Make border or block first?

[Horsy]

Hi.  I have made a small rectangular doily 9" X 16" out of an oddball yarn, Lang Bloom, which has inserts every couple of yards of a shiny, shimmery contrasting fiber (about 2 ft in length).   These inserts are much thinner than the majority of the yarn (cotton & linen).  The entire project is small V-stitches.  The edges are uniform and measurement even.  

This doily/runner would I think look nicer with a simple edging of some sort, so I crocheted a row of single crochet first as a base for further edging.   This has produced an irregular border.  Blocking is required. 

Before I proceed with some sort of border, should I block the project first; or make a simple border first, then block?  For the life of me I can't decide.

Can anyone advise?  Many thanks.  And if you have any suggestions for a not-too-elaborate border (this would clash with the V stitches) that would be appreciated. 

 

[Granny Square]

I had to look up the Lang Bloom yarn, it's cotton, viscose(rayon) and linen.  I mostly make (cotton) doilies nowadays, and they look a mess before blocking, but I've never blocked one in process (in other words, before the last round or border).  I would wet-block it, not use heat, or at least not touch the iron to the fabric--the cotton and linen can handle it, but not the rayon.  AND rust proof pins are a MUST or you'll be sorry.

When you made your SC border, did you put 1 SC in each stitch, including into or around each chain of the V stitches?  How did you turn the 4 corners of your rectangle?  For a SC border on  something with corners, you normally put 3 stitches into each corner to keep it flat; I usually do sc, chain, sc, because the chain in the middle counts as the third stitch, and 'folds' sort of, to make a nice sharp corner.  If you don't add stitches in the corner, it won't lie flat.  (for DC, it's 5 stitches, so I do 2DC, chain 1, 2DC in the corners for the same reason). 

If  you put 1 SC into each stitch (counting the chains), and turned the corners properly, I don't understand how the SC  made your piece 'irregular', can you post a photo?  Unless it's the thick/thin property of the yarn you described, but then...blocking isn't going to help that.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by Granny Square

[Horsy]

Thanks for taking the trouble to give me a thorough reply.  Yes, I turned the corners so that they wouldn't curl.  

I would wet-block it, not use heat, or at least not touch the iron to the fabric--the cotton and linen can handle it, but not the rayon.  AND rust proof pins are a MUST or you'll be sorry.

Many thanks for telling me to wet block.  I thought I would just pin, then spray with water.  

Anyway, I decided to make a shell edging but it's not finished yet.  However, the corner shells are indeed awkward to place properly; when I first made this simple  V-stitch doily, I didn't take a shell edging into  consideration.   The good news:  this is not a gift.  It's for my table and my family just doesn't know the difference between good and bad crocheting... 

When we get our ancient digital camera charged up, I'll ask my son to take a photo if I'm not too embarrassed by the final result.   😅

Edited November 23, 2022 by Horsy

[Granny Square]

I have my fingers crossed. 

Corners can be the devil to plot out for yourself, much nicer when the designer has gone thru all the trouble to figure out what works (or not, and not again, rip, rip).  I have been going thru a phase in the last year or so of fiddling with the edges of (vintage, circa 1940s-50s) doily patterns), mostly eliminating or diminishing them tho, which is a lot easier!

Shells would be a great choice for a V stitch body since they are sort of related.  You might consider figuring out shell stitch counts across the straight edges, and if it doesn't turn out even, plan on a little gap at each edge of the corner (just sc across or something plain) and do something else in the very corner- example a 3 petal picot fleur-de-lis, which I pullout out of my head recently, not for a corner but segments around a round doily whose original border I thought looked goofy.

Throwing this out there, doily patterns are great teachers, they 'do strange things' to take your hook out of a boring straight row or round and travel up in the air and back down to the 'floor' for example ('floor' is my way of looking at the tops of stitches in the prior round).

For example, the basic 3 DC shell: *3 DC in 1 stitch, skip 1 stitch, SC in the next stitch, skip 1 stitch, repeat.  Guess what?  You could do something like:

*3 DC in 1 stitch, skip 1 stitch, 1 SC in the next x stitches, skip 1 stitch, repeat from *.

So if your shell stitch repeat doesn't work out in the traditional way, you can calculate if something like the basic shell for each side, but if the stitch count doesn't work out for the corners, space the shells as evenly as possible and just sc around the corners, or make a 270° degree shell in the very corner and some number of SC on either side which hopefully you can get to come out even.  (I hope that makes sense)  Or if the count at the corner doesn't leave room for that, pull out that trusty fleur de lis picot in each corner.

Fleur de lis picot:  in 1 stitch, chain 3, slst, chain 5, slst, chain 3, slst.  Or you can make them longer chains probably with yarn, I'm used to doing this with doily thread so you might do 5, 7, and 5 in worsted weight--but you don't want it too floppy.

[Granny Square]

Here is what the fleur de lis border (the little sprouts) that I described above looked like.  The big flowers were supposed to be the start of more branches (leaves?) where I decided to put petals instead, to sort of 'go' with the fleur de lis. 

I'm not saying fleur de lis or even single picots is the best solution, but it's an easy one and might work with "darn, the stitch count isn't working out with shells" for something different to stick into the corners, that won't clash with the shells.

[Horsy]

That is one beautiful border! (The fleur de lis.) 

Re my project.  Lang 'Bloom' was, I am discovering after several attempted projects (including garments) never meant for crochet.  It is more for knitting - at least for most things.  But I must say that 'Bloom' is a beautiful yarn.  I wish I'd kept up with my knitting lessons, but the teacher started us out on something too complicated for most of us girls and we got discouraged.  (Or maybe we were just slow learners...)

 I tried cutting off all the shimmery parts of the yarn so that all shells would be the same height,  but then it was shaping up to be  a lot of weaving in of the joined ends. 

I got 3 shell corners looking nice enough, but could not figure out a way to place the last one in spite of your advice. So, I unwound everything and put in slip stitches all around in lieu of a proper border. 'Bloom' is multi coloured (non repeating & with occasional splotches) so there is some contrast.  Also did the same with a larger rectangular doily which I recently made. Looks good enough after blocking.  

Thanks so much for your suggestions. 

 Or if the count at the corner doesn't leave room for that, pull out that trusty fleur de lis picot in each corner.

LOL!  

 

 

[Granny Square]

Thanks for the compliment, and you are welcome, I'm glad you worked out a final round that you are happy with!