Crochet Tips: Needle Join and Weave in Ends.

Needle Joining

Tatsianna Kupryianchyk (LillaBjorn) taught me to Needle Join and I have to own up, it was only in the last pattern I made that I truly understood what I was doing! 

 A Needle join is used when working in rounds. These instructions apply to rounds which have begun with chain stitches. This illustration uses treble stitches and I have begun the round with 3 chain stitches to stand for the first Treble. Obviously the technique applies to other size stitches as well!

In the first image we are have got to the end of the round and still have the working loop on the hook. 

Cut the yarn leaving yourself a generous 10cm / 4" tail. Pull the yarn end up out of the top of the last stitch made.

Although this is called a Needle Join there is no need to use a needle! You can if you wish, after all you've got to weave in the end at some point! Insert your hook (or needle!) under the loops of the first Treble Stitch, catch the yarn and pull through. It doesn't matter whether you go front to back or vice versa.

Catch the yarn and pull through. Now put the hook up through the top of the last stitch made, from the back, and out over the front loop, catch the yarn and pull back through.

 You can see from our final image how the needle join has made the chain stitches look more like a proper stitch. The chain stitches have become the post of the stitch and the join has become the loop. Joining rounds in this way is much neater than a slip stitch join and there is no danger of our adding an extra stitch on the next round.

In a future post I will be talking about Standing stitches. If you have started with a Standing stitch rather than Chain stitches, if you join into the top of the first Stitch you will be creating an extra stitch.

Instead join into the second stitch so that the loop forms over the top of the first stitch.

 Join into the second stitch,

 over the top of the initial stitch.

Weaving in Ends

I just wanted to add a note about weaving in ends. It's one of those things that is taken for granted that you understand but no one explains. No one that is except Edie Eckman! It wasn't until I read her 'Crochet Answers' book that I realised I'd been doing it wrong. I used to merely crochet over my yarn ends at the start, and thread them back through behind the stitches at the end. But this meant that there was a danger of them popping out when the cloth was stretched. There is no one way to weave in ends as it depends on the project, lacy work requires a little more ingenuity! But the important thing is that the yarn should go in more than one direction, diagonally if possible. I find it helpful to give the cloth a little tug before clipping my end to give it some slack.