How to Join Squares Seamlessly in Crochet - Whip Stitch Method

Someone in my Facebook crochet group posed a question when she became stalled on her afghan project.  "How exactly do I "sew" those squares together?"  

"Slip Stitch!"

"Single Crochet!"

"Up and  Down Stitch!"

There were dozens of responses in no time, and all of those are great answers.  Each have their unique application, but for a blanket nothing is more simple and seamless than the basic Whip Stitch.  She quickly Googled how to get this done, but then she was left with another great question that no other blog seemed to cover and that is, "How do you tie off?"  That one's a little tougher to explain in words, so I whipped up two little saltines to show what I do and used a contrasting yarn for demonstration.

Usually afghan squares have a right and a wrong side.

You'll want to put the squares together with the right sides facing each other.

Put your needle through both corner stitches and make a shoe lace knot...

...Twice, and pull it tight.













Run your needle through both corner stitches again so your yarn is in the right orientation.


(It always ends up one stitch short on one of the squares if you don't do this.  It took me forever to figure this out and drove me bonkers for years swearing I didn't skip a stitch.)

Bring your needle back over the top and insert it from the same direction through the next set of stitches.

Repeat to the end (the next set of corner stitches).

Bring your needle back through the last stitches to make a loop.

Put your needle through that loop.

Bring the needle back through the loop now made by the working yarn.

Now it should be tied off securely at both ends.

Weave in those ends just like all the others.

The best thing about this method?  The completely seamless appearance!  Here's how it looks on the right side.  No more window pane afghans!

Voila! You're done!  With one pair of squares anyway....

Attach individual squares to make a strip that's the length of the short side of the blanket.  Shorter rows means more stability.  Once all the strips are made, whip stitch the strips together.  

TIP: When you get to where 4 corners meet, whip stitch though both sets of corners, put your needle back through the first set, then back through the second set and continue on as normal.  This will make an "x" type stitch that will keep a hole from appearing there under the weight of the afghan. (This also took me forever to figure out and made me succumb to using a sl st or sc join.)  I can make two more squares demonstrate if you'd like, just let me know in the comments and I'll add it in a little bit.




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