How to Join Granny Squares, EASY Joining Crochet Squares

Learn how to join granny squares! You have completed all the granny squares you need to make your beautiful blanket, but now what? There are a number of ways of joining crochet squares. Read through all of these crochet joining methods, and then decide which will be the best for you. Your decision must be based on which method you will prefer to work, as well as which final look is the most appealing to you.

How to Join Granny Squares in Crochet Tutorial

Usually, when joining granny squares, you will need to lay out your squares to get a pleasing effect and make sure that you don’t have any squares of the same color touching each other. Then you can join horizontal rows of squares together and finally join the vertical seams. When joining a new color to join seams, you would normally start with a slip knot. Read more about changing yarn in crochet.

This article will give you 8 easy ways to join granny squares:

1. Whip Stitch
2. Invisible Stitch
3. Single Crochet
4. Slip Stitch
5. Flat Slip Stitch
6. Seamless
7. Join as You Go
8. Chains

What is the Easiest Way to Join Granny Squares for Beginners?

After making all these samples with the 8 methods of joining granny squares, I would have to say the easiest for me was definitely the single crochet. I didn't have to get out a needle, and it gave a perfect-looking seam. If you want more of an invisible seam, then the easiest sewing method is the whip stitch.

Supplies Needed to Join Crochet Squares

• Yarn or Tapestry Needle (Methods 1 & 2)
• Crochet Hook (Methods 3 to 8)
• Stitch Markers (These will hold your squares together so you can get them even.)

Block Granny Squares Before Joining

Before you start joining granny squares, you should block your pieces so they are a uniform size with nice, even edges. If you are making a small blanket, it is possible to block it at the end instead.

How to Arrange Your Granny Squares

Once blocked, you will need to arrange your granny squares if they are not all the same colors or designs. Try to get an even spread of colors. Using the same color thread to join the granny square will tie it all together.

How to Join Granny Squares with Sewing

You can join granny squares by sewing your blocks together with a yarn needle or tapestry needle rather than trying to crochet the squares together. Your needle should have a large eye and a blunt tip.

1. How to Join Granny Squares with Whip Stitch

To do this, you will hold the squares together and simply whip stitch, through the outer loops of each crochet stitch along the edge of your block. If you use the same color yarn as the outer edge of your squares, the seam will be hardly noticeable. For this reason, it is good to use this method on squares that all have the same color in their final round of crochet.

If you are joining squares that have different colored final rows, you will have to decide which color blends in the best. You may even like to use a contrasting color to create a neat border on each block. I have used a contrasting color for clarity.

1. Insert the needle through back loops from right to left.
2. Lift the yarn up and over, and insert from right to left again and through the back loops of the next crochet stitch.
3. Continue until blocks are joined together.

2. Invisible Crochet Join

You will be working ladder stitch to crochet join squares in this way. This is also called mattress stitch. When pulled tight, the stitches disappear into the crochet fabric. This makes this method the most seamless method of joining the blocks.

To work the ladder stitch: Lay the squares next to each other, front side up. I like to work from the bottom to the top of the squares.

How to join granny squares invisible:

1. Join your yarn to the back of one square.
2. Insert your sewing needle from left to right and through both loops of the crochet stitch on the left-hand square.
3. Now insert the needle from right to left through both loops of the crochet stitch on the adjacent right-hand square.
4. Continue doing this, inserting the needle into each stitch. While the sewing is loose, it looks like a little ladder going up between your squares.

5. After a few stitches, pull the yarn firmly to pull the squares together, but not too tightly so that the crochet fabric puckers and gathers!
6. Keep stitching in this way, and pull tight every few stitches.

Your seaming yarn will disappear into the crochet fabric. Even with my bright pink, contrasting yarn, the stitches have sunk down into the crochet fabric.

How to Join Granny Squares with Crochet

Many crocheters do not want to sew their blocks together with a tapestry needle. They prefer to actually use a crochet hook for joining granny squares.

3. How to Join Granny Squares with Single Crochet (sc)

Connecting granny squares with single crochet leaves a neat little ridge between your blocks, which makes them stand out beautifully. You can choose to use a contrasting yarn or a yarn that blends in nicely. If the final row of each block is the same color, and you use this color for your single crochet, it becomes more textural than visual.

Single Crochet Join Method:

1. Once you have decided on the layout of your squares, simply place adjacent squares together, wrong sides facing together, then work a row of single crochet, inserting your hook into the edge stitches of each square before making the single crochet stitch.
2. I like to insert my hook through both loops of the crochet stitches. You may prefer to insert through the outer loops only.
3. Join the horizontal rows first, then when joining the vertical rows, simply work a single crochet stitch over the cross point where the horizontal joins meet the vertical joins.

4. How to Join Granny Squares with Slip Stitch (sl st)

This joining method is very similar to the single crochet join discussed above, but you will work a slip stitch instead of single crochet. This gives a slightly flatter seam. As mentioned above, first lay out your blocks in a suitable arrangement. Then, when you have decided which squares go together, place them next to one another.

1. Now, working on the outside loop of the squares, insert the hook through two adjacent loops and work a crochet slip stitch.
2. Work all the way along each square. It will look like a row of chain stitches along the join.

You must decide - if you want a visible, textured ridge, have the line of slip stitches on the right side of the squares. If you want an invisible seam, work it on the wrong side of the squares.

5. How to Join Granny Squares with a Flat Seam

If you want a more invisible crochet slip stitch to join, you work it as above, but instead of inserting your hook into the outside loop of the blocks, you must insert your hook into the inner or front loops of the final row of the crochet.

As the name suggests, this gives a flatter seam. Done in the same color yarn, the seam is almost invisible.

Those are the easiest joining methods. We can now move on to slightly more complex methods, which give different final ‘looks’ to your blanket.

6. Seamless Granny Square Join

This one is good for actual granny squares only, not other crochet squares.

1. Line up your squares next to each other. You will need to join your ‘joining yarn’ onto a square.
2. Work 3ch in the first square. This will be the corner.
3. Then, work a granny cluster (3 dc) into the gap of the last row of granny clusters. (Just as though you were continuing with your granny square. )
4. Now work 1 chain (ch1), and work a granny cluster into the equivalent square on the other block.
5. Keep going all the way along the squares for the horizontal joins, then do the same for the vertical joins.

This method results in absolutely no visible seam line. The joins just blend into the granny cluster pattern. If you work your join in the same color as your last round of squares, it blends in beautifully.

7. How to Crochet Granny Squares Together

This method is a favorite with crocheters, as it means you can just work your blanket all at once, without having to complete all the squares first, then join them up afterward. It is also called the join granny squares as you go method.

However, it will only work if you know exactly how you want to place your squares in your blanket. You won't have the luxury of being able to arrange them into a pleasing combination before you join them up!

How to crochet granny squares as you go:

1. You must have one block completed, and the block you want to join must be worked until the second last round.
2. For the next block, you will start the last row of the square in the corner. Work towards the next corner. When you reach it, make 1 chain, then insert your hook through the second chain of the corner 3 chains of the square you want to join onto.
3. Work your second chain through this chain.
4. Make 1 chain to complete the corner 3 chain for this square.
5. Next, make the second granny cluster (3 double crochet) into the corner of the square you are still creating. (work has been rotated. )

*Now insert your hook from front to back in the next space between clusters (on the completed square) and then work a chain. This is your normal chain between clusters. 

6. Go back to the square you are still creating, and work another granny cluster. Work from *all the way along the side of that square, you will have 2 squares joined.

When you get to a corner with 3 squares to join, proceed as follows:

7. Work the first granny cluster into that corner.
8. Work as before, looping one chain through the corner of the square.
9. Then skip the second square, and make a chain without joining.
10. Loop the hook into the corner of the third square and join onto that one by making a chain. You will have now worked the 3 chain corner.
11. Make the second granny cluster into that corner. Continue in the same way, joining the next two squares together. Keep going until your blanket is complete!

8. Joining Granny Squares with Chains (ch)

This method of how to join granny squares gives a pretty, lacy look between your squares. It is a simple method and very effective.

1. Arrange your squares as you want them for your blanket. Join your yarn at the corner of a square.
2. Work 3 chains, then 1 single crochet into the chain space between clusters.
3. Now work 2 chains and 1 single crochet into the next space on the opposite square.
4. Work 3 chains and 1 single crochet into the equivalent space in the opposite square.
5. Work 2 chains and 1 single crochet into opposite space - and so on. Keep going like this until all the squares are joined.

This will create a zigzag lacy chain pattern between the squares. I think that this one actually looks more effective if done in the same color as the final round of the squares. You can vary this method by creating more or fewer chains, and by crocheting a slip stitch into the spaces, instead of single crochet.

How to Join Granny Squares - In Conclusion

This article discusses eight methods of joining crochet squares to make a full blanket. There are many more, but they are really rather complicated! I am sure that you will find a method of how to join granny squares that suits you from these options!

Give each one a try before you decide which one suits you the best, both in the manner of construction and in final appearance. You may decide to use a different one for the next blanket you make and yet another further down the line! Each method has its own merits. Happy Crocheting!

Granny Square Projects

• How to Crochet a Scarf
• How to Crochet a Blanket