Putting it together...



I crocheted the afghan together!




I have been sick with a stomach flu--and when I am sick, I crochet. As promised, here are pictures of how I put my afghan together. To join two squares (or any shape--the real term for a piece of crochet that will be joined with others is "motif") together, hold them with the "right" sides together and single crochet across, putting your hook through just the back loops of both squares. I use a hook one size smaller to do this, because it's easier to work into all those little hoops, and it makes it a little firmer. So I crocheted the squares with a "H" hook, and I'm putting them together with a "G" hook. You can also sew squares together if you don't want a ridge on the wrong side. Since my squares are mostly single crochet, the feel of this afghan is a little stiffer, and so the heavier crochet joining works for me here.

Here's a close up of the afghan with the squares joined vertically. The hardest part is joining the first few squares, because you have to figure out what goes where. I drew a diagram and I still had to take my first row out. I'm not really good with the whole left-right thing. After all of the rows are stitched like this, then I start working across. Don't forget to leave your yarn ends nice and long to work in later. Nothing's worse than putting in a lot of time making an afghan just to have a bunch of short yarn ends poking around.

This doesn't take as long as you think!

This is what it looks like on the right side when it's joined.

It's all together now! All that's left to do is the border and working in the ends! I really am excited, because I usually make items for other people, so it's special to make something the whole family will enjoy for years to come.