I am mostly an amigurumi artist and recently just delved into clothing and other items. Two days ago I had this idea for a bag pattern ( I will be posting the video and written tutorial soon). I made this granny square tote bag that I really liked. I made the squares really quickly. Then I came to filming the joining of the squares and this is where I ran into trouble. I did not realize until I was doing it that I really did not know how to join! I was so frustrated I thought I made a mistake with my squares. When I join them it bunches up and does not lay flat. I kept redoing it and redoing it. As I was about to give up, I figured out how to do it the best way I like with my design. Now I would like to share my process here and maybe it will help others like me who struggled with joining.
There are a lot of ways to join but I chose doing the slip stitch join and that is what I'm sharing today.
First here's the comparison of my work.
These are both done in slip stitch but the wrong way looks like it has a hump and it isn't flat. I thought I did not block it right that's why it wasn't flat but it was the joining that's the culprit.
Here's the difference.
*Disclaimer, I often believe there's no right or wrong in crochet it all depends on what you like your outcome to be so please take my term lightly.
The "wrong"way first,
I joined this by taking the 2 granny squares together, insterting hook only on the back loop and just slip stitch away. I must say this way of slip stitch join may work on sides, this creates a depth.
The "right" way
This is also done in slip stitch join but it is done by picking up back look at the top. You insert your hook from top on both back loops and make sure your yarn tail is also below the hook.
This gives a much flatter outcome. I hope this helped. I also have a video for this for visual learners.
This granny squares are also part of a tote bag pattern I made, please do check it out. It's called tic-tac-tote ❤️❤️❤️
