Blocking is an important part of crocheting. They help to keep your work from warping and make your stitches look neater. When crocheting repetitive motifs like granny squares, blocking is a required step to help all of your granny squares achieve the desired shape and size.
What are the best blocking mats for crochet? If you love crocheting clothes and other organic shapes, you can use a blocking mat with pins, which allows you to block whatever shape you want. If you regularly crochet granny squares, using a blocking board with pre-drilled holes will allow you to create uniform squares.
There are a few things you need to consider when purchasing a blocking mat for crochet, which can be a bit different compared to blocking mats for knit. Read on for more information on what to look for in a blocking mat and some of our top picks.
Why Use Blocking Mats For Crochet?
Have you ever tried to crochet a project and ended up with unsightly lumps and bumps in your work? This is because a piece of crochet is not considered finished until the yarn is blocked.
Blocking is the process of dampening the crochet fabric and pinning it onto a smooth surface. As the fibers dry, your stitches will even out, and the fabric will take the shape that you want.
This step will help to smooth out your stitches, creating a beautiful, professional-looking finished piece. Your fabric will also stay flat without curling up around the sides.
This step is especially important if you are crocheting lace pieces or granny squares, where you want the stitches to look pronounced and the squares to take a nice and even shape.
Blocking mats are precisely useful in this way. This is a flat surface that you can pin the crochet fabric to and allow the fabric to dry as it takes shape.
Types Of Blocking Mats For Crochet
Because crochet is such a unique craft, blocking mats designed for crochet actually come in a few different designs and materials with different benefits that you can enjoy.
Let’s take a look at the different types of blocking mats for crochet.
Interlocking Foam Mats
Foam mats are very versatile for blocking because they can be used for both knitting and crocheting.
Foam mats are just what they are called – pieces of foam that can hold sewing pins. When you block your crochet, you can lay the fabric flat on the mat and use small sewing pins to pin it in place.
Blocking mats usually come in sets with interlocking edges that you can collapse and expand, depending on how big your crochet fabric is. You can also arrange the blocking mat in different ways to arrange large, organic shapes, like a big sweater or cardigan.
Blocking mats usually have ruler guides printed on the right side, which can help you pin precise shapes like granny squares.
However, since they only work with thin sewing pins, they may not be able to block more than two or three pieces at once, which may be a disadvantage if you are making a lot of granny squares for a big blanket or sweater.
Granny Square Blocking Board With Pins
This is a blocking board design to suit the needs of crochet projects. Very often, in crochet projects, you will need to make repetitive motifs, like granny squares, pentagons, or even hexagons.
When you make these repetitive motifs, you will need to ensure that all the pieces that you make actually achieve the same size and shape. Otherwise, when you connect them to make a big blanket or sweater, the fabric will be scrunched up in some areas and loose in others.
If you are blocking a lot of granny squares, you will also need larger pins that allow you to stack multiple squares together without taking up a lot of space. That’s where a blocking board can be useful.
Blocking boards are big wooden boards with pre-drilled holes across the board that is designed to hold large wooden or metal pins (usually 4 – 6 inches). The holes can form squares, pentagons, hexagons, or any organic shapes, depending on how you arrange the pins.
Since the holes are pre-drilled and evenly spaced, you can ensure that the squares are the precise size and shape that you want them to be. The long pins also allow you to stack the squares and block multiple squares at the same time.
Best Blocking Mats For Crochet
Now that you have learned about the different types of blocking mats for crochet, here are some of our recommendations.
| Rank | Product | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Boye Interlocking Blocking Boards | Set of 4 interlocking foam blocking mats (12” x 12”) |
| 2. | Extra Thick Blocking Board Mats | Set of 9 extra thick interlocking foam blocking mats (12.5” x 12.5”) with pins |
| 3. | Kuksam - Handmade Wooden Blocking Board | Wooden blocking board with wooden pins (11” x 11”) |
| 4. | Olikraft Handcrafted Wooden Blocking Board | Wooden blocking board with metal pins and stand (11” x 11”) |
| 5. | Wooden Durable Crochet Blocking Board | Wooden blocking board with metal pins (12” x 12”) |
1. Boye Interlocking Blocking Boards
This is a basic yet highly versatile set of blocking boards that you can use for blocking both knit and crochet projects.
The set comes with 4 interlocking mats, each measuring 12” x 12”, and the foam is 2” thick, which can comfortably hold the average fabric pin.
The interlocking design allows you to transform the mats into different shapes that can block organic designs like sweaters, shorts, tops, etc.
If you would like to block granny squares, you can use the guides printed on the mat, which are spaced one inch apart.
The guides can help you form a perfect granny square with even edges, but unfortunately, the short pins will only be able to hold a few granny squares at a time.
2. 9 Extra Thick Blocking Board Mats
If you regularly block relatively large projects, then this expansive set of 9 blocking mats will definitely help you out.
Similar to the above, this set comes with interlocking mats that you can arrange and configure according to your particular project.
The grids printed on these blocking mats are quite thoughtful.
You get the regular one-inch by one-inch grid but also several angled grids that allow you to form triangles, pentagons, and hexagons as well. The grids continue across all 9 boards for your convenience.
The extra thick structure of these foam mats also allows them to hold pins securely for blocking.
However, this doesn’t mean that the pins can hold more than a few layers of crochet at once, so it’s still quite limited if you are crocheting a lot of granny squares.
3. Kuksam – Handmade Wooden Blocking Board
This 11” x 11” wooden blocking board is definitely designed with versatility in mind.
The board is designed with 325 pre-drilled holes that are placed strategically in different-sized squares all around the board. This way, you can block granny squares in different sizes but also any organic shapes that you can think of.
The set also comes with 20 long beechwood pins that are designed to fit perfectly with the wooden board to hold your granny squares in place.
Thanks to the comfortable length, you can also stack ten granny squares over the same pins to ensure that they all take the same shape and size without overwhelming the board or crowding the crochet fabric as it dries.
4. Olikraft Handcrafted Wooden Blocking Board
This is more of a traditional wooden blocking board, but that’s why it’s so useful. This durable red oak board is fashioned with pre-drilled holes that are perfectly evenly spaced half an inch apart.
At the size of 11” x 11”, that’s 289 holes (17 holes on each row, 17 rows in total) that allow you to pin squares, rounds, triangles, pentagons, hexagons, or any organic shape that you can think of.
For repetitive motifs, you can stack several layers together using the included metal pins that fit perfectly with the board.
Each pin is 4 inches long, which means it can comfortably hold at least 10 layers of crochet fabric with ease.
5. Wooden Durable Crochet Blocking Board
This wooden blocking board is super useful for blocking organic shapes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t also block granny squares.
The holes are drilled to form 7 lines that criss-cross across the board, with a perfect round in the middle.
You can take advantage of the evenly-spaced holes to block granny squares, but this design is also perfect for blocking rounds, pentagons, and hexagons as well.
The set comes with 8 metal pins that fit perfectly with the pre-drilled holes.
Each pin can comfortably block several pieces of crochet fabric, and you can even block different shapes at the same time, depending on how you organize the board.
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