by Donna Collinsworth

Created on: March 08, 2010

The square is the basic building block in crochet.  There are solid color squares, multi color squares, squares with flowers in its center and lace filled squares to name just a few.  Squares are used to make afghans, purses, clothing and I even saw a pair of slippers made using several squares.  But squares are no good unless you can put them together.

There are two basic methods used to connect squares: sewing and join as you crochet.  Both work equally well and have their pros and cons.

Sewing is the simplest and most basic form of joining.  You make all the squares you need in whatever color or combination of colors your pattern calls for.  Then with needle and yarn you sew them together, one square at a time, until rows are formed. The rows are sewn together to form the final product. If done correctly it’s hard to tell where the blocks have been stitched.

Simply chose the same color yarn as the square was made of or if the square has been crochet with many different colors chose the main background color or the lightest color in the square.  Place the squares wrong sides together, corner-to-corner so that the outer edge stitches touch.  Insert your needle into first one stitch on one block and then into the corresponding stitch on the other block.  You keep doing this until the sides are connected.

Pro: You don’t have to sew the blocks together until you get all of them made.  This keeps the project simple and great to take along while waiting for your kids.

Con: You don’t have to sew the blocks together until you get all of them made.  It can be a daunting task to sew all those blocks together especially if you are making an afghan or something with a complicated pattern.  I once spent a week sewing squares into rows and rows into an afghan only to find that somewhere I had flipped a row throwing the design of the afghan off.

The next method is joining as you crochet.  This is where you make one completed square and then as you work the subsequent squares you join them to the previous square worked.  The joining round is always the last round of the square and instructions are given in the pattern.  Although instructions vary with the type of squares you have made, basically you stop making the square to slip stitch in the corner or corresponding space on the square you previous made.  Once you have joined the squares together you work until that square is completed as well.

Pro: You get to see your project take shape as you crochet.  Also you aren’t facing a pile of squares to sew together one by one at the very end.

Con: The project can quickly become too large to take along and work on in your spare minutes.  In this day in age with everyone working and multi tasking, it can be almost impossible to find a spare minute to work on your project let alone time to do it at home.  Also if you make a mistake in one block and don’t notice it until you have finished a couple of rows you will have to unravel each square one by one until you reach that point.  That can be a lot of hard work raveled out to only be re-done.

Both methods work well and can easily be interchanged: Sew together squares meant to be joined as you crochet and join square meant to be sewn.  Try both ways; basically it’s a personal choice which one you end up using the most.

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