spaces between my char

Now i need help on the diamond

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