Ask Lindsey: Afghan Squares To Block or Not

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Ask Lindsey is a weekly crochet and knit Q&A with Lindsey Stephens. Send your questions to Lindsey at support@thelindseylife.com. Ask Lindsey posts may contain affiliate links for products Lindsey thinks you’d love.

It’s Friday the 13th, but don’t be scared! I’m here to help with your stitching dilemmas.

Dear Lindsey,

I’m making an afghan with lots of individual squares. Should I block the squares before seaming them?

Signed,

Beth

In one word: YES. It’ll make your seaming life so much easier. I talk about this at length in my online class, Seaming Crochet. This is true for both crochet and knitting.

If your square’s edges look perfectly straight off the hook (or needles)- and I mean 100% perfect- then I give you permission to skip this step. But if they’re even the slightest bit wonky, block them. You’ll thank yourself later. See those granny squares below? They need to be blocked into submission like a bad chapter of 50 Shades of Grey.

I have a hand held steamer that is my go-to blocking tool. Not only does it give me a lot of control over the blocking process, but the pieces don’t get as wet, so they don’t have the long drying time that you get with a full wet blocking. I’ve had full wet blocking take as long as 2 days to dry in the winter, so I go for steam whenever possible.

Beautiful seams like this require blocking the squares first.

Have fun seaming!

-Lindsey

Looking for a fun afghan pattern without seaming? Try the Blackberry Blanket. It’s textured and squishy fun.