HELP! The sides of my blanket are curling in.

[LLR90]

Hi everyone. I'm new here!!

 

I'm working on a baby blanket for a friend of mine. This is my first crochet project, but I'm having a problem with the sides curling in. I don't know why, if it's a problem with my tension or what? I would like to know if and how to fix this problem? And how to prevent it from happening in the future.

 

 

Thanks so much!

[magiccrochetfan]

Hi, welcome to the ville   

 

Single crochet does tend to curl sometimes.  to avoid it in future, I'd suggest choosing a pattern of taller stitches, half double or double crochet stitches.  

if your tension is too tight that could be part of the problem.  

 

It should help to wash and dry the blanket according to the yarn label directions.  Assuming it is acrylic and can go in the dryer, i would probably take it out while still a bit damp and lay it out flat to finish drying.  you can do this even before it is finished, just secure any dangling yarn ends.

 

you could also try steam blocking it.  https://beadknitter.blogspot.com/2009/03/you-can-block-acrylic.html

there is also "killing" acrylic but steam blocking is different.

 

if it a natural fiber like cotton or (non-superwash) wool, you can block it easily by simply washing and laying flat to dry.  

[Becky Morgan]

Blocking will often work. If it doesn't, the simplest solution is to put a border on the sides. I'd use the color you started with and single crochet in the ends of the rows. Since a crochet stitch isn't precisely square, you might need to skip every fourth or fifth row.

 

If you think you'll need more than one row, I'd work the ripple pattern, make 3 sc in the last sc of the row (that should turn the corner without making it curl,) go down the side, make 3 sc in the first stitch of the cast-on row and work the ripple pattern across (it won't look exactly the same, but it will look decent,) 3 sc in the last stitch, and work up the remaining side with 3 sc in the last stitch. Ch1, work the next row exactly the same way and so on until the sides don't curl and the border looks the way you want it.

[Granny Square]

I usually try to discourage edges on striped blankets, because IMO it takes away from the look of the blanket (crochet stitches of 1 color into the edge of another color just never look neat).  However, in your case, I agree with Becky above about adding a border.  What concerns me, while I've had SC curl a little bit, yours seems really severe.  I've tamed SC curl before by adding a border of DC, which seemed to help (In knitting, stockinette curls like your sample; the fix is to interrupt the stitches at the edge with 'not stockinette')

[LLR90]

Thanks everyone for the replies and advice! I have added another picture to show the curl after I smooth the blanket out some. It isn't as bad...I'm not sure if that will matter. I will be adding a border to if it that will help though. Thanks again!

[Siggi]

You will need to use an iron ! Place a towel on top of the edge of the blanket And than iron on top of the towel ( do not ever Iron the blanket directly only on top of a cloth or towel Youalso must follow up with a border !