To Knot or not to Knot?

[Amber Mae]

Since I could not sleep I've been starting to make Granny Squares for a Christmas Afghan. So far I have 12 completed and 142 to go. Then it hit me. There are four color changes in the squares, that means weaving in eight threads, plus then sewing them all together. Just the idea of that gives me the shivers, I hate weaving in. What if I just knotted the threads together or is that a complete no no?

Has anyone of you ever done that? If yes, did it hold up through the wash or did it fall apart? This Afghan is not a gift, it's for me to display on my couch during Christmas Season, so it wouldn't really get washed that often.

[redrosesdz]

Welcome to Crochetville! 

Sewing them together would give me more shivers! Have you tried to join as you go?

http://www.redheart.com/learn/articles/ultimate-guide-to-join-as-you-go-crochet

Are the squares 4 different colors or 2 alternating colors? With alternating colors, you can carry the color up a row to use it again. 

I did a project with 192 yo-yo motifs. It was easier to weave in the ends right before I started the next motif. That way I wasn't left with 384 ends to weave in at the end.

I'm picky about knots. I hate them. Before I learned how to work with colors properly  (changing, carrying, weaving), I knotted color changes together on a king size afghan with a ton of color changes. I cringe whenever I look at that blanket. It's been washed many times now, but it happened on the first wash.... about a third of the knots popped out. Most popped out to the front. I have spent hours hiding them. I finally gave up and let them pop out. It's ugly, but it's my son's and he loves it. Here's what it looked like before the knots popped out...

Bottom line is that I will never advise knots. Someone else may have a different opinion. 

[Granny Square]

I agree with you, no knots 99.999 percent of the time.  I sometimes cheat, and in fact I just did a little project where I wish I'd thought of knots - color changes on an enclosed coaster, where there was an ultra-slim chance they'd come out.  But on a wearable or a blanket?  No knots.

[Amber Mae]

Thank you so much for responding. The colors are burgundy, dark sage, white and the again burgundy. It's a 4 inch square. I guess I will tediously weave in the threads after each square is finished. At least then I'll only have to sew them together.

I've been away from crocheting for a very long time (26 yrs). Did counted cross stitch, sewing, quilting and knitting. When I had to rip apart my third infinity scarf for the second time I've had enough. Then my DIL showed me some beautiful crochet Christmas items in a magazine and I was hooked and ready to dive in again. So here I am. 

 

[Granny Square]

Since you only have a fraction of the squares done, you can still 'join as you go'.  There are a lot of ways to do this, but the easiest is: Complete 1 square.  On the last round of the next square, for Grannies usually at the spot between the 3-stitch granny 'shells': make a granny shell, chain 1, slip stitch into the corresponding spot on the finished granny, chain 1, go back to the second granny, repeat.  I hope that makes sense, it's a little disorienting at first but really much easier than sewing them.  It sounds like all the grannies are the same, it works better when the edge rows match.  So the first 2 grannies will be joined at 1 side, and as you keep adding squares you'll be joining on 2, 3, 4 sides.  This will save a some of the end weaving

[darski]

I still prefer the Continuous Join method.  it does need a granny square type final round but it does eliminate all but a starting and an ending tail after joining. (there are 4 parts/vids but she shows how to do everything