Let's talk technique

To start today I want to mention how exercise is great for my mental health!  I am six weeks postpartum with our third and last kiddo and I could exercise for the the first time in quite a while today.  I feel great!! For those who don't know - my day job is a social worker.  So mental health and self-care are important to me for myself and for my clients.  As it happens crochet is another venue I use to self-care.  Everyone has their own ways of taking care of themselves and it is important to do that!!

Now on to why you are really here - today's technique!  We are going to talk about weaving in ends.  I am not a fan of having to do this at all and will go to extreme measures to not have to weave ends in. In fact some might say I cut corners and break the rules of crochet to avoid weaving ends in.

I am an old school crocheter and was taught by my grandma when I was about 10.  She was very patient with me and I grew to love the art.  My first afghan was a 35 square granny square afghan, but there was a kicker - all 35 squares were different.  That afghan was the best way for me to learn all, and I mean all, the stitches I could.  My grandma was a great help and we learned some things together.

As I learned all of this wonderful information, somehow weaving in ends was not something I really officially learned.  I remember making the rookie mistake of having then ends too short and my squares unraveling from the middle.  It was frustrating because I wasn't sure what to do at the time.

Burying Ends

Burying Ends

Luckily over the past 25+ years I have learned some best practices on weaving in ends.  My go to will always be "burying" ends.  Essentially you are crocheting over the top of the end you need weave in.  The photo to the left shows the beginning step of this technique.  You hold the end in place and crochet as usual right over the top of it.  This works especially well in C2C crocheting and in solid stitch crocheting.

For those of you who have been doing this for a while you will know there times when "burying" your ends will not work well.  Usually in crochet items that may not be solid stitches like granny squares, shell stitches, etc.  The ends won't be buried very well with gaps.  Which begs the question - what do you do then?

You weave!!  This is time consuming, but oh so effective when done correctly.  Here are the basic steps:

• Leave a 6" tail if at all possible
• Using a yarn needle weave the yarn through already worked stitches.  I like to use the base of the stitches as there is usually more give there.
• Weave the end back and forth at least three times being careful not to pull too tight.  If you pull too tight your woven end will be obvious in your work.
• Cut the end at the base of the spot you end and you are done!

    

When you are working on a large project think about taking a break to weave in ends as you go.  It will help ease the overwhelming feeling you might have at the end of the project.

Those are the two techniques I use for weaving in ends.  Do you have other techniques?  If so leave a comment below and we can all learn something new!!