Crochet Basics: Blocking

What is Blocking & Why is it Important?

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You will have heard of the term ‘blocking’ on social media – it is a vital tool to be able to go on these platforms and rid your feed of accounts that you don’t like, don’t want to see or find offensive. However, in crochet, blocking is a whole different thing that I have only recently come to fully appreciate and wanted to do a post on its importance.

This is not really an in-depth how-to guide to blocking as there are many out there already that are fantastic. The aim of this post is to introduce the topic to you, give you a general outline of the process and to signpost you to the best resources I have found during my research on the topic.

What is blocking?

This is the temperature blanket that I am working on throughout this year and, as you can see, the edges of the blanket are ‘curling’. This is common with crochet and knitting and is nothing to worry about until it is finished.

Another issue can be not seeing the full detail within the stitches of the item you are working on. This is especially important when you are working with special or lace-like stitches.

Blocking will deal with both issues.

Put VERY simply the process is:

Wash the item – In my previous post, Woolly About Wool, I looked at how to care for your woolly items and wash them correctly. This is also the start of the blocking process – wash the item and gently dry it using a rolled-up towel and following the correct technique. This is very important and your item can become felt-like if you don’t do this properly.
While the item is soaking, set out all of your equipment ready to go. This is what I use:
- Blocking mats – are expensive so I bought 2 packs of kids’ foam play mats instead and they work brilliantly.
- Blocking pins – I use 2 different types of pins both from Knitpro – the T shaped pins and the rainbow blockers. I have found that these really work well together rather than just using the one type.
- Blocking Wire – I had never heard of these until I did the Crochet Project Masterclass that I look at later in this post, but I am so glad I have now. They’re a real timesaver on all kinds of items – even when I think I’m not going to need them, I end up using them! I use the KnitPro Lace Blocking Wires which are perfect because they also have some bend to the metal which makes them perfect for things like shawls.
Place your item on the mats and very gently lay it out into the general shape that you want to achieve and then start to pin it out. Your blocking can either be aggressive or not depending on how much you need to shape or stretch it.
Because I was doing this blocking outside as it was a beautifully sunny day, I had a spray bottle with just water in it as the shawl was completely dry by the time I had finished pinning it out and I had to spray it to get it damp again. I also had to use 2 plants and a hippo ornament to keep the mats down! If the weather isn’t good enough for this, I tend to do the blocking on a bed as I don’t have a big enough piece of floor space to do this.
Once the item is fully dry, I take out a few of the pins to see if it stays in place without them. If not, I would spray it a little again and put the pins back in. If it does stay in place, you can take out all of the pins and pack everything away!
A little tip here is to sew in your ends AFTER you have blocked the item. If you do it before, they may come loose as they are stretched and moved during the blocking process.

Before and After

This is a before and after of a shawl that I have recently blocked so that you can see the difference in the stitch definition thanks to blocking. Everything is just so much better defined and even the embellishments on the right-hand side are neater. And when you are using hand-dyed yarn like this, blocking really allows it to show off.

Further Resources

Blocking is something that you can research forever – there is a raft of information out there, both free and paid for. These are the two that I found the most useful and will always refer back to:

The Crochet Project offer an online learning facility which gives a raft of classes around many aspects to do with crochet including a Blocking Masterclass. They go into real depth on all you need to know, from the materials needed, the different types of blocking and when to use each type depending on the fibre of the yarn that you are using. It really is a fantastic resource and is a very reasonable £15.
One of the best people in the crochet world is Dora Does. They have the most beautiful crochet patterns and regularly do deep-dives into many aspects of crochet including this one on blocking. It is definitely worth your while to sign up to the newsletter.

I really hope that if you take anything from this post it is how transformative blocking can be. I was a complete pessimist about it until l actually tried it and then I was completely won over and will always block items now.