{tutorial} How to Block Crochet Garment

Blocking in crochet is important, especially when you need to bring out the real shape/design. I never thought of blocking until I learnt how to make items with shapes. Well before, when I was still at the very beginning of learning crochet, all I did was crocheting hats, which obviously there was no need to block >.<

Then, I learnt to make scarf for the first time, and I was wondering, WHY? Why the shape was not nice? Why the lace was up and down? Why it looked shrink? Then I said to myself that there must me a way of stretching the garment to its shape, maybe using cork board with needles, or something..

I found a tutorial of how to block, and I tried it, it was good technique, but it was not for my type of yarn at that moment 🙁 I used one of my expensive yarn collection with wet steam, I cried >.<

While sobbing over expensive yarn, my husband said “it should be enough with water sprayed over blocked garment on cork mat” a- ha! Just like that 😀 I searched on google as well and there are several similar tutorials.

Now, after 3 years, I decided to write tutorial with picture step by step on how to do it 🙂 Hope you find it useful 😀

So, here it is :

Blocking garment1

You will need:

  • blocking mat – or kids play mat – use the one color without puzzle if you can. I got this one as the shop ran out of the single color mats
  • finished garment – clean up the tails before blocking
  • tape measurement – depending on what kind of item you want to block. Mine is a 24 x 24 cm square, so I desperately need it in order to shape it best
  • pins
  • water in spray bottle – I recycled spray bottle from cleaning product. Make sure that you clean it well otherwise the funny smell will transfer to your garment

Blocking garment2  

My square is 24 x 24 cm, therefore I need to make 4 points to mark, I used colorful head pin to mark my square position and measurement.

Blocking garment4

Blocking garment6

Blocking garment7

Blocking garment5

If you are using square, pin down one side and start to shape its line, add couple of pins to make it stay straight. Repeat to all sides.

Blocking garment9

Blocking garment10

You will come up like this, all stretch to 24 x 24 cm measurement.

Blocking garment8

Double check the measurement to ensure that the finished square is according to the required gauge.

Blocking garment11

Then the fun time begins! Spray it until the garment literally soak, really wet.

Blocking garment12

Leave it dry for 24-48 hours, that’s how much I blocked my garment to ensure that the fiber get used to the shape. Here is before and after blocking:

Before after blocking

You might think that it doesn’t make a big different, but in actual finished item, it does look very different 😀 The above squares are assembled as Summer Shrug 🙂

Up to now, the most difficult garment to block for me is Shawl, because I need big mats, lots of needles, patience and times 🙂

Happy trying and hopefully you find it interesting and useful 😀

Happy crocheting x

4 Comments

  1. Oktavia on February 15, 2017 at 05:13

    Hi i would like to ask. Let say i am making a pillow cover with granny square. So, when should i do the blocking ? Before i join the granny square or after i joinned ? thanks

    • Aurelia Vie on February 19, 2017 at 15:01

      Hi, thank you for your question. If the square needs to be blocked, I would block it first before joining it, because with this joining method, it’s a continuous one. Hope this help 🙂

  2. Andrea Richartz on June 25, 2015 at 23:14

    Thanks for the useful advice. Greatings from Germany Andrea

    • Aurelia Vie on June 26, 2015 at 10:20

      Thank you 😀 Greetings from Cyprus 😀

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