How to Change Colors while crocheting (No weaving in ends & no cutting yarn!)

Early on in my crocheting "career" I was intimidated by projects that required multiple color changes since I was never taught how to properly incorporate different yarns. At that point, every time I need to change colors I would fasten off and start with the new color. This was very tedious as it left many tails to be woven in and if the color changes were frequent it made it impossible to crochet without a pair of scissors nearby. It also caused the fabric to pull apart a little. I avoided multicolor projects like the plague. In my own patterns if I wanted several colors I would take all the strands of yarn (usually two or three) that I wanted and crochet them all at once as if they were one strand. That was okay, but for some projects it would have been better if I had changed the colors since multiple strands made the finished project quite bulky.

After a few years of that I finally went to YouTube. (I don't know why I waited so long.) There I found several videos depicting the same technique, which is now the method I always use. So I proud to present my first photo tutorial demonstrating my favorite method for changing colors:

half way through a dc (two loops left on hook)

Stop half way through the last st (#loops left on hook sc=2 hdc=3 dc=2, tr=2 sl st=go back to middle of previous st, cluster=right before last yo & pull through)

 yo with new yarn still holding previous color,

Pull through all loops on hook

Continue crocheting for a few st while holding the first color on top of the st you are working in, then chrochet normally, if you are working in the round and joining then you will switch colors just before the sl st,

If you are going  to be changing colors frequently in the same spot in the pattern then only crochet over the first color with the joining sl st,

Changing Colors Every Other Rnd, E.g. Rnd 1-2 CA Rnd 3-4 CB

To carry the yarn up to the nxt rnd without changing colors sl st over the strand when you join at the end of each rnd

Carrying the yarn up to the nxt rnd

When you're all finish the wrong side of your work should look like this:

I hope this was helpful. If anyone needs clarification, find any typos or would like a video tutorial please comment. Also if anyone has projects that they have used this technique on or has another technique I would love to see them. In case anyone is wondering the project used in this tutorial is the Basic Striped Baby Beanie which I will be posting soon :)

A Whopping Yarn Shopping List (and Slurpees)

Last night I was dying to have a Slurpee from 7-Eleven... but what fun is it to go alone so I persuaded my three brothers to come with me. That in itself would not have been difficult, but of course I had to surprise them, since it is not every day I have a Slurpee craving. So I told them that I needed them to come with me to Joann Fabrics to help me buy yarn. This was true as Joann's only allows you to use one of each coupon type in a transaction. I had more coupons than I could use, because an extreme coupon-ing friend of mine gave us 6 Joann's flyers from the paper.

Somehow whenever I go to the craft store I find myself lost in a pile of wondrous hobbies... I needed a list or one way or another I will forget something or begin to stack clearance fibers into my basket. So I dug out my handy dandy embroidery floss organizer that I had never used and put a scrap of each yarn that I needed onto it.

Whopping yarn shopping list: Put yarn that you need on floss organizer

Sure I could have just written out a list the yarns but this way I did not get to the store and wonder "what in the world was I thinking when I said light brown or sock monkey grey". As a yarn enthusiast I saw the bit of yarn and said "Oh! That was the yarn I used for such and such a project that I'm going to make again." or "Well, I know they don't sell that yarn anymore but since I'm starting a new project I can use this yarn over here that looks just like it!"

Even better yet I was able to make a game of it for my bros. I just pulled off one scrap of yarn for each of them and ask them to find one that was like it. First one back won! (of course with a no running rule.) This worked fantastic and my eight ("and a half" as he would say.) year old brother loved it!... the 18 and 15 year olds were not so thrilled but enjoyed it. Once we found the yarn I doled out the coupons and a few bucks, check out and headed down the street to 7-Eleven. On the way I heard the story of how the cashier had asked my brother what he was going to make. (lol, don't you just love how friendly they are at Joann Fabrics?) He replied that he was "going to knit or crochet something." I'm not sure if she believed him or not as she did make any remark in return. We then joked about how he could have claimed he was making hand-grenade cozies and other unrealistic guyish stuff.

My Spoils

I was glad to come home with my spoils in one hand, a Slurpee in the other and a belly full of laughter.

Crochet Paper Valentines Edging

Only days before I realized that I needed to make Valentines, I gave away all my scrapbook paper because "I wasn't going to get into paper crafting". When I decided that it was time to make Valentines I knew that I wanted to crochet them, and after browsing through google images I determined that I would crochet around card stock... even though I had just gotten rid of all my paper. So I asked my mom (of SpareThymeInk), who daily swims in paper crafts, if she would help me cut out some paper hearts with holes around the edge on her Silhouette Cameo (a paper die cut machine...will try to post cutting file soon.)

So this is me "not getting into paper crafting"

The pattern is actually very similar to my fleece baby blankets...except that (depending on what edging you do) it matters where you start.

With crochet thread and any crochet hook that will fit through the hole you punched, (I used a #2),
Rnd 1: sc in the start stitch, ch 1, (sc, ch 1) in each st until you get to the corner stitch.

(sc, ch 1) 3 times in the corner stitch

(sc, ch 1) in each st until you get to the start stitch again, then sl st in the 1st sc, (NOTE: For the rest of the pattern you will only be working in the sc sts.)

Rnd 2: (Hdc 5 in nxt st, sl st in nxt st) all the way around (NOTE: you don't have to do anything different for the corner st), sl st in 1st sc of rnd 1, fasten off, weave in ends. Write your message. (I tied to refrain from using the ones I marked the stitches on.) <3

How to Do a Slip Stitch

Traditionally this stitch is used for connecting rows or rounds, like on the first corner of a granny square or other types of squares. I have also used the slip stitch (abbreviated sl st) as a decorative stitch that went something like this:
Ch desired length +2
Rnd 1: Dc in 3rd ch from hook, dc across, turn
Rnd 2: Sl st across, ch 2, turn
Repeat rnd 1-2 until it reaches desired length

How to Do a Double Crochet

The double crochet uses a new method in crocheting that is yarning over before you insert your hook into the stitch, this may seem very odd if you've only been doing single crochets for a long time. Often times I use this stitch in making scarfs or in blankets such as this granny square afghan or this pumpkin colored blanket. This stitch is very useful and is abbreviated "dc" though in Europe it is abbreviated "tr" for treble crochet, but all my patterns are in US format.

How to Do a Single Crochet

The single crochet is the first stitch I ever learned, besides the chain stitch. It is used in many patterns e.g. my mouse finger puppet pattern has many single crochets which are abbreviated sc.

How to Do a Chain Stitch

The chain stitch is the simplest of all crochet stitches. I have yet to find a crochet pattern that does not include a chain stitch. The chain stitch is used to turn at the end of rows and on the base of many crochet projects. The abbreviation for this stitch is "ch" and the abbreviation for a "yarn over" is "yo".

How to Make a Slip Knot

Many people just tie a knot around their crochet hook when beginning a crochet project, but this is lumpy and tends to stick out in the final product. Here are three methods of creating a slip knot. To test any slip knot you can pull both the working yarn and the tail, if the loop disappears then it was done correctly.