Crochet Along: How to Change Colours

How is your blanket going? or should I say “growing”?! I have seen some lovely colour combinations around the net so I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone links up today.

But first I need to explain how to change colours for those who haven’t quite got to that yet. I’m changing colours at the end of a row but the principle is exactly the same if you were in the middle of a row - just leave out Step 3 where we are doing chains to start the next row. (Forgive my slightly blurry photos on this tutorial - I took them while waiting for my daughter at Bike Safety Day with my iPhone! Yes, I can work anywhere!)

This is the way I change yarn or add new yarn in blankets, but there are other ways. This method also lets me cover the yarn tails in the next row of stitches so that I don’t have to weave those ends into my blanket at the end. I don’t enjoy going back and weaving in the ends so I love this method! (Thanks to my friend Paige who first showed me how to do this.)

How to Change Yarn

Step 1:

Cut off your current yarn (in my case that’s the green yarn) about 5″ or 12cm from your last stitch. Leave the crochet hook in your last stitch.

Step 2:

Take your second yarn (in my case it is grey) and knot it with the first as close as you can to the crochet hook. Leave a similar 5″ or 12cm tail of the second yarn too.

Step 3:

This is the start of a new row so chain two stitches with the new yarn. (Leave out this step if you are changing yarn in the middle of a row.)

Step 4:

Lay the two tails of yarn along the top of the previous row. We are going to cover these with the next row of stitches so that we don’t have to weave them in later.

Step 5:

Start working your double crochet along the next row of the blanket. By holding the ends along the top of the previous row, they will naturally be caught within the stitches. I usually work over the top of them until I get to the end of them. Sometimes you need to just give them a gentle tug so the initial knot is hidden under the first stitch.

You can change colour as often as you want to in your blanket. I have done 5 rows of double crochet before I changed colour on this blanket, but I’m still thinking about whether I will do 5 rows of this colour as well or less rows of it. One of the things I love about this type of blanket is that I can make up my mind about it as I go along.

Share your Progress

Your turn! Link up your pictures so we can see how you’re going. You can link a blog post or Facebook update (if it is public) or a picture from Instagram or Flickr. Just find the URL for your post then follow the prompts in the Linky tool.

If you are sharing on social media, remember to use the hashtag #CrochetAlong so we can all find each other.

Tonya Grant (288 Posts)

Tonya is the voice behind TheCraftyMummy.com. She dabbles in lots of different crafts – patchwork, quilting, cross-stitch, scrapbooking, knitting, crochet and sewing. She also writes about blogging and social media.