YouTube Tutorial: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Introduction
Welcome to the CypressTextiles continuous JAYG tutorial for hexagons using PLT and SC. This sounds scary, and it can take a moment for it to “click” but I promise it’s easy. Nearly any JAYG can convert to be worked continuously.
So this is a mouthful… Let’s break it down:
- Continuous: The join will flow from one motif to the next, without breaking the yarn, tracing around the motifs following a special path. Think of making a drawing without picking up your pencil. We’ll start and stop at the same place. (I have a Continuous JAYG – or CJAYG – masterpost!)
- JAYG: This means the motifs will be crocheted together as their final round, instead of being seamed with crochet stitches or with a tapestry needle. Since we are joining continuously, the Hexagons will look like they’re joined on the final round as normal, but this is the illusion of the “special path” I talked about. (I have some JAYG tutorials!)
- PLT: The “Pull Loop Through” technique is where you join a stitch to its corresponding stitch on the adjacent motif using a method that I will explain in the joining instructions. (I have a separate PLT tutorial!)
- …with SC: For this blanket, we will be using US single crochet. You can substitute HDC in for a wider join, and you don’t have to change anything. If you want to use DC to get an even wider border, you may have to do some fancy footwork at the corners.
Materials
- A pile of hexagons, with the same stitch count around. It doesn’t matter what the pattern is. For these Hexagons I used a mix of different 4ply Yarns from my stash.
- If you’ll be filling in the half-hexagons on the sides, set those to the side for now. They’ll be added in once all of the full hexies are joined together.
- Joining yarn – you’ll want to have full balls of this, as one of the joys of joining continuously is that you eliminate having to weave all those ends. If you have a bunch of shorter lengths of your joining yarn, you’ll cancel that fun part out. Boo!
Abbreviations (US Terms)
ch-n chain n number of times
PLT Pull loop through
RS right side of motif/blanket
sc single crochet
sp space
ss slip stitch
Setup
Before you begin, choose your motif layout. For my hexagon blankets I like to square the edges off by adding in half-hexagon motifs, and then filling in the “zig-zag” sides to make a perfect rectangle. You can choose either hexie orientation from the diagram below, but be sure your opposite sides start and end with a half-hexagon as shown. This will help when you’re filling in the zig-zag sides. If you don’t want to fill these sides in, you can easily start and end these rows with a full hexagon instead, and adjust the join path to accommodate.
For this blanket the orientation is with the half-hexies along the sides; however, when joining, the blanket will be rotated like the photo below. The green spot indicates where the join will start and stop.
Here is the diagram you will follow for this tutorial. The start/end point is labeled, and the special path is drawn in using colors to represent the steps. Along the way there will be “Close-ups” (areas circled in blue) where detailed explanation is needed.
Part 1
Work down the first column of hexies (Red portion of path)
Using joining yarn, ss in center st/sp of the corner located at the start/end point, (3 sc in the corner st/sp, sc in all sts to next corner) 4 times, 2 sc in corner.
Make 2 sc in the top right corner of the second hexagon in the column.
Close-up A
PLT performing these 3 steps:
- Remove loop from hook as shown in photo above.
- Insert hook in the stitch shown in the photo above. When these motifs are placed adjacent to one another, this stitch is the corresponding st to the one that just been worked on the motif-in-progress.
- Grab loop as shown in photo below.
Finally, Pull Loop Through to front of work. This is the actual maneuver which joins the motifs – the PLT.
Work the next sc st, remove loop from hook insert hook front to back through next st on adjacent motif, grab loop, and Pull Loop Through. In the photo below, the loop is ready to be pulled through.
Now do the same PLT in all sc sts across to the next corner, sc in corner, PLT, 2 sc in same corner.
Work around 3 more sides of hexagon as normal, and make 2 sc in the next corner as shown in photo below.
Repeat for the next motif in this column, joining the top side again.
And once more, but this time, stop short so only 3 sides of last motif in column are worked as shown in photo below, and also shown in main diagram. This concludes Part 1.
Part 2
Work up sides of motifs on next column, joining only the far right sides to the piece (Orange portion of path)
Join across side as before, ending with 1 sc in the corner as shown in the photo below.
Close-up B
Ch 1, sc in the corner on the next motif located above this one. (Solid grey in the photo above.) PLT in the stitch marked with an arrow below.
The photo below shows the hook pointing to the skipped corner st on the motif to the right.
Join the side across to the next corner as normal. Place 1 sc in the corner.
Close-up C
Remove loop from hook, insert hook front to back in center sc on upper right motif, then from back to front on lower right motif as shown in photo below. Grab loop and pull through both corner sts to join all 3 corners together. Sc in corner to complete it.
Use these methods to join the remainder of the motifs in this column
When the top is reached, Part 2 is complete. I call this the “flag” stage because the motifs look like little flags to me!
Part 3
Work down the left side of this column of motifs, completing their join to the piece (Yellow portion of path)
First, work around 5 sides of the motif, placing 2 sc in the next corner as shown in the photo below.
Close-up D
Remove loop from hook, insert hook front to back in the center st that was previously skipped on part 2. Make sure to put the hook under the ch-1 sp as well. Grab loop as shown in photo below, and PLT.
2 sc in next motif corner, and PLT as shown below.
Complete join of this side, and work 3 sides around motif, repeat corner join as in Close-up D.
Continue to join down left side of motifs to end, but stop short working only 2 sides of final motif as shown in main diagram. Part 3 is now complete.
Working across the blanket, join the remainder of the motifs in columns, working Part 2 and Part 3 as shown in main diagram. All remaining motifs can be joined with the methods discussed so far, working all the way up to Part 4 (green portion of path).
Below is a photo of the third column of motifs in the “flag phase.”
If there are any questions at this point, please leave a comment!
Part 4 coming shortly!
Cant wait to join your hexies? Use a partial CJAYG!
Joining motifs has got to be the main reason why people are led to my websites. I cannot sew to save my life, so I have learned to get creative with the way that I join my motif pieces.
On social media venues, the most frequent question I get asked is what is my favorite way to join. Well, I like joins that use the fewest cuts as possible. If I can join continuously, I do it and if I can’t, then I do a traditional JAYG. I learned to JAYG originally from traditional designer, Priscilla Hewitt (my crochet idol!) – many of her lacy square motif blanket patterns use a flat braid JAYG, and then I reinforced my skills through the contemporary granny JAYG by Lucy @ Attic24.
Okay, so let’s talk about a partial continuous JAYG that I am using for this hexagon blanket.
When can I use this method??
To work this method, you’ll already need to know how to JAYG and Continuous JAYG. The actual join I am using is from my Geometric Lace Pattern.
Related posts: Continuous JAYG, Partial Continuous JAYG, Geometric Lace Pattern
If you’re making a hex blanket where your motifs are joined using a single color (white, grey, it doesn’t matter the color) like in the examples in this mini-gallery of beautiful work by talented crochet artists, then you can use the method that I describe in this post. In my case, I am joining with KnitPicks Chroma, which is a yarn that changes color, so technically my join is multi-color, but it’s the same yarn strand, so I can still use this method.
If your hexagon motifs are joined with the final color of each hex, then you won’t be able to do this particular Partial Continuous JAYG method. I still recommend a regular JAYG on the final round because aren’t you tired of whip stitching? 😉
Here are some examples of blankets that couldn’t use my Partial Continuous JAYG method:
Okay, got that? Now that you understand when you can use it, here’s the method…
Partial Continuous JAYG: Hexagon Edition
This join takes up to 3 hexagons at a time and joins them together. For example, the pink yarn circles the next 3 hexes that I’m going to join continuously.
Below is a rudimentary illustration of the path that you will follow as you continuously JAYG, starting where the very end of the pink yarn is, and following around until you get back to the center after joining all 3 hexes in a “clover” type formation. Where the yarn crosses over onto itself is the end of your join… The yarn leads off the page but that area should be ignored. Once you have all 3 joined, cut yarn, pull yarn tail through to the back, and weave tail. Of course, I won’t be explaining the whole C-JAYG process here. See the Related Links above for more info on that.
In the photo below, I have joined the first (darker olive green) hex, I made it back to the center, and I started joining that pale sea foam hex to the right. In the photo, I have finished one side of the pale hex and I am working on joining it to the existing blanket on the second side.
In the next photo, I have finished joining on the second hexagon of the 3, and I am back to the center again.
Now, the third hex is joined in, and I am heading to the center of the 3 hexes to finish up.
Here, I have pulled the tail through to the back and I’m ready to cut it and weave. This is a view from the back of the blanket.
Okay, now that those 3 hexes are joined, I’ll pick my next couple of motifs. These two circled in pink below are what I’ll be working on. There aren’t 3 together there, but I still want to avoid weaving as many ends as possible, and I figure the more I join continuously, the less likely my blanket is to fall apart somehow.
here is the path I’ll follow. Starting near the top where the yarn end touches, follow around the half-hex and then around the full hex until it’s all joined up. The “raw edge” of my half-hex will be bordered by the edging of the blanket, so here it will mot be worked over.
I’ve finished the half-hex including joining the edge where it touches the existing blanket, and now I’m ready to go around the full hex.
My blanket, in its current state. I know it looks curious with the mismatch half-hex bits and the diagonal slant on the right hand side… I’m using the techniques from my Cottage Quilt pattern to make this design. Been working on this in stolen spare moments so it isn’t complete, but I still wanted to share my joining method in case anyone wants to use it. 🙂
You can do a partial join for squares too!
Quick tip for my Gelato pattern or any blanket you are making that has different size granny square motifs.
You’ve heard of the Continuous JAYG – a great way to make a sturdy join that saves you from weaving in hundreds of ends – but it would be difficult to join this random placement of multi-size squares with that completely continuous join. So what I did was to locate the areas where several same-size squares are lined up in my reference blanket (a Gelato I made in the past – see below).
I made 2 identical Gelato blankets for a custom order, so as you can see in the photo above, I joined adjacent same-size squares continuously. Then, I joined the larger squares in, picking up and joining in the sides of the already connected pieces as I went, so as to incorporate all squares of the blanket.
Essentially, this blanket was made with one part Continuous JAYG, and one part regular JAYG. I saved over 100 ends between the two blankets with this method. Comment with questions and I’ll clarify anything I can!
See more on the original blanket post!
