crochet Archives - Page 24 of 46

Securing and hiding yarn ends

A lot of posts recently, I know – I’m on a mission. Don’t expect four a week all the time, though. 🙂

We amigurumi makers have a big advantage when it comes to hiding our yarn tails: a side of the crochet that will never show. We never have to have that little fuzzy cut yarn end in our stitches, waiting to peek out. Here’s how I hide it. (The red yarn was joined at the last stitch purely for visibility; it reality it would be orange like the rest.)

Above: After stitching whatever drawstring method you prefer for closing the final hole in your piece, put the needle down through the opening and out the side of the piece to tighten the drawstring. This prevents your final round from being pulled outward to form a nub. Run the needle through some stitches around the side and back out again. Don’t tighten too much or the piece will compress! [1]

Above: Make a U-turn with the yarn, stitching under the intervening strands enough to make sure the base of the U isn’t lying on top of your crochet stitching. Run it through another line of stitches. Finally, put it back into the piece at the spot where it emerges from the stitches, and run it entirely inside and out again a ways away. Clip the yarn close to the stitching and massage the piece if necessary to get the tail to disappear inside.

After the cut: using this technique in embroidering and fine-tuning pieces. Continue reading Securing and hiding yarn ends

All about the needle join

The invisible join, which I call the needle join after Serendipity Crochet, is an alternative to slip stitching at the end of a round. I first encountered it on futuregirl’s blog; it’s fairly novel to a lot of crocheters, but it does seem to be a time-worn technique for finishing granny squares and similar items. What I want to add to the conversation is about using the needle join versus the slip stitch to smooth the edge of a crochet piece made in a spiral with single crochet. First let’s review how to close a round of double crochet with a needle join (or you can jump past).

Verbally: finish your last stitch, cut the yarn, and pull it through the stitch as usual. Thread it onto a needle and insert the needle into the first “real” stitch (not the turning chain) the way you would insert your hook to crochet into that stitch. Pull through and then insert the needle down through the top of the last stitch of the round. Tighten the teardrop to match the rest of the stitches (sometimes this requires pulling on parts of the yarn with your fingers) and secure the yarn as usual.

Visually:

Above left: top of turning chain and first “real” stitch marked; the latter (left-hand marker) is what you want to stitch into, as shown above right. Below left: back view of the second step of the needle join: stitching back into the last stitch made. Below right: the finished ring.

Now to compare this with slip stitch for single crochet made in a spiral. The main drawback of spiral crochet is the fact that the end of a round is a full stitch up from the beginning, so pieces with open edges have a significant height jog. Slip stitches are often used to mitigate it, and needle join suggested as an alternative. I have a tweak to the needle join option [spoiler: make a needle join in the second stitch of the last round.] – let’s look.

1. Slip stitch into next stitch (leftmost sample of top picture).

Pro: quick and easy.

Con: teardrop of stitch wants to roll to the front of the work; single strand emerging from top disrupts interlocked teardrop edge; can be problematic if you need a particular stitch count.

Best for: edges that will be invisible, such as those sewn onto another piece of crochet.

2. Needle join in next stitch (middle sample of top picture).

Pro: cleaner than slip stitch.

Con: extra work; makes a steep ramp between the round ends; can be problematic if you need a particular stitch count.

Best for: not much, IMHO.

3. Needle join in the stitch after next (rightmost sample in top picture).

Only two pictures this time because the edge-on view is essentially identical to the previous needle join.

Pro: cleaner than slip stitch; makes a gentle slope between the levels of the round ends; doesn’t add to the stitch count.

Con: extra work.

Best for: exposed round ends, such as on a disk or cup. I believe this gives the smoothest possible edge to spiral crochet.

Foundation sc cylinders

Suppose you want to crochet an egg cup, or a vuvuzela — because who doesn’t? You need a tube that is open at each end, and ideally each end would have that lovely ring of interlocked yarn teardrops. It’s tough, though; one of the limitations of crochet is that if you begin crochet in the round with a chain ring, you have the choice between stitching into one of the teardrop strands (with or without the back bump), stitching around the chain (still no teardrop), or creating something that wants to be a mobius strip.

The solution involves starting in the middle, preferably the narrowest point or a natural break, and crocheting out to each end. In many cases you can do that with a chain ring, but when the point at which you begin is tight (say, four stitches around), the remaining loops of the chain are very hard to find when you go back for the second half. Not to say you can’t still go that route – put stitch markers in them at the beginning. I have what I think is an easier way to go about it, though it requires the starting round have no increases or decreases: foundation single crochet (fsc). [More on fsc after the cut, below, if you need lessons or a refresher.]

Here’s the idea:

	A. Make the number of fsc required for your starting round. B. Bring the first fsc you made around to the hook again so the strip forms a ring that is on the far side of the hook from you, and so you can insert the hook into the first fsc from the outside of the ring to the inside (pictures from two slightly different angles below). Be sure your working yarn is coming out the top of the ring so it’s in the right place to continue stitching. C. Begin your next round, either by slip stitching to join or making the next sc directly (though the latter will produce a tight spot to stitch in).

	D. When you’ve finished the first half, put a slip knot on your hook (a new length of yarn) and slip stitch to attach in the bottom of one of the non-end fsc. Make sure to insert your hook from the outside of the ring to the inside, as before. Chain up if desired and begin the first round in the opposite direction. The fact that your first round bridges the divide between the beginning and ending of the fsc strip will hold it together without any sewing. Alternatively, if you just want an open-ended piece with two nice ends, use the starting yarn tail to sew the bottom of the fsc round together.

Above left: the side where the two ends of the fsc round meet. Right: the side where the second length of yarn was joined. In both the bottom half was stitched first.

Continue reading Foundation sc cylinders