Joining Trick!

I just finished making another Pentagranny Baby Blanket, by Shelley Husband.  There's a lot that I like about this pattern, but one thing that really stands out is how you do the join at the end of each round. This is yet another tip on how to make the end-of-round join less visible.

In most motif patterns, the end of the first round involves working the final corner of the motif and then making a slip stitch into the first stitch of the round, meaning that the beginning of the next round is after the corner. You can see that here, in the beginning of this granny square:

As you work additional rounds, the point at which you joining the end of the round to the beginning ends up being somewhere near the middle of one side of the motif.  Depending on the motif, the visibility of that seam will vary, but it's usually fairly easy to pick out. In some motifs, ending the rounds with a slip stitch puts the end of the round a few stitches away from a good place to start the next one, necessitating a few slip stitches to get frm Point A to Point B, which can make that seam even more evident. As I continued working on the solid granny square shown above, you can see a straight line forming perpendicular to the top side of the square as the seam.

In Shelley Husband's pattern, the rounds end in the middle of the final corner. Regardless of whether the motif is a pentagon or a triangle, most of her corners in the Pentagranny Baby Blanket consist of two or three chain stitches.  However, the final corner of each round (except the final round) involves one chain stitch, followed by a single crochet into the top of the first stitch of the round.  You can see that here, even thought the single crochet doesn't look very prominent in the picture:

That single crochet join creates a little distance between where the join is and where the yarn is. The next round then begins with the stitches that are worked into the left half of the corner space to begin working across the side, and those stitches are worked around the single crochet, enclosing it, as shown below:

As you can see, the chain that is the first stitch of the new round and the double crochet next to it are worked over/around the single crochet join at the end of the previous round. The starting chain of each round is still visible, but it doesn't make an obvious seam or interrupt the appearance of the side of the motif.

The exception to Husband's "rule" of ending rounds this way is the final round, which, in the Pentagranny Baby Blanket, at least, is usually just a round of single crochet.  Using a single crochet to join rounds really improves the appearance of the project for most rounds, but it looks bulky and uneven before you work around it in the beginning of the next round.  Therefore, at the end of the final round, which is an edge that might be visible in the finished product, she has you join the round with just a slip stitch, for a smoother appearance.

I really like this technique, and I never would have thought to play around with different joining methods on my own.  I'm looking forward to using it in other projects in the future.

This post has been linked to Busy Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Senior Salon, Wonderful Wednesday, The Stitchin' Mommy, and Thursday Favorite Things.