Changing Colours

★☆☆ - Beginner

One of the best things about crochet is the ease and simplicity of working with lots of lovely colour.  But to do that, you need to know how to add those colours into your work.

There are quite a few ways of doing this, but I'm going to share the two ways that I use more than any other.

METHOD ONE: TIE A KNOT
This is my 'go to' method and I use it most situations.  It's a nice secure join and it's great for adding yarn at the end of a round or row.

 Once you are at the end of a row or round, cut the yarn and pull the loop on your hook up, til the end comes through.

 Take the new colour, and using your hook, pull the yarn through the stitch or space where you'd like the new colour to start.

Next we're going to tie the two ends together to secure the yarn into place.

Use the two ends to make one knot and pull tight.

Then make a second knot and pull that firmly tight too.

I tend to leave my hook in place which I do this so that the yarn has something to tighten against.

Smooth the ends together and fold them neatly to the left and you are ready to crochet in your new colour.

You can also see how I crochet over the ends, which will save you a little time later, and shows you a great way to hide those knots.

METHOD TWO: HOLD THE END

Sometimes you'll need to join a new colour in a new place and you won't have another end to tie to.  This method is a good one to use of those occasions, or if you simply prefer not to use a knot.

 Here the last row of the orange has been completed and we want to change to the blue yarn.  But instead of joining it to the end, we're going to work from the middle.

 Use your hook to draw the yarn through the stitch or space where the new colour is to start from.

 Flip the cut end of the yarn over to the front of the work, so it lies between the working yarn (coming up from the ball) at the back and the loop on your crochet hook.

Hold the cut end of the yarn in place with your thumb so it can't move while you make the first few chains of the new row/round.

 Once you've made a few chains, you can release the cut end of the yarn and flip it to the back of the work so it's out the way while you continue your row/round.

Here's the back of the work.  You can see the loose end just hanging down.  You can come back and weave it in later.






Next Steps:

✽ Find out how to change your yarn in the middle of a row