hi welcome to this tutorial on how to join granny squares and firstly apologies for not having done a many videos for so long and some of you probably know I'm pregnant and I'm during two days actually so and I thought I better squeezes in for I don't have time anymore so a lot of people have asked you and ask me sorry how I usually join my granny squares to make blankets I've got two examples here one of which I will admit I didn't make this was actually given to me and this is one one method it's quite flat and if you can see that the squares are joined but the way that I generally do it is a seam method it's quite a bit quicker I think and it looks quite effective and see that on the video there so it's slightly raised and it looks like a bit of a seam on the edges but I think it gives quite a good effect and makes each each individual square stand out really nicely and then I've just edged this one so the way that you go about doing it it's a lot simpler than it looks if you take your two squares that you want to join the best thing to do is to get all your granny squares and firstly just lay them out in the pattern that you want them to be take a picture of that probably so you can remember or leave them somewhere where you know that they're going to be able to you know stay not get tidied away before you finish joining them and but you need to take your two squares that you're going to join and basically put them back-to-back with the seams together that you're going to join so for this one got my ends in here I'll show you how to weave those in and probably just do one end at a time so leave that to one side so you've got one end squares this is your presentation side and your other presentations go outside so put them back to back like so you'll notice here that these squares are 5 and rounds and each M shell is made up of three stitches so you can see here we've got 1 2 3 4 5 shells of 3 stitches each so that's 15 stitch is then in between each one you've got a gap of one stitch so you've got 15 plus 16 17 18 19 and then to turn each corner you do two stitches so one ends up on each side so you've got an extra one each there as well so you've got 3 6 9 12 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 stitches for a five round granny square so put your squares back-to-back get your hooks that you've been using to actually make the squares with this happens to be a four millimeter hook firstly what you need to do is find your first stitch that you're going to work into so I bring this a bit closer I hope you can see this I've tried to contrast the back backing so you can see see the stitches we've got one two three four each arm of the shells and then another stitch here as part of the corner so this is your first stitch so you want to put your hook through the two pieces of yarn make up that stitch and you'll have two on top of the hook you should be able to see there is one underneath okay then you find the corresponding stitch on the other square so we can see here we've got one two three and then the first stitch of the corner so put your hook through so you've got two strands at the top one on the bottom and that's your corresponding stitch so that's what you need to do to start so you know where you're going get your yarn you're going to make the seen with I'm not actually going to join these squares with this color yarn I just chose it so you can see the contrast leave a bit of a tail we'll weave that in as we go along okay so make a loop put your hook and bring it through both stitches okay so you've got your loop pulled through your starting stitches with the tail left at the end here okay now what we need to do is a single crochet stitch across across the length of this edge so to do that we'll actually sorry for the first one you basically chain one that is the equivalent that starting one is the equivalent of your first single crochet okay then for the next one you find the next stitch which I hope you can see that there that's that hold pop that in your hook in keep your tail on top of the hook and find the corresponding stitch on the back which is the next one there so you've got your tail tucked in the middle okay then you grab the yarn pull it through so you've got two loops on your hook grab the yarn and pull it through both let's lift it up so that's two so we said those 21 in total so if you try and keep track when you first get started it's easier to see where you're at but you won't need to do that as you go along so that's two so next one into the next stitch keep your yarn on the top through the next one grab your yarn put it through both loops so you've got two and then pull it through stitch number three so I'll just go through and do the next few stitches a bit quicker or I would say do at least if you can eight or nine stitches over your yarn just a keep it nice and secure that's five six seven Hey and all the way you're making sure that the two and granny squares of match up front and back the stitches you're going into correspond with each other so now we can just tuck this end away that's suitably sort of sewn in we can and we can sew the end in if we want to or we can just snip it so we've got the gap here to go through leave a little stitch at corresponds with a gap at the back just ignoring the end now this is where it can get slightly confusing I've actually knotted and the ends of my work on these granny squares not everybody does and but I have so it tends to pull hit this shell here it appears we've got your three arms but it appears as though there's only two stitches because of the knot so you just need to fashion your own is a fashion your own let the gap to go into or you can put two into the next one whichever you prefer usually and if you can see this usually if you pull it tight enough you can see a small little gap to work into just there so count that as off as your number one of that shell it's a bit tricky if you can just get your hook in there you won't know once it's complete you can get it to go through okay so that's in and that corresponds with the next one at the back and then what you're doing is you're sewing in this end just the same as you are with your orange one as you go along to keep it all neat and keep it all secure so go into your next one keep the yarn on the top to keep its own in and you won't even see that as you go through sorry--but place how many have we done here you let your first one one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve so nine more that's the good thing about knowing how many stitches you need to do when you first get started you can keep track actually when you get used to it you won't actually need to do that thirteen 14 sixteen sixteen even probably ignore that end as well now the last five in we just got and see how we're creating a scene now just got two more so it's the last one of this shell and then last one is the first stitch of your two corners two corner stitches I should say where you turn the work when you're making your granny squares I've got the J's on if you want to see one go back to those okay so there's your seam okay you works joined now what you need to do is do a slip stitch so you've got your your loop pull another loop through snip your work here which I won't do at the moment so I'm not going to keep this and pull it through tightly and you've got a knot and then when you open it up that's what you're left with okay and then you just carry on let me I'll pause the video and grab my other square so you can see sorry about that I just picked up a couple more squares here and you would carry on growing your rope however big it needs to be so for the next section you would get the front piece of your work from piece here as well so back-to-back like so and doing exactly the same again when you open it out you'd have your three join together and and then so you'll do all columns to start with and then you can join the rows so say for example this is just going to be a small flannel or something and you're just going to have to you've joined your two then you would join a separate two like so in exactly the same way when they're opened out you've got your two pairs and if you can see that I just show you you would then join so you've joined I've just shown you this scene here you would join this team in exactly the same way and then to create this seam here is exactly this name all you would do let's put these two columns back-to-back and just join all the way along and then you would have your square and then the work ends up looking like if it goes to plan this okay so I did this one is a six by six so I joined my rows of six like so so I have six individual rows of six and then I joined them in columns as well okay I hope that helps if you have any questions please feel free to ask or if you have any other ideas for videos and that you'd like me to do just let me know okay