Two-colour stripes with no joins
I primarily make amigurumi, so that means a lot of work in spiral rounds. I constantly find it irritating when I want to do stripes because you always either (a) have to switch to joined rounds or (b) put up with the jagged colour switch when you go from one colour to the next. However, I recently figured out a way to get a two-colour stripe in spiral rounds, with no joins and none of those ugly jagged edges.
The picture above shows a Nintendo DS Lite cozy I made recently with this technique; you can't really see all around it, but you can see where I started the white coloured stripe, and how there are no joins above it!
The way I did it was:
1. Complete one round in one colour, put a stitch marker in the loop left on your hook.
2. Remove the crochet hook, join second colour in the first stitch of the last round, then begin a round in the next stitch, counting the join as the first stitch of the round (e.g. if you're doing all sc, join colour 2 into first stitch with a sl st, then sc in the next stitch).
3. When you get to the last stitch of colour 1, put a stitch marker in the loop of colour 2 that's left on your hook.
4. Remove the crochet hook and insert it back into the loop of colour 1 and carry on with the round.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 for as long as you need. When you get to where you want to finish one of the stripe colours (in my picture, I "finished" the white and carried on with the blue), in step 3, you just make the last stitch a sl st instead of a normal sc, finish off and weave in the end. Then when you come to that stitch on the next round, it's a smooth transition back to the beginning of the round.
Presumably, this technique can be extended to as many colours as you like, although I've not tried it myself. Happy hooking!
Search
About noisypitta
About Me:
I'm 29 years old, and I've been crocheting for a couple years, since I was pregnant with my son. I had to give up due to carpal tunnel syndrome, but once I got over it, I came back to crocheting, with a passion! Once I discovered amigurumi, I was well and truly hooked (no pun intended). Nowadays, I spend all my spare time dreaming up new amigurumi patterns and techniques!
- + Print-friendly
- + Email This Page
- 5778 reads
Share This Page
User login
Get Our eNewsletter
Hi noisypitta,
Very clever! I don't like those jagged colour changes either. I'm going to try this straight away. I'll let you know how I get on ...
Happy Easter
wildirishrose
Yeah, please let me know! I'll be jazzed if someone else can get some use out of it :)
Hi, back again to let you know that it worked beautifully and your instructions were very clear. I made a new case for my glasses in no. 10 cotton (forest green / sage green) and it looks great! The stitches aren't as clearly visible as in your photo but there's no seam and I made the fold-over flap in one colour to add a bit of contrast. It's sewn to the case on both sides and can be folded to the back or front to open or close the case.
Thanks so much for sharing this - I'm sure I will use it again. Next time I'll try using 3 or more different colours. Are you going to experiment any further with this?
wildirishrose
Wow! It looks great! *grins*
No, I haven't tried it in more colours...It is on my TO-DO list, but it's fighting for space with at least 3 other things at the moment! If you do it, please let me know! I'd love to see it :)
I am going to see if it will work on a baby blanket I will be doing! Normally I avoid the striped patterns because they are so time consuming to do the one row at a time thing.
It'll be interesting to see how you get on. I've only used it on round(ish) things so far, so if you can make use of this technique, would you message me with pics?
Thanks!
Blue Ridge Mountain Girl
http://joinwithaslipstitch.blogspot.com/ A Blog for Beginners
Thanks for the great tip! I love stripes but don't usually do patterns with them because of joining.
I'm definitely trying this out over the weekend!
Blue Ridge Mountain Girl
This is great - thanks so much! Can't wait to try it out
This works great! I'm very happy that you posted this. I am using it for a couple hats I am making for a friend. It makes a pretty spiral looking top. I had remade the first hat twice and then I found your tip. This works so much better. Thank you!
Sandy Lewis Way over my head. I just started and I'm almost finished with my basic loop stich. Tan and strips of multicolor. It looks really good and people are shocked when I said I made it. Its only loops. Im still trying to find out how to join two pieces of thread without a knot showing. with one knot it pulls apart so I worry about washing it so I do two. But some are showing. If anyone can give me some tips I'd really appreciate it! thanks
Superb tip - I need all the help I can get at the moment and I think this may avert further frustrations ! ;-)
I recently learned how to get rid of the knots in connecting yarn when you run out. You take about six inches of each end, use a big needle and thread one into the other, so no more knots! great tip. Takes a minute or two but it sure makes for a better looking afghan that you're not ashamed for someone else to see. Learning alot off of You Tube but some video's are too fast. I ordered two cd's and they had less than on line. Computer is the best bet so far. The one thing that I guess I'll have to do (tried to avoid) is learn the terms. You have something like a for example ca then it says the kind of stitch it is then you have to look up a picture of that stich. Think I'll put together my own notebook with the letters, stich name and a picture of the stich. That would make it easy. I'm going to scan from a book I bought, Afghans on the double that's way over my head but has pictures of stiches in the back. Upload them on the computer and print out make a scrapbook of directions that I can so on the spot. If there's an easier way I'll find it! Good luck all!
There is a really great book called "The Crochet Stitch Bible" by Betty Barnden. It's got very clear instructions on hundreds of stitches, also good pictures of what they look like. Each has written and diagram instructions. It's a spiral-bound hardback, so it's easy to lay out on the arm of the couch while I'm listening to TV and crocheting in the evenings.