2019 Stash Busting CAL: Joining and Border

The moment you have all been waiting for, its time to finish this afghan! I am going to show you the join I used as well as the simple border I chose. 

If you’re just getting here, you can find all the information about this CAL here.  This is the last step in our journey but the square patterns will be forever free here on my blog as well as in PDF format on Ravelry.

I can’t wait to see your afghans all put together over in our Facebook group. 

A lot of you have been asking if we are doing another CAL in 2020, and the answer is yes. I’ll go over it more at the end of this post. 

Let’s get started! Many of you have mentioned how much you dread sewing things together, well I have good news, we are crocheting the squares together! No sewing required. It took me 2 or 3 nights to join and then one more for the border. 

** This post contains affiliate links if you click through and make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Also, you’ll need about 300 yards (give or take depending on your tension) for the join and border.

Here is a picture of my finished blanket! I am so happy with how it turned out and my kids are already fighting over it, good thing it’s big enough for all three to snuggle under. 

Laying out your afghan squares

At this point, your squares should all have their ends woven in and they should be blocked if you are doing that. If you are unsure how to block your squares, it’s easier than you think! Just pin them out to 12 inches on a blocking mat or towel using rustproof pins and then hit them with steam from a garment steamer or iron until it feels damp and relaxed. Do not touch the iron to your yarn though, it will melt your acrylic yarn. Then let them cool. You can also place your squares in a stack on one of these blocking boards!

There are three ways you can go about choosing a layout for your squares.

-Number 1: completely random with no planning.

-Number 2: Layout all your squares and make sure they look good together. (this is what I did).

-Number 3: In the order you made them

I just used my floor to lay them out in a 4×6 rectangle. This allowed me to move squares around and get it just so. I originally had a dark spot that I had to break up with one or two of my lighter squares. 

Once you’ve decided, snap a picture with your phone just in case. 

Joining Our Afghan Squares

My original plan was to make an entire tutorial for this join, BUT Dedri Uys from Look What I Made (She designed the Sohpie Universe Afghan) does it so well that I didn’t think I could do it justice. 

Materials:

-approx 300 yards of #4/worsted weight yarn

-6 mm crochet hook

-scissor and tapestry needle

Read Dedri’s Joining Tutorial

This is a (sc, ch-1) join and instead of joining in rows it is done diagonally!! It’s easy and fast. 

Here is an up-close look at the join. 

I really like this one because it doesn’t have to be perfect. Dedri goes over all this in this post, but if your squares don’t line up exactly it’s ok to skip a stitch or two. I had to do this a lot with mine and you can’t even tell. 

I used a 6mm crochet hook instead of a 5.5mm to keep things from being to tight and pulling. 

Also, I have kids, a giant dog, and a cat so leaving my squares in the middle of the living room while I joined them together was not an option. I made separate piles for each diagonal row and labeled them with their row number. 

Once they are joined, you can move on to the border. 

Ribbed Crochet Border

I chose this border because I wanted something simple that didn’t take away from the loudness of the crochet squares. Of course, if you want to do something else that is completely fine too, it is your blanket after all. 

To start you’ll do a round of double crochets, then a round of front and back post double crochets and that’s it!

Abbreviations

Ch(s): chain(s)

Dc: double crochet

Fpdc: Front post double crochet

Bpdc: back post double crochet

Sl st: slip stitch

Notes

-Ch 3 counts as a stitch

-Ch 2 does not count as a stitch

Instructions

Rnd 1: Find any corner stitch and then starting in the stitch directly to the left, pull up a loop and ch 3. Dc evenly around placing 3 dc in each corner stitch. (you’ll end with a 3 dc corner). Join to top of ch 3, with sl st. 

Rnd 2: Ch 2, Fpdc around same st as ch 2, *bpdc around next, fpdc around next repeat from * around. When you get to a corner continue in the pattern but you’ll put 3 post stitches around the corner stitch. Join to top of first stitch with sl st. Finish off and weave in ends. 

2020 Crochet Along

I am in the process of planning our 2020 Crochet Along. If all goes well and you enjoy it, this will be a series of afghans, one for each season. This series of afghans are inspired by my fondness for handmade quilts. I am planning to have the “materials and information” post up soon after the first of the year. I hope you’ll join me!