multiple border question

[jdsackett]

Hi all. New here so please bear with me if this has been asked before. Very new to crochet, not even sure if i qualify as a beginner, working on my third large project which is a rug. What I am doing is making a center pattern freehand, no pattern involved, that's about 32" long and a little over 10" wide. So now I want to fill it out with different color borders until it gets to be about 45" long and  roughly 2 feet wide. I recently finished a round rug, my first one, and needed to add stitches in each row to keep it laying flat. Question: Do I have to increase the stitch count for each row of borders on a rectangle rug to keep it flat?? I'm pretty much self taught from youtube vids and google searches and have not found an answer to my question, so any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for any input, and stay healthy out there, J.D.

[Granny Square]

Yes, you will have to increase stitches each round.

You will want to turn the corners this way:  sc, 3 stitches in the corner, dc, 5 stitches in each corner.  What I like to to, that takes a bit of the 'bulk' out of this corner turn, is make the center stitch a chain--this way you are still covering the distance around that you need, but the corner turns more crisply.

It looks like you will need to add about a 7" border all around to hit the dimensions you are looking for.

[magiccrochetfan]

Hi JD, welcome!  I think if you've made two large projects and started making up your own designs, you are a little bit beyond beginner status

I second what Granny Square said.

If your center panel was done in rows, on two sides of it you'll be putting the first round of border stitches into the sides of stitches rather than into the top or bottom of stitches.  That can be a little harder to keep even and flat so you may need to fudge a little on that first round.  

You might want to look at a book called Around the Corner Crochet Borders by E Eckman.  It has a good guide to setting up your border, incl the corners.  I think if you look at it on Amazon or google books you can see a lot of that info. 

Edited April 24, 2020 by magiccrochetfan

[jdsackett]

Thanks Granny, Magic. Yes, I need about another 6 to 7 inches in borders. This is where I'll add the color and fill out the rug. I have some really cool looking multi color yarn ordered that should look good and add some brightness. I like brightness, bright, colorful rugs are happy rugs!!

Magic......It isn't that I.m not a beginner, It's just that I'm too lazy to learn how to read a pattern!! I learned the basic stitches and just went from there. I like making rugs, they can really brighten up a room.

Okay, let me run this by you guys, another hair brained idea that came to me. I made a round rug using rows instead of a spiral. One of the yarns I used was multicolored. I used 4 rows of triple stitch, bordered by a contrasting color in 2 rows of double stitch. The problem was, when using multicolored yarn, I had to terminate at the end of the row, losing the effect of the continuous color change. Then I would have to start a new row on top of the previous one and lost the continuity of the yarn. It looks ok, but not fabulous. So....I took a test swatch and instead of stopping at the  beginning of the row, I stitched over the top of it so the yarn color was continuous. Liked the way it looked, but leaves a hump where I stitch over the top of the previous row. I fooled around with it for a while and found a way to even it out on the last row. It still leaves a lump in the border rows but It's a trade off I can live with to keep the continuity going on the multicolored yarn.

Question: Is there a better way to do what I'm trying to do???

Thanks for all the help, really appreciated!! Take care and  stay healthy!!  J.D. Sackett. 72  year old white male, Known womanizer and occasional abuser of finer bourbon.