October 18, 2022

Want to try a new joining method? Try the zipper join

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I found the zipper join while researching for the Community Garden Blanket CAL.

I wanted a different type of join from the obvious single crochet or slip stitch join. A lot of people don’t like the joining part when it comes to assembling the squares or panels. But there are LOTS of ways of joining them together that are fun and look fantastic.

You can really make your projects stand out when joining and bordering your projects and you can really play around with it.

I had a lot of fun learning the zig zag slip stitch join for the Friendship Blanket Cal and the flat braid join in the Bouquet of Flowers CAL. Since then these have been favourite joining methods of mine. But I wanted to introduce something a little different to the Community Garden Blanket…. mix it up a bit!

I was almost finished working all of the squares and my mind had started to think about the different ways I could join it together.

So out came my phone and a few rabbit holes later I had decided on the zipper join!

You can see why it was called the zipper join – it looks just like some has zipped up your project.

I quite like rhythmical joins. It means that I don’t have to think too much about them and they work up fairly quickly. Don’t get me wrong, this one takes a bit longer than a standard single crochet join, but it is worth the little bit of extra time and effort!

Below you will find:

Video tutorials for how to prepare your squares for joining – highly recommended but not essential.
Photo tutorial for how to do the zipper join
Video tutorials for how to do the zipper stitch join.

The Community Garden Blanket CAL

If you are just finding this page, the Community Garden Blanket CAL was a CAL that I hosted throughout September and October 2022. In it there are 20 corner to corner squares that make up this stunning unisex community garden themed afghan.

Most of these squares will remain free on the designer’s blogs in some form (chart, written instructions).

However, if you are interested in making this stunning afghan you can purchase the whole 79 page e-book which contains:

Charts, written and colour block instructions for all of the squares included,
PLUS 4 bonus squares and their chart, written and colour block instructions,
The joining instructions and photographic tutorial,
The border written instructions.

To find out more about this e-book click the button below:

Preparing your squares for joining:

Before you can even start to join this project I recommend ‘preparing’ your squares for joining first. Why take the extra time and effort to do this?

It helps to give your squares a more even and finished look – they have a nicer finish to them.
It often means that you do not need to block your corner to corner squares (you may need to with other techniques but it will make the process easier).
Preparing the squares the way I do ensures that you have the same number of stitches along each side which makes the joining process a WHOLE LOT EASIER once you get started.

You can find my post on how to do this here

I do also have some video tutorials that take you through how to prepare your corner to corner squares for joining.