A perfect ending to a perfect weekend of knitting with Be Wool

Finish your Spiral Rug beautifully with an elegant garter stitch edge. I’ll be teaching you how to add a simple, elegant garter stitch border to your rug before binding off. When that is finished, I’ll show you how I blocked my rug so it sits perfectly in front of my fireplace. Hopefully, you’ll have a gorgeous, soft, elegant rug to cozy up your home, too!

How to knit a classic garter stitch border

I wanted to add a few extra rounds to my own Spiral Rug to give it a nice elegant finish. Because the yarn was of such a generous size, and the loops of the stitches nice and loose, I didn’t feel the need to continue the yarn overs after I finished the final round of the pattern. I hoped that the rug would have enough stretch after I added the border, and I was right. Yay me! It’s always nice to have a knitting victory. The garter stitch border that I added after the last round of the pattern, but before the bind off went like this: • Purl one round • Knit one round • Purl one round Bind off all sts very loosely. If you want an even looser edge use a US size 17 [12mm] needle to bind off. It’s as simple as that but adds such a classic detail to this rug.

Bringing it all together at the end

I think I mention this in every blog series I do, but I’ll say it again. To make your projects come alive, blocking is the key! This rug was simple to do, and proper blocking gave it a clean edge and a flat center. I mentioned in previous post when I was teaching you the Invisible Circular Cast On technique, that I pulled the center closed a little too tightly causing it to pucker in the middle as in the photo below.

In this photo you can see the puckering in the center of my rug before blocking. This little oopsie nipple was dealt with easily by damp blocking my rug using my Knit Blockers and some blocking mats. When I say “damp blocking” I mean that I didn’t fully saturate the rug with water. I quickly dipped it in a bin filled with cold water and a little soap for woolens, swished it around briefly and lifted it out before it had absorbed a lot of water. I gently squished out the excess water, then rolled it in a towel to take even more of the water away. I ran my hand over the rug to make sure there weren’t any dry patches, and all the fibers were slightly damp to the touch. I laid the rug out on my blocking mats. Starting from the center out I gently stretched the rug out trying to make the edges even. It was kind of like spreading pizza dough into a circle. I used five of the smaller Knit Blockers to hold the center down flat. I used the larger blockers to secure each one of the points of the spiral and at one point in between each yarn over section. I adjusted the blockers to make the rug as round as possible then left it two days to dry. Yup, you heard me – two days! Be Wool is thick, luscious yarn. Even though it was just damp, and not fully saturated with water, it still took two days to make sure it was 100% dry. Now, it was extremely humid outside, so that made it longer to fully dry. However, don’t cut back the drying time even if it takes longer than you’d like. Develop your patience, and you’ll be rewarded with a perfectly set rug that will look gorgeous in your home. Now you can sit back, put on fire or pour a hot bath, and enjoy your cozy new rug. Happy Fall!

This is how I placed my Knit Blockers to block out my Spiral Rug.