How To Join Triangle Motifs Into A Blanket

Hey everyone it's Deja from crochetrafter.com. Today I am doing a viewer request video and she wanted to know how you join triangles like these into a blanket. So how would you join these up to form a blanket? Now you can go the easy way and just join the squares but that kind of loses the whole point of the triangle. So what we're going to do is join them first into strips like Then we're going to join the strips into a blanket. I'm not doing a whole blanket But we'll get the gist of it with you seeing first how to join these triangles and then how to join the strips up So I'm also going to be joining two ways because I had another viewer request on how to whip stitch join Join. motifs So, I'm going to do a single crochet join to join the triangles together, and then I'm going to do a whip stitch join to do the strips. So you can see on my first one that I created here that a single crochet join creates a three-dimensional ridge on the back side of your project. But you can also put this on the front side of your project. It can be a design element for your blanket. So don't discount it immediately because it can lend some really interesting visual interest to your project. I made it in green just so you can see. How it stands out, and where the yarn is going when you join the triangles. So if your triangles are being made in different colors, you can choose a color to join that's best going to work with, you know, maybe if all of your outside triangles are the same color, then you'll want to work with that color. Or you might want to do a complete contrasting color. So totally up to you. We're going to join up a couple triangles the way that I did here so you can see how to do it. Okay, so the first thing you want to do when you're joining up your triangles, if you're following a pattern, they should tell you how many triangles are going to be in each strip. If not, divide your triangles up into an even number of strips. And connect those first, so first thing you want to do is connect your triangles into long rectangular strips, except the ends are going to be pointed of course, and then it'll be a lot easier to join your big strips into an actual blanket. So I'm going to do the single crochet join for this one and then we'll whip stitch the panels together. So what you want to do. Line up your triangles. Notice that my triangles are not laying on top of each other. If I were to join them this way and I open it up, I'm going to get more of a really large triangle, half granny square, whatever you want to call it. So we don't want to lay them on top of each other when we join them. Just think about it as if you were going to lay them out. This is how I always start. I pretend like I actually have them assembled, and then I flip it over. And then I grab them, and I line up my stitches. And since I'm working with triangles, what I want to do is I want to accentuate the points of my triangles. So when I'm joining, I want to start my join at my point. Now this is a granny square triangle, so my point is a chain one. Some of the triangles that you may work with will be a double crochet or whatever your stitch pattern is, that could be your point. So you might have five double crochets in your corner, then you would want to work into the third or middle double crochet. So pick your center stitch on each end and those are the ends that you want to start and end with and that will help you also Also line up your triangle so that you have the same amount of stitches across. So I'm going to put a slip stitch on my hook to start my single crocheting. So I'm going to go through that big chain 1 space and then on the end of my triangle I have a chain 3 and then 3 double crochets. So I'm just going to go under that chain 3 like I went under my chain 1 space to keep it consistent. Make sure that your triangles are lining up the right way before you start so you don't You don't have to pull it out. The single crochet join is nice and easy to release if you end up making a mistake, whereas like a whip stitch join you're going to have to pull out each stitch as you go. This one just rips out just like a regular single crochet. So I put my hook through both spaces and I lay my yarn over the top so I can grab it with my hook and I'm just going to pull it up and since I have that slip stitch on my On my hook, I now have two loops so I can just do a regular single crochet. So I'm going to yarn over and pull through both. I'm going to tighten it down a little bit, just so I can get a nice corner. Let me show you some different corners that can happen if you don't tighten down as you're working. So you can see this one's kind of loose. If it's in the same color, it's not too noticeable, but when you get to your corners, tighten them down before you work your next one. You can also tighten down your stitches in between, so that those loops aren't as noticeable. That's up to you. Sometimes it can cause a little puckering on your blanket, so So, um... you could use a bigger hook than you normally would to try to space the stitches out a little bit more. So then, since I have already joined my corners, now I'm just going to start going under both loops of each piece, just like if I was doing a regular single crochet, except I'm going under two single crochets at the same time. Yes, you can go with just the front loop and technically the back loop of the piece, or you can go to the inside loops if you want. Each choice that you make on where you want to insert your hook is going to give it just a slightly different look. So you might have just, when you open it up, if you work just the outside loops, you'll You'll have two inside loops running along with your... With the front of your work, so it's just different looks you can try out which ones you like the best But we're just going to go under both loops for ease So I'm just going to do single crochet and I keep these lined up make sure that you're going into the next two take the extra time to Visually check each one instead of just going straight across because you might miss one and then you'll have to pull it out So just turn your work and look for your V's make sure that you're under the correct ones If you're working, you'll see when we whip stitch that these aren't actual V's, so we have to be a little bit even more careful to try to keep these lined up well because it's the foundation chain. But when you have the V's, you can visually check them to make sure you're under both of them. And we're just going to single crochet across. I'm getting near the end of my triangle, so you can see that I have... Double crochet here, or technically, see I have the 3 that I already worked into, and this is like my chain 3. So I'm going to do the same thing that I did over here, where I went under the stitches. I went under the chain 3, and I went under the chain 1. So it's reversed this time. Now I have the chain 3 on this side, and the chain 1 on this side. And I'm going to make sure I tighten this one down really good, so that when I open it up, my ends aren't real spread apart. Now, here's the fun part. We're not going to fasten off. We're going to start our next triangle. So because we want to work this way, as we normally would in crochet, we're going to line up our triangle first. So I know I want to go this way. I want to keep my triangle going the same way. So I lay it down, and then I fold it over so that I am ready to start working my next join. So when I open this up. I have all of my wrong sides, or all of my joins on one side, so it's not like I fold this over. You could even fold it over like that, it doesn't really matter. But as long as you line this up how it's going to look when it's joined, and then fold it down, that'll give you the correct placement. Now, you can whip stitch this. I'm just single crocheting to show you how to do it. So you could whip stitch your triangles together too instead of doing the single crochet join. I'm just showing you two different joins that you could do to put these together. So usually you would pick one and stick with it for the whole blanket. But even then, it could give you a cool look having these raised ridges on your triangles. You know, it's totally up to you. So we're going to do the same thing. We're going to still work in this chain one space here. We're going to go under the chain three and we're going to go back under the chain one. So we're going to do double stitching in our corners. Pull it nice and tight and that way our triangles line up and we have some reinforcement in those seams. So now I have my three double crochets. I'm going to start going under each of those v's And start single crocheting across again. And I always check the top too because a lot of times your triangles or anything will be kind of tilted a little. As you can see this one's kind of tilting in. If I'm not paying attention, I'll end up going just under one loop. So I make sure I catch both of those loops so that when I open it up it looks all the same and I don't have any stray loops that are hanging out. So again, we're going to go all the way to the end of this triangle, and then I'll show you how to fasten it off. I'm on that very last point again, so I'm going to go under the chain one, and under the chain three. Then once I get to the end of my triangle, so if this was a full panel, I would finish off that last single crochet, and then I'm going to fasten it off. So I just make the long tail. Depending on if you're going to put a border or whatever you're going to do, you can either weave in the end now or wait until the end, whatever you enjoy best. I don't know if anybody actually enjoys weaving in. But now you can see that we have one panel. It's not quite a whole panel, but I have three triangles here and then I have four triangles here. So I mostly just wanted to make enough to be able to show you how to do the single crochet And then how to join them up. Now, if you wanted to join with a single crochet join, that's perfectly fine, if everything you're doing is single crochet join, you want to think about, first, how you want your ridges to show. So, if you want them in the background, and you don't want any ridges to show, you always want to put your right sides, or these little loopy sides, facing together, and then you Then you would single crochet right across the top, just like you did for your sides. If you want your ridges to show, and you want your ridge that you're joining the panels to show, you would flip that around. You would put the ridge sides together, single crochet, and then when you open it up, everything would be ridged. The thing to note is that I only have two panels here, but When you are joining your triangles, you're going to have these open triangles, and you're also going to have closed triangles. So you'll have an open every other row, or every other panel, and then a closed triangle like this every other panel. So you're going to have pointed edges on your blanket. You could, if you wanted to get real crafty and try to create or paste in one of your You would turn your triangles this way, like you would turn your triangle and... Place it that way on your open ends if you really wanted a rectangular blanket but then you probably wouldn't be making triangles in the first place so there are ways to make it rectangular if you really want to. But we're going to go ahead and start whip stitching together. Since I have these little loops I'm going to make those my front side or my right side And I'm going to place the ridges on the outside. And I'm calling these my right sides, so I'm putting my right sides together, and then I'm going to join up right where I have that point again. So always look for your point for, put more on the picture here, always look for your point for where you're going to join your triangles or where you're going to start. Since I have this extra triangle over here with no triangle on top of it, I'm going to start kind of in the middle of my panel. Thread my yarn needle. I have this little bent tip which is good for whip stitching because it kind of gets right around. So when you're whip stitching and you have tall stitches like double crochet, you're going to do a couple whip stitches in each double crochet. You don't want to just do one whip stitch and go to your next double crochet because that's going to give you kind of a holey effect. So I'm going under chain three. You can also go through the stitch if you don't want a big gap showing. You can go just under a couple of the stitches or a couple of the loops in your stitch, either way. I'll go under the gap so you can see how big of a gap forms, so that you'll know at least if you want to do that. If you don't like that gap, then just go under a couple loops. So this is matching on the other side. This is a chain as well, so I'm just going to go all the way under that chain. Two under the chain. I'm going to pull this a little long, I have a ball so I'm going to cut this in a second so I can whip stitch it instead. I'm queen of double knotting, so I'm just going to tie it in so that it doesn't pull out, and then I can weave that in later. And whip stitching, you're just going to go in a big circle, so I'm going to come back around and go under those stitches again, those tails, and I'm going to go one more because that first stitch didn't really count. So I come back to the front, I go into my next double crochet, so see I have this big This big hole here. I have a big hole here. V's don't have V's. If I was whip stitching my triangles together, I would just go under one V for every whip stitch, just like I did one single crochet for every stitch. But because these are side stitches and they're double crochets, so they're longer than a normal stitch, I go through a couple times, because I want my whip stitch really to be I want the stitches to be pretty close together. As I go I'm going to tighten them down. You'll see they're almost invisible. You can wait until the very end to tighten them down, but if you're working with a natural fiber, it's kind of hard to do. The acrylic will work pretty well, but natural fibers will stick to each other and it'll be hard to tighten them down as you go. Or at the very end, so tighten them as you go. So you'll see that as I tighten them, they get real, real small, real, real tight. You can do a lot more than I'm doing, I'm doing like two or three for each double crochet just so you can see how the whip stitch works. So you can see it's coming out the end and then I just bring my hook or my needle back around through that stitch and remember I'm going under the whole double crochet or chain three whatever it is I'm entering into. I'm going through the whole one in the front piece and the whole one in the back piece And that will give me a really nice tight join. And that's all you do for a whip stitch. You just go back, or front to back, back around, front to back. I like the single crochet join for joining things where I'm not gonna see the seam. For some blankets it's good, because it's got a cool effect. But, you know, if I'm doing like a purse or something, I would definitely do the single crochet seam. But I also like it because it's easy to pull out. If I wanted to pull out my whip stitch seam right now, I would have to sit there and get under with my needle the whole time trying to undo it. So I'm almost at about halfway through the triangle, but we can open it up and take a look at it. So when I open it up. You'll see... That it doesn't create too much of a gap where I went around the entire stitch. But, if you are using a contrasting color, or you have triangles that are different colors and different on each side, you're going to have to make your whip stitch really nice and neat, because you can see how unneat that looks from me doing it really fast. So if you're using a color that's going to show, you need to make your whip stitch really well placed so that it looks good, otherwise you'll have this kind of jumbled mess like I do. If it's in the same color, it's going to be pretty much invisible, you're not going to I'm not going to be able to see it. So, when you open up your blanket after whip stitching the whole panel, you'll have a nice joined piece that you can then start your next panel. So when you go to joining your next panel, as if this was not here, again you would lay your next panel up on top first before you start anything so you get it placed the right way. Flip it open, make sure it looks right. And then whip stitch it closed. So those are two ways that you can join your triangles together to make a blanket. If you have... If you need to see another way, the viewer request for single crochet and whip stitching. If you wanted to see a different way, like a slip stitch join or a mattress stitch join, leave those in the comments and I'll add you to the viewer queue on my website. Otherwise, thank you for watching and thanks!