I'm new to illustrator, and attempting to round the corners of the intersections between lines on shapes like the one attached. My first issue is that I am unable to merge the shape into one. I've tried using the join tool which does nothing, and tried using the merge tool which removes my lines between the blob. The shape has been constructed using the curvature tool with a high line width and no fill on the lines between the blob.
I appreciate there might not be a solution to this problem, but if anyone could give me another suggestion on how to rebuild this shape from the beginning in a way that I can achieve my intended result that would also be great :)