How do you join and weave yarn tails in?

Weaving yarn tail in can be really boring. I don’t like doing it either. But I have found a very easy way to do it "as you go": to crochet and to weave ends in at the same time!

Once on a craft forum I read a personal opinion of one woman. She wrote she does not like making mandalas because she is not fond of weaving yarn tails in… Yes, that’s true! When you practice overlay crochet with color changes on every round, you get hundreds of yarn tails which you have to weave in.

I learned Overlay Crochet nearly at the same time as Tapestry Crochet and from the very beginning I had a feeling I would like to combine two techniques in one project. But naturally I started to use tapestry method for weaving in yarn tails.

While doing tapestry crochet you should deal with yarns of few colors at the same time: the tail of one (or few) yarn is carried while another yarn is single crocheted in the ordinary way.

Let’s see it on example.

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Attaching new yarn

When you need to attach new yarn to crochet next round, simply pull a loop of new color in indicated stitch and make a ch, which will count as the first sc of the round. I love this way of joining yarn as it helps to avoid unstable knots. And additionally it helps to keep your stitch count perfect thanks to Needle Join method which will be described below.

1. So you pull a loop of new color in the indicated st and make a ch.

2. Now you should carry the “tail” of attached yarn and crochet it into single crochet stitches. So you just lay the tail over the stitches of previous round and single crochet across as usual, crocheting under and over the thread.

3. If done correctly, the carried thread will not be visible from the back or front of the work.

Now you can see that one tail is already woven in. If you still have a short tail visible on the wrong side, you can just cut it close to the work’s surface.

After the round is finished, you should join it. There are many ways of doing it but I like Needle Join (or Invisible Join) method most of all, as it helps to make joining sections invisible and to keep perfect stitch count. The only thing I don’t like is that you should use a needle to join. And it may also be so boring, at least for me. So I started to use the hook instead of needle.

1. When your round is finished, fasten yarn off leaving an approx. 15 cm (6 inches) long tail. Insert hook under “V” (both loops) of the indicated st from the back to front, yo the yarn tail and pull it through lps. Usually Needle Join is made is the first st of the round coming after first ch1.

2. Then insert hook under BL of the last stitch of the last rnd from back to front, yo the yarn tail and pull it through BL.

If you use this technique, you give the chain stitch at the beginning of the round its back and front loops, and now it will be just a normal sc of the round!

Use the hook to weave in yarn tail which was left after joining. I usually weave it through back loops of the stitches of the round just made. And this weaving will be over crocheted by the stitches of coming round.

All done! Two tails are woven, you did not have to use the needle, you saved lots of time and the wrong side of your work looks neat. I hope this post was useful for you. Please, feel free to comment and tell about your own ways of joining and weaving in yarn tails!

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