Leapfrog Crochet Border

I was reading a post on Made In K-Town’s blog where she was trying to decide on a border for her magic blanket once she has the blanket itself finished. The blanket is primarily white on one side, gray on the other, with stripes of various colors mixed in. She was wondering what color to pick to make the base round of the border blend in.

After studying the blanket and thinking about it, I mentioned in a comment that she could use both the white and the gray and leapfrog the colors around the blanket. Then I thought more about it and decided maybe I should see if it works. I’ve never seen this technique before, although it may be out there in the world somewhere. But here I hope to show you what’s in my head and how I pictured the border.

So I whipped up a quick granny square then grabbed two contrasting colors so that the stitches would show easier for a tutorial. I’ve not done a tutorial like this before, so please bear with me as I try to explain this technique.

sc = single crochet

B1 – border color 1 (blue in tutorial)

B2 – border color 2 (orange in tutorial)

1. Attach B1 with a sc then pull the loop a little bigger, slip the hook out of the loop:

2. Put the hook though the next stitch, make a slipknot with B2 on the hook:

3. Wrap the yarn over the hook then pull through the slipknot and the stitch, leaving a nice size loop:

4. Take the hook out of the B2 loop, put back through the B1 loop and then the B2 loop again, re-tighten both loops up to a normal tension:

5. Wrap the B2 around the hook and finish the sc, making sure the B1 is carried along:

6. Continue to insert hook through next sc and pick up the opposite color than what’s currently looped on the hook and finish the sc, making sure to carry the other color along under the stitch.

The back of the border has an interesting look as well:

As mentioned above, this is (as far as I can recall) the first I’ve done this type of tutorial for a technique I just thought of, so please let me know if you need more pictures and/or clarification and I will try to help.

I hope you like this border!

 

Edit to add: Me being the curious crocheter that I am sometimes, I decided to see how a small swatch would look like doing this technique. While easy, it is very time-consuming, between having to concentrate on color switches and untangling the skeins. But I think it does have a very interesting look to it: