Learn to Crochet

Getting UK Knitting

Joining yarns and working with colour

Joining in a yarn
You will often need to join a new ball in the middle of the work, when the old ball runs out. Then just as you make the final ‘yarn over’ to complete a stitch, simply drop the old yarn, make a loop with the new one, pick this up and draw through to complete. Hold down both short ends temporarily until you have worked the next stitch. A knot or splice is unnecessary. To ‘join in’ yarn because the pattern has involved fastening off in one place and rejoining in another, or to begin an edging, insert the hook into the appropriate place. Loop the yarn over the hook, draw through and make 1 chain (Fig.144). However if you feel it would be more secure, make the first loop with a slip knot as though for starting a base chain.

If you are making a solid fabric (double crochet shown here), lay the new yarn in advance across the top of the stitches ahead and work over it (Fig.145), and after the change work over the end of the old yarn (Fig.146). This saves later ‘darning in’ time.

Changing colour
When you are joining in, or changing from one yarn to another for reasons of colour (treble shown here), you drop the old colour and pick up the new one before you complete the last stitch in the old colour (Fig.147) so that the loop on the hook afterwards is already in the new colour (Figs 148 and 149).

When you are working whole rows in different colours, make the change during the last stitch in the row, so the new colour for the next row is ready to work the turning chain.

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