I have a lot of granny squares! What next?

[OwlMother]

I have been crocheting granny squares for about a year, and have now completed 96 (I think!), the amount I worked out that I needed for a blanket. The problem is that some of the earlier ones are a lot tighter than the later ones. The woman in the wool shop mentioned blocking, and I have had a bit of a look on YouTube, but I am a bit confused.

This is the yarn i have used www.johnlewis.com/store/rowan-creative-focus-worsted-yarn-100g/p557152?sku=231423405&colour=Carmine+055&isd2c=false. Can I steam block it? How would I best go about blocking it to a useful size?

Also, in terms of joining, does anyone have any useful advice? Do I join them in long strips and then join the strips together? Is it possible to join them without having a ridge down the back as I have seen some have?

Thanks for any help you can give!

I don't block. I agree that mixing tight and loose squares is the way to go.

You can join either by crocheting them together, or just sew them, matching up the crochet stitches (this also helped to stretch out the tight squares a bit).

I wash handwash wool in my washing machine, which has a hand wash cycle the only disaster I had was when I forgot to change the setting and washed a wool pullover at 40C with a fast spin

Thanks for the replies. I went with what Poltergoose ( and later posters) suggested and didn't block. I've been using the attic 24 method on Poltergooses link and it's going ok. As someone else said, because you're matching the stitches together it's sort of stretching the squares out a bit.

I'm not overly concerned about the hand wash issue. All of my day to day hand washing survives the machines hand wash cycle ( Although I have also shrunk one of dh's sweaters on a 40 cycle!) I also don't envisage it being washed a huge amount!

I have got about a third of the way through the joining and it's quite exciting watching it take shape. Once I'm finished I'll do a couple of rows round the edge to finish. I did a baby ripple in the summer and really liked the finish it gave.