help finishing baby blanket

[superfurry]

it's nice to be back at crochetville - i haven't been crocheting much recently (except an amigurumi cat that i should post in show and tell) but i've picked up my hook again to work on a blanket for a special baby. i'm mostly done but really stuck how to finish off. pleeease help...

 

here's the blanket (click for a bigger image)

 

 

i've joined the squares using the flat braid method described here but obviously done something wrong because there's a gap at the corners where 4 squares join: here and closeup. i thought it would be okay and kind of cute just to fill in the holes with a little of the coloured yarn, but i can't for the life of me find a stitch pattern that fills the holes neatly. please help!

 

also i'm not sure what else to do to finish the blanket. i was thinking of running a coloured border around the outside (i don't have any of the off-white left) but again i can't find a suitable stitch. i'd like something that balances the large blocks of colour and suits the fairly open stich pattern (another piccie).

 

any suggestions? or should i leave it as it is? i'm not sure if it really needs any more, but looks kind of unfinished to me with the narrow edging.

 

any help sooo much appreciated

[Beaglelady]

How pretty!! I've never done the flat braid. I usually whip stitch. My suggestion is if you don't want the 'hole' there. Take a piece of yarn and with a darning needle, pick up stitches around, tighten it up and finish off.

 

For the edging you could do a reverse single crochet which adds a nice decorative edge - or a simple shell stitch.

[Beaglelady]

Oh here's another idea to cover up the 'holes'. If you have some yarn left over you could make a little flower and stitch on. Or some sort of animal head.

[1to1]

I think it looks great the way it is and wouldnt do anything with the spaces. I really like the flat braid.

Weave in the ends and be proud of your beautiful afghan. You did a great job!!!

[Aggie May]

Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful.

 

My only suggestion is that I would put another round on the outside edge to balance with the width of the white joining rows.

The border needs to be the same width or wider to keep it looking balanced.

You may have been going to do that anyway.

That is a very effective stitch and the close up picture is great. I wish I could take pics like that.

The tiny holes are not a problem and would only be so if they were showing in some places and not others.

I think you have done a magnificent job and if you start fiddling with it, you may regret it.

The baby will love it just as it is.

:cheerKeep up the great work.

Have fun.

Colleen.

[JoAnn]

Very, very nice!! What stitch is that? I agree about not worrying about the holes. I think anything you do won't blend in.

If you want to do a border-Maybe the same border you did around the squares-a row of each color of the blocks. Or a couple of colors? Just a thought. I think it looks great right now!!

[Chrome Kitty]

I don't think the holes look bad, but if you want to close them, how about this ~

Keeping in line with the flat braid joining rows to the left and right of the hole, join yarn with a sl st where the red square is in the pic, sc in the same spot. Ch 3 (that's what the blue circles are supposed to be). Sc at the pink square. Ch 3, then sc at the yellow square. FO & turn upside down. Join again with a sl st & sc in the purple square. Ch 2 (pink circles) and drop yarn from hook as you did in the flat braid and pull through the 2nd set of ch 3s from the other side. Pick up dropped loop & Ch 1 (yellow circle). Sc in green square. Ch 2 (white circles), drop yarn & pull through 1st set of ch 3s. Pick up dropped loop & Ch 1 (green circle). Sc in black square. I hope that made sense. I think it should look pretty close to the other flat braids.

 

For the border, the last three rounds of the border here would look good on this afghan because it's close to the same stitch as the flat braid.

[superfurry]

thanks so much for all the replies and the encouragement.

 

JoAnn the stitch pattern is from the 200 crochet blocks book, it's really simple, a row of (sc, ch2, skip2) followed by a row of 3 dcs into the sc of the previous row.

 

Chrome Kitty your replies were absolutely spot on - you're right, i need to continue the braid pattern into the space, and you explained it perfectly. :clapthat picot edging is perfect too, although i think prefer the slightly denser edge you get keeping the loops at 3ch rather than increasing to 5ch. sadly i've tried the edging in different colour combinations and it really only works in the off-white so it looks like i'll have to order another ball (and hope baby doesn't arrive early!).

 

i'm really tempted to leave the edge as is, but it dips in at the braiding and doesn't really look finished to me. it's a shame, if i'd planned ahead and put picots on that outer edge of loops i might just have got away with it (although then of course i wouldn't have had enough off-white to actually finish the blanket - as it is if it fill in all the hioles it'll be by the skin of my teeth ).

 

so thanks again to all, i'll post in show and tell when i'm done.