removing a square

[crochet.sandie]

Does anyone know of a way to remove one square from an afghan that is finished without undoing the whole thing?

 

After washing the afghan I just completed I discovered the person who donated the square used wool. It is all fuzzy. It is the only one. The person donated four squares in the same color and I had no reason to believe they weren't the same at the time. Of course, NOW I know they weren't. We do not accept wool squares, so it never occurred to me.

 

I have a five round border on this beautiful afghan and it is killing me to think of undoing all that work but I cannot send it out this way.

 

I was hoping someone would have a miracle for me. :-)

 

If you do please e-mail me crochetcabana AT gmail DOT com.

 

Thanks.

[crochet smartcat]

It would depend on where in the afghan it is and how the squares were joined. If the square in not on the edge or there is not a border row and the squares were whipstitched or joined singly, then you should be able to snip the "threads" around the square remove it and replace it with another. If it is on the edge and there is a border than I would think that it would require removing the entire border, but you might be able to snip it away from the border, leaving the border intact and then sew the border to the new square.

[crochet.sandie]

It would depend on where in the afghan it is and how the squares were joined. If the square in not on the edge or there is not a border row and the squares were whipstitched or joined singly, then you should be able to snip the "threads" around the square remove it and replace it with another. If it is on the edge and there is a border than I would think that it would require removing the entire border, but you might be able to snip it away from the border, leaving the border intact and then sew the border to the new square.

 

The square is second from the end on the second row. It is bordered. There is also a border around the entire ghan (a 5 round border). It is joined with a whipstitch.

 

I have already thought of cutting out the square but don't know if I'm up to the task of removing it from the center and replacing it that way. I might go ahead and try since I won't be using the square anyway and f the border on that square gets messed up it is not big deal. However, I cannot mess up the surrounding squares as they were made by the recipient's family members. They are not replaceable, at least not easily.

 

Thanks for your suggestions. I knew this would be a hard one.

[Aggie May]

How did you put the squares together?

If you made them into rows then joined by crocheting together, you should be able to undo, carefully, the joinings and replace the new square. The new join will not look quite the same but that is better than a square which looks out of place.

If you crocheted them together as you did the border, that is a different story as I found out when saving pieces of a thread table cloth which had been worked together on the last round.

It is really much easier to tell what needs to be done, when you can actually see the item but that is not possible on the internet.

Hope you can work it out, before you cut anything.

Colleen.

[Hounddog]

If you have extra squares could you leave the old square in place and crochet the new one over the top of the old one. I guess that would depend on thickness etc. but I would give it a try.

[crochet.sandie]

If you have extra squares could you leave the old square in place and crochet the new one over the top of the old one. I guess that would depend on thickness etc. but I would give it a try.

 

No, that wouldn't work. The old one has to go but thanks for the suggestion.

[crochet smartcat]

I would cut from the center of the square outward, to prevent harming any of the surrounding squares. Since you aren't planning on keeping the square it would not matter if it got hacked to pieces. When you get to the whipstitch, holding the square in place, cut it in the middle of the block, unweave it and weave in the end securely, to prevent other squares from detaching. Border the new square the same way as the others, and whipstitch the new square in place.

 

I would think with some patience you would be able to remove it without harming the surrounding squares and since they were all whipstitched into place, the fix shouldn't be noticeable, once complete. By working from the middle out, you shouldn't run into the surrounding squares by mistake.

 

Also give the afghan a good wash after the repair to check for loose ends you may have missed.

 

I really sympathize with you, because I understand just wanting to be finished with it.