How to Add Edging to Crochet

Lay your blanket flat and take a good look at the edge. If you joined granny squares, you should see colour blocks meeting with little chain spaces between rows. If you finished with a treble crochet round on the outside, even better - you already have a clean rail to build on.

Decide whether you want a simple clean edge or a decorative one. Either way, the next step is the same foundation round that evens everything out.

Attach your yarn to any chain space along the edge with a slip stitch. Bella Coco uses a white that matches the joining colour, but any colour from the blanket works.

Insert your hook into the next chain space, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through both loops. That is a single crochet, US terms (double crochet in UK terms). This single round goes around the entire blanket, working one stitch into each chain space.

Keep going around the whole blanket. One single crochet into each chain space, two into the corners. Move slowly and check that your tension stays even - too tight and the edge will cup, too loose and it will ripple.

When you reach the start, slip stitch into the first single crochet to close the round. Many crocheters stop right here. A single crochet round is a finished, professional edge on its own.

For the decorative round you can keep going with the same yarn or switch to a contrast colour for a real "wow" effect. Bella Coco shows the technique on a small swatch using fresh white yarn.

Insert your hook into one of the chain spaces from the round you just finished. Pull a loop of new yarn through and tie a small knot at the back to anchor it. You are ready to build the first shell.

Skip one chain space. Into the next chain space, work five treble crochet stitches (US treble = UK double treble): yarn over, insert hook, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through two, yarn over, pull through two. That is one treble. Repeat four more times into the same chain space.

All five trebles share one chain space and fan outward. That fan is the shell. It sits up off the edge with a beautiful arc.

After the five trebles fan out, skip the next chain space. Slip stitch into the chain space after that. The slip stitch anchors the shell down and starts the next one.

Now repeat: skip one, five trebles into the next chain space, skip one, slip stitch. Every shell uses one chain space, the slip stitch uses one chain space, and you skip one in between. That rhythm continues all the way around the blanket.

When you reach your starting shell, slip stitch into the first chain space you began with. That closes the round cleanly.

Cut the yarn leaving about a six inch tail. Pull it through to fasten off. Thread the tail onto your tapestry needle and weave it back through three or four shells on the wrong side, then snip the end. Your blanket is finished.