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When I was young and fairly new to crochet I used to get quite upset… why would my square things not look like squares? I would count my stitches and be really proud that I was keeping the same gauge, so why was it all warped and crazy looking? This just didn’t make sense!
So when I heard about blocking, I knew this was a problem for a lot of crocheters out there. And I’ve got to tell you, blocking a piece makes all the difference in the world.
For this project you will need:
- Pins
- Foam of some sort
- Piece to be blocked
- Access to water
So here’s my piece. You can tell that this sucker is stupidly NOT square.
Grab some foam to use as your backing. I use foam core from the store, or my mattress for larger items. you can also buy those play mats that are colorful and look like puzzles.
Take your piece and either run it under the sink and extremely gently wring the water out, or grab a spray bottle of water to use after you get this sucker squared up (this works better for big things like afghans).
Grab your pins and first straighten and pin one side.
Continue around the piece straightening each side. Now can you see how jacked up my edge got, right?
You may need to finagle with the corners a bit once you’re finished, but it should look nice and square while pinned down.
Again, you might need to play with it a bit to get it square. I tend to turn and turn and turn until I’ve seen all sides to see if they looked straight. See the bottom here? It needs some attention. (if you’re using the spray bottle, you can get after it now dampening but not soaking the piece).
Place somewhere and wait until it has dried.
And you might want to put it out of your cat’s reach. I woke up to a horrible shriek to find my piece on the floor and two pins stuck in Liddy’s face. I fareeked out and didn’t even think to fix my blocked piece so in the end it isn’t perfectly square but what can you do?
Remove the pins and you’re done!
This isn’t the most stellar blocking job I’ve ever done, but it’ at least gets the basics across to you. It’s really easy and cheap to do and it will improve your crocheted pieces so much you’ll wonder why you haven’t been doing this all along!
