Wow! That heading is a bit of a mouthful but I really don’t know how to shorten it and still give you an idea of what this post is about.
I don’t know about you but weaving in ends can become quite a chore, especially when you’re working on something as daunting as a blanket for example. I’ve been adding new skeins and weaving my ends in the ‘old fashioned way’ but thought, there must be a faster way to do this and came up with the following.
For the purpose of this tutorial I have used contrasting colours and have only made a little swatch counting 10 SCs across. That’s just so you can get the idea and also so you can clearly distinguish between the two skeins.
I find that this method leaves a neat, non-bulky finish and an added bonus is the fact that you don’t have to use a needle, which means you won’t accidentally split the yarn by poking the needle between the fibers.
You can use this with most stitches, except with lacy stitches (well, I haven’t tried, you could experiment. Let me know how it goes, if you do 😉 ) I’m using SCs for this tutorial.
So, here it goes… You’re crocheting along and notice that your current skein is coming to a swift end. Instead of breaking out into a horrible sweat due to the nightmare of ends to be woven in do the following:
Step 1
Make sure you still have a good half meter of the working skein left because you’re going to start weaving the new skein into the fabric for a while before you change over. Ideally you should weave the new skein in for at least 10-15 stitches, to make sure it is secure.
Step 2
Before you YO to finish off your stitch (turquoise) wind a section of yarn from the new skein (pink) Â around your hook and draw both pieces of yarn through the loops on the hook to complete the stitch.
Step 3
As you can see you now have two pieces of yarn forming the loop on your hook. You don’t want that though because it would thicken your fabric and make the finished work uneven.
Instead, pull the working end of yarn from the new skein free, so that it is no longer forming a loop around the hook. The yarn from the new skein should sit below your hook and sit between the front and back loops of the current stitch, as shown in the photo below.
Step 4
Continue working with the yarn from the old skein but make sure that you hide the new yarn between the stitches by crocheting around the yarn.
Step 5
Once you have crocheted about 10-15 stitches, swap from the old to the new skein. You’re going to YO the yarn from the new skein together with the yarn from the old skein before you finish off the stitch.
Again you have two pieces of yarn on your hook and you need to get rid of one. This time it’s the loop formed by the yarn from the old skein (turquoise).
Pull the yarn up and through the stitch so that it is lying under the hook.
Step 6
Continue crocheting with the yarn from the new skein but don’t forget to hide the yarn from the old skein between the stitches, as shown in Step 4.
Step 7
Carry on hiding the yarn ends by crocheting around them. Be careful not to hide more than one yarn end at a time though. If the two ends are in danger of overlapping repeat Step 5. This will move the yarn end up a row and you can carry on weaving it in on the return row. Do this until the ends are woven in sufficiently, and try to hide them in both directions (i.e. in a zig zag shape) by moving the ends up a row occasionally.
This is the swatch I made for the tutorial. You can see the bits of turquoise peeking out between the pink. Obviously you won’t be able to tell where the yarn is if you’re using only one colour.
Here is the swatch form the other side with bits of pink peeking through the turquoise.
Please let me know if this tutorial was helpful to you and if I explained things well enough.
Don’t forget to send me some of your completed crochet projects so that I can showcase them on my blog.