Happy Tip Tuesday! Last week, I talked about how to
crochet with 2 colors of yarn,
using a technique called stranding. This technique works wonderfully
when there are only a few stitches between color changes.
I get a lot of questions about how to handle the color changes for the body of
Nelson the Owl.
To crochet Nelson’s body and head, you crochet 20 stitches in one
color, then 40 stitches in another color, meaning stranding doesn’t work
too well. Today, I’ll show you what I do!
One option is to cut the yarn every time you change colors, and tie a
knot. However, this is time consuming, and makes the process of
crocheting this cutie owl a drag… so I skip it!
What I do is strand the yarn across the back while crocheting! Crochet just like you would with
a short color change, leaving the yarn stranded across the 20 stitch color change, as pictured:
Now, you can’t just leave them like this, because of two reasons. One,
the stranding won’t allow you to stuff the owl well. Two, all of that
extra yarn with no tension on it will make the edge stitches uneven.
So, what you need to do is cut down the center of the strand:
It will look like this when you’re finished:
Now, you need to tie these ends into knots to secure them. I start at
the bottom of each side, and tie a square knot (you know, that boring
kind of knot) with one strand of white and one strand of brown. (If
you’re wondering why there looks like there are too many strands here,
it’s because I crocheted this particular owl using two strands of yarn
at once… try to ignore that if you can!)
Here’s how it will look:
Yay! With this technique, the knot tying happens all at once, which
means it takes less time overall. I’ve gotten pretty speedy with my
owls!
Hope you enjoyed this crochet tip! Feel free to contact me (via
Facebook,
twitter or email) with questions. Who knows! You might inspire the next Tip Tuesday blog post!
for more amazing ideas visit:-
http://www.freshstitches.com/
