I surprise myself sometimes. I never used to block anything. Hadn’t even heard of it for most of my knitting/crochet life. Now I’m even blocking components of an unfinished project!

These squares are 5×5 inches and are to become the hem edge of my new summer top. Four for the back, four for the front. They used up nearly a whole hank of yarn which leaves me with three to play with. I hope that’s enough. I am rethinking the stitch pattern for the rest of the top to something more lacy.

The linen/cotton yarn (Willow Yarns Field) is quite unforgiving to work with, though not unpleasant, but I have a recurrent pain in my right elbow these days and it could be from all the crochet I’ve been doing. Or yoga. Or snowboarding (not impossible, my right thumb is still bruised from one of the falls I took in January).

I was pleased to finish these eight squares so I could give them a quick swish in some soapy water and pin them out. Thanks to Ravelry, I have some feedback on the yarn from a couple of others who have used it, and I will be making this garment shorter than required and then hanging the pieces up (dry) for a few days to see how much they stretch. The yarn label does say it’s machine washable and dryable but I may hand wash and dry flat anyway.

While these dry, I may start the green top in the same yarn, but knitted.

ETA: I forgot to mention, this block is from the book Granny Squares: 20 crochet projects with a vintage vibe by Susan Pinner. I have it from the library. It’s a UK book and it nearly tripped me up as now I am used to US crochet terms! It’s called Wheel in a Square and is used in her pattern for a Camping Blanket. When I looked on Ravelry.com for her patterns, there were only two from the book in the database, so I added the other 18! That took a while.