Adding a Single Crochet Border

For some patterns in crochet, you will see them call for a border. This can be a simple border or a more decorative one, either way a border is a good way to finish off a project. I started crocheting a simple blanket for a friend's birthday. Just a plain old half double crochet blanket, no graph, no pattern just straight crocheting. Now that I finished the blanket, I want to add a simple border to give it a nice finishing touch. Since I have never done a border I used this video, to help me.

To start with I crocheted a simple Half Double Crochet Blanket with a starting chain of 150. I didn't count how many rows I did, I just know I ordered seven balls and used them all. I found this was a nice size, you may want it bigger or smaller depending on what you are making.

Completed Half Double Crochet Blanket

After finishing the blanket, just to add a little something and make it look more complete, I added a Single Crochet Border. A border like that is very easy to do, you want to start exactly where you finished (on your working side) and simply add another row to your project, in this case of single crochets. Once you finish the row and hit the corner you want to add three (3) single crochets to make the turn.

Once you start crocheting up the side you have to remember your stitch. With this blanket, because I used the Half Double Crochet stitch, each row counts as two, so you will have to do two single crochets per row (this also applies for a Double Crochet blanket with a single crochet border). Again, once you come to the corner you want to add three single crochets to the same corner stitch. Next you will be doing the starting chain, this will be slightly odd because it won't look like a normal stitch (like at the top), this will be what was left of the chain stitch after you stitched into it. (Simply single stitch like you normally would.) After that you will get to the corner again and go back up the final side. 

To finish the border off, you get back to the corner you started at. There is already one stitch here (your starting stitch), so you add only two (2) this time. Now you find that first stitch and make a slip stitch to finish everything off nicely. Once I cut the yarn and pulled it through the final stitch, I sewed in the starting and finishing tails.