My favorite border!
With the Hooked and Locked Cal of 2021 I first used backpost double crochets (BPdc’s), and also used that for the border. And that turned out to make a super nice border! So I will use that one more often for my projects, also for the Hooked and Locked CAL of 2022, the Solid Squares.
Because I focus a lot on making the border for that particular blanket with the tutorial for the Hooked and Locked Cal of 2021, I decided to do it over again, in a way that you can use this for any interwoven crochet project. I’ve made a new video for it that shows exactly how this works (click here or look at the bottom of this page).
Ideal for super simple side stitches!
2 Single crochets on top of each other?
Do you also find it cumbersome to pick the place where to insert your hook when doing the last dc of a row? I do, you always have to take a good look! I do have an alternative for that for the border in color 1 by making 2 single crochets on top of each other, so that gives you a better way to see where to insert your hook for the last dc. This does make a somewhat thicker starting dc though, that is not very good looking when used next to an open square.
Here you see how the side (left / right) looks when you use the 2 sc’s on top of each other with color 2 (the pink in this case) next to an open square. This is the border pattern of the HAL CAL 2022. The dark red border is the border in color 1. After that my favorite border is done, but it doesn’t show clearly in the picture because they are rounded a bit, and that’s why I like them so much as a border :-).
In this picture here you see the difference with the top and bottom side. Looks much neater, don’t you think so?
Here you see the result of the practice piece of the HAL CAL 2022. I used the method of 2 single crochets on top of each other as a first dc for both color 1 as color 2. What you also see here that the result is absolutely not disturbing.
So the conclusion is that it depends on the pattern at the sides if you use the method of 2 single crochets on top of each other or not.
An even simpler method!
By crocheting my favorite border you can use an even simpler method! Use 3 turning chains as a first dc (plus an in-between chain), and crochet the last dc in the chain opening of the last open square! So no more looking for the right spot, and just simple and fast! You can do this for both color 1 and color 2. The finishing of the sides make these side stitches go into place neatly! Do crochet both border rows in this case!
Double crochets or half double crochets in the corners?
In the video you see me using double crochets in the corners. For a blanket this is not an issue, and for a single smaller project neither. You can see that in the video. I do however advice to use half double crochets in the corners for small pieces, because it’s actually just a bit better. Or suppose you enjoy doing this border so much, that you do more than 2 rows: in that case I also advice to do the half double crochets. If you stack the double crochets in the corners too many times, you will probably get pointy ears there.
Photo tutorial
You can see the photo tutorial that I made for the HAL CAL 2021 on this page (click here).