If you've followed me on social media for a while you'll know how much I love moss stitch! I just love how quick and easy it is and how modern it looks. I've made several horizontal and diagonal stripe moss stitch blankets and I've been wanting to try a square one worked in rounds for some time but have been put off by how skewed they always seem to look, it just seems to ruin the finish.
Had a bit of time this Easter weekend and a nice new Sirdar Snuggly Pattercake to have a go at coming up with a straight moss stitched square and I'm really pleased with how it came out...……….
Just want to say before I begin that I don't claim to be a crochet designer and my pattern writing is pretty abysmal, I just don't enjoy it, but I do like to experiment and find solutions to wonky or uneven crochet (you might already be familiar with my cosy stripe wonky edge tip!) and I wanted to share this blanket with you as a thank you for your continuous support and to hopefully provide some inspiration in this rather challenging time where many of us are looking to our yarn craft hobbies to lift our spirits and keep our minds occupied.
The two issues that I found with working moss stitch in the round is it's tendency to skew and a noticeable joining seam. I think the main reason square blankets often skew is due to your natural crochet tension. This skewing is easily solved by turning your work on every round. This simple step seems to balance out your tension and give you a nice 'square' square. I've also done my best to eliminate a noticeable joining seam. Here is a picture showing the seam, it's there but hopefully not too obvious!
Moss stitch has a lovely drape to it but it can work up tightly so to get a nice drape you might want to experiment with hook size first. I used a 4.5mm for this yarn but it really does depend on the yarn I'm using as to which size I use.
I'm using UK terms
To begin - chain 2. We will be working all the round 1 stitches into the 1st chain made (the one furthest from your hook) This first chain will become the centre of our round. You could use a magic ring if you like, personally I don't like magic rings, but if you prefer that way of starting go for it!
Round 1 - Work 1dc, 2ch, 1dc,1ch, 4 times into the first chain made. Join to first dc. TURN
Round 2 - Work 1dc into the very first ch1 sp (it's pretty much right below your turn), 1ch, then *(1dc,2ch,1dc) into ch sp (corner made), 1ch,1dc in ch1sp,1ch* 3 times. (1dc,2ch,1dc) into ch2 sp (corner) 1ch, Join to the top of the first dc. TURN
Round 3 - Work 1dc into the very first ch1 sp, 1ch, *(1dc, 2ch, 1dc) into the next ch2 sp (corner made) 1ch, 1dc in ch1 sp, 1ch, 1dc in ch1 sp, 1ch* 3 times. Then (1dc, 2ch, 1dc) in ch2 sp (corner made) 1ch, 1dc in ch sp, ch1, join to top of first dc. TURN
This is what your piece should look like after round 3
and that's it! So to summarise your corners will always be (1dc,2ch,1dc) and along the sides you'll be alternating 1dc in ch1 sp, 1ch.
Don't forget to TURN on every round and don't be tempted to put extra chains in anywhere! Particularly at the join because if you do that you'll end up with a bumpy seam.
I used one 150g ball of Sirdar Pattercake and that gave me a blanket approximately 55 x55cm. I wanted it a bit bigger so I colour matched the outer shade from my stash and added a few more rows and a scalloped edge to finish making it 60x60cm. (Sirdar......if you're reading this I'd love these cakes to be 200g, would give a really nice size baby blanket, 150g in one cake is just not enough!)
The Sirdar Pattercake yarn is really lovely to work with and I'm itching to get started on my next moss stitch square.
I hope you've found this blog post useful, if you do decide to give moss stitch in the round a go it's always nice to get a mention for the inspiration.
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Thank you, Faye x
