Keep your work from accidentally unraveling while in transit

Submitted by sbutteramfly on 2 October 2007 - 11:10am.

Imagine you just completed a pretty complicated stitch pattern and you're called into the doctor's office or your plane is ready to board... you rush to shove your project into your bag to get up and go. The next time you pull it out to work on it, you notice that quite a bit of the row was pulled out! ARGH!!!

Here's a quick way to prevent that from happening.

Pull the loop of your last stitch so it's about 6–7" long. Holding your long loop and the yarn tail together, make a slip knot.

When you go to crochet again, pull the short piece of the knot to untie it, then shrink your loop by pulling your yarn tail. Crochet away!

I always tie a loop at the end of my stitches, cos i know that feeling very well of work coming undone.

Submitted by julie_k on 2 October 2007 - 2:14pm.

And all this time I was usin' a paperclip.

Submitted by debber on 19 April 2009 - 2:49pm.

i will definitely keep a note on this technique. thanks.-

Submitted by dolly on 15 May 2009 - 12:02pm.

I usually just stick the hook where the next stitch will go, for very small projects that don't have to be stuffed much. For a larger project I'm working on right now, while it's still small enough, I'm sticking it in a small (clean) tupperware, with the yarn secured by the lid and the skein loose in my bag. Of course, once it gets bigger, it won't fit anymore... :( This tip will definitely come in handy in a few days!

Submitted by Lopsy Li on 11 June 2009 - 10:32am.

I do a great deal of crocheting on the fly, in waiting rooms for my parents' doctors the kids doctors... or while taking care of those mentioned. I am frequently interrupted. I used safety pins for years, but often the pin would get stuck on the crochet loop. Now I am using the knitting markers (that look like colorful safety pins) they do not have the folds and metal loops that get stuck. The other advantage is while working I just hang them off the end of the piece so they are ready to pick up the loop when my name is called.

Submitted by shrnrmllr on 7 August 2009 - 9:32am.

I love using those knit markers too, I even got a set of extra large markers when I was crocheting an afghan with a very chunky yarn.

Submitted by BarbaraP on 23 October 2009 - 5:15am.