How to 'tight join as you go' method for crochet motifs

Tight Joins are a great way of joining two crochet motifs together with a minimal seam.

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Matt Spiers

Published: March 9, 2020 at 9:05 am

When it comes to joining your crochet motifs together, there are quite a few different ways to choose from which will all give you slightly different results. If you're not a fan of sewing your shapes together, or don't like the raised appearance of dc joins, then the tight join-as-you-go method might be for you!

The tight join method produces a seam that merges your edges together nicely with a relatively flat result, and it also has a slight spiral look too which adds a lovely big of extra detail. The tight join is used in the hexagon blanket pattern in issue 95 of Simply Crochet (get your copy here), and designer Sandra Eng has kindly given us some step-by-step images to take you through this fab technique.

SImply Crochet issue 95 Hexi Blanket

For this tutorial we will be joining two hexagon motifs together, if you're following the hexagon blanket pattern from issue 95, this step 1 begins after the last '(dc, ch 1) in next ch-2 sp' of Row 8.

If you're not following the pattern and are just wanting to join two motifs together (for example squares), just start after your (dc, ch1) in the last corner ch-space of your motif.

This technique can also be used with treble stitches in the same way, just replace any mention of dc with a tr.

TOP TIP: The term 'drop loop from hook' is used quite a bit in this tutorial. This basically means removing your hook from the loop, but if you pull the loop out a little bit before removing the hook it will reduce the risk of accidentally undoing any of your stitches, and make it easier to pick the loop back up with your hook!

Step 1

Start by dropping the loop from hook of your current motif, insert hook in ch-2 sp of adjacent motif

Crochet Tight Join Step 1

Step 2

Pick up loop and pull through ch-2 sp.

Crochet Tight Join Step 2

Step 3

Ch1, dc in ch-2 sp of initial motif

Crochet Tight Join Step 3

Step 4

Drop loop from hook, insert hook in next st on adjacent motif.

Crochet Tight Join Step 4

Step 5

Pick up loop and pull through

Crochet Tight Join Step 5

Step 6

Dc in next st on initial motif.

Crochet Tight Join Step 6

Step 7

Continue joining in this manner (steps 4-6) to last st on initial motif and second to last st on adjacent motif.

Crochet Tight Join Step 7

Step 8

(Dc, ch 1) in ch-2 sp of initial motif.

Step 9

Drop loop from hook, insert hook in ch-2 sp on adjacent motif, pick up loop and pull through.

Crochet Tight Join Step 9

Step 10

Ch1, dc in ch-2 sp on initial motif.

Crochet Tight Join Step 10

And that’s how you do the tight join as you go join! If you’d like to hook up the beautiful hexagon blanket pattern used in this tutorial, you can find it inside issue 95 of Simply Crochet magazine, which you can order directly from us here or download a digital edition here!

If you found this tutorial useful, why not check out some more!

Digital Assistant, Gathered

Matt Spiers is a crochet artist and designer who has been overseeing Gathered's crochet section since it's launch. He previously worked as Digital Assistant for Simply Crochet magazine and is our in house video editing pro. What started as a hobby a decade ago led to Matt developing a passion (and then a career) with crochet. As well as still regularly writing and designing for Simply Crochet magazine, Matt is a crochet artist in his own right, having displayed and created crochet installations at festivals and fibre events across the UK.