Should I Seam It As I Go? A Granny Square Discussion

It's a question as old as modular knitting itself:
should I sew blanket squares together as I go, spreading the work across the life of the project?
or should I save all the seaming for the end, benefiting from the focus of a single repeated task?

With our CAL in full swing, I've bitten the bullet and have begun the seaming on the massive granny pixel undertaking that is this blanket!  Over 1700 squares, each just over two square inches...
follow the yellow brick chart!

Present Me is now very very happy with Past Me for leaving a footlong tail at the end of each square; each tail is used to sew a square to its neighbors below and to the left.

I feel a bit more secure with the whole arrangement because each yarn tail is firmly attached at its origin, thanks to not breaking the yarn.  Added bonus: because all of the squares are oriented in exactly the same manner, it's that much easier to line them up and put in the necessary six or so stitches to each square before securely weaving and clipping the ends in assembly-line fashion.  Once I got used to the orientation from all sides, it's been fairly quick work (the seaming pictured took about three hours total).



If you remember correctly, I have a master plan. This plan involves color blocks and since I'm not a fan of seaming, I've been crocheting by color, then seaming by color, and then joining according to my master plan. And like Cyprienne I too left long tails on my squares for the purpose of seaming.

 

This has been working pretty well so far. A nice flow of alternating between what I consider the fun part of churning out squares and what I consider the not so fun part of seaming squares.

May CAL: Granny Squares!

Hello, hello! We have been quiet but that doesn't mean we haven't been crafting away. I hope this long over-due post finds all of you well. This month one of the items Cyprienne and I have been working on are granny squares. I have been wanting to make an attempt for quite some time but had heard granny squares do not make for a good first crochet project. You might remember that last term we crocheted dish cloths. I was so pleased with my ability to finally maintain even tension that I decided I am ready for granny squares. For my squares, I once again referenced my copy of Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker.

My first square came out tighter than the others. I have a tendency to knit/crochet tight particularly when I'm learning a new skill. After crocheting about 3 squares, I was able to make them without having to reference the pattern. I've also been joining the squares in groups. Seaming the squares is just as annoying as seaming is with knitting so that's a bummer but in general, I suppose seaming isn't that bad.

honeyspoon's plan

honeyspoon's 1st square

honeyspoon's hot pink squares

honeyspoon's bright blue squares

Definitely crafting away, hence the radio silence...  I wish there were more hours in a day!  Last term was my introduction to crochet, so this term I'll be practicing like mad on what I'm calling "granny pixels," granny squares that are essentially just one round and done...

like these!  They just 1.5"x1.5" square

The plan is to make and seam together over 1700 of these "pixels" into a large blanket depicting a popular anime character in 8-bit form (imaginary points to anyone who can correctly identify the character and/or the show):

So far there are almost 600 pixels completed!... with only 1100-some to go...   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯