Blocking Squares

Hello, hello! Blocking is a technique to straighten or adjust a piece of crochet. Mostly, blocking is used for squares when making an afghan, but can be used for shaping other projects as well. When you block a piece the stitches are more defined and your piece will look more professional. There are multiple ways you can block a piece, but the one I use I think is pretty easy to do, and you can do it from things around your house. This tutorial is for a square, but can be used for other shapes and projects as well.

WHAT YOU NEED

-Blanket

-Plastic Garbage Bag

-Pins or Needles

-Spray Bottle

-Ruler

-Flat surface that can be occupied for a long period of time

WHAT TO DO

1. Fold the blanket so it's about an inch thick

2. Wrap the Garbage bag around the blanket so it covers the top part. If you want, you can tape the edges so they stay.

3. Place your square down on the "blocking station" and place a pin at the corner of the square at an angle so that when you tug lightly on the square, it won't slip off the top of the pin.

4. Using the ruler, measure how big you want the square to be, and repeat the pinning process for each of the corners until the square is the size you want it.
(Depending on the size of the square, you may need to pin the sides as well.)

6. Spray the square with the spray bottle filled with water. Make sure the square gets good and wet. 

7. When the square is dry (this may take a few hours) you can remove the pins from the square. 

Voila! 1 blocked square for you! 

Until next time! Ciao, ciao!

Afghan Squares Color Generator

This website helps you to figure out where on your Afghan your Squares should go. It does it randomly, so it makes your life a whole lot easier. First, you put in how many squares wide and tall your Afghan is, along with how many colors each square has. After that, you put in your colors. There's a color picker (for lack of better word) so you can match the shade of yarn you have, just in case you have multiple shades of blue or something. Then you hit generate! It'll put plan your colors for you! No similar squares will be next to each other. I used this for an upcoming project, and it was nice not to have to plan my squares. 

The Most Amazingest Website Ever

Just recently I ran across this AMAZING website called myHq. The specific page I'm talking about is run by "CrochetPoet". It has a bajillion links for different crochet patterns.

The patterns are organized into different groups (what a relief). The only downside is, there aren't any pictures, only the names of the patterns. The page is "dedicated to all crocheters who have experienced that desperate search for a link you ran across, didn't bookmark, and then couldn't find when you wanted it." This is the most amazingest crochet website I've ever found. You're welcome.