While some scoff at the idea of making New Year’s resolutions, the new year is as good a time as any to try something new or replace an old habit with a new one.

For my part, this means that I used my calendar today, and I tried a new (to me) joining method.

One of the items I entered in my calendar today is a note about a crochet guild meeting I have on Sunday. One item on the agenda is turning in the scarves we have made for the 2011 Special Olympics USA scarf project (learn more here). Sponsored by Coats and Clark, the makers of, among other things, Red Heart Super Saver yarn, the goal of this project is to provide a hand knitted or crocheted scarf to everyone who will be participating in the 2011 Special Olympics USA.

The requirements are straight forward and simple: Knit or crochet a 6″ x 54″-60″ scarf from turqua and blu Red Heart Super Saver yarn, and as long as you follow those guidelines, you are free to let your imagination run wild.

Using my 5.5 mm I hook and the official colors of this project I decided to make granny squares, which brings me to the joining method I am using for this project.

Join as you go (also known as JAYG) is a method of joining that involves crocheting one piece to another as part of the finishing process. In the case of joining a granny square, it means that you complete the final round of a given square and use that an opportunity to join it to another square (or squares).

While the finish is not the tidiest (nor is is the best for structural integrity), it does have the advantage of being relatively quick and creating a join that has a very nice drape — perfect for the scarf I am making for the 2011 Special Olympic Scarf Project.

What follows is a series of photos that document my progress joining the third of what will be ten squares.

Start with the piece you will be joining to:

Get your your granny square that is completed except for the last round:

Begin by crocheting along the edge as you have for the previous rounds:

When you reach the corner where you begin to attach, after you have made your first 3dc cluster in the corner of the square you are completing, do one of the following:

For a ch-3 corner, ch 1, and join the new square to the previous square with a sl st.

For a ch-2 corner, join the new square to the previous square with a sl st.

Then continue to crochet along the joining edge as you normally would, but replace the ch-1 with a sl st join to the previous square.

When you reach the corner, do one of the following:

For a ch-3 corner, work 1 3dc cluster,, and join the new square to the previous square with a sl st, ch 1, and work the 2nd 3dc cluster into the corner of the square being joined

For a ch-2 corner, work 1 3dc cluster, and join the new square to the previous square with a sl st, and work the 2nd 3dc cluster into the corner of the square being joined

Finish by crocheting the final round of the granny square you are joining as you crocheted the other rounds:

Seven squares left to go!

The thing that makes this scarf project so wonderful is that it gives knitters and crocheters everywhere the opportunity to help put the “special” in Special Olympics.