Finishing up your work

There are quite literally countless ways to finish your crochet piece. I've recently become very fond of finishing with no knots. No it is quite possible. Need a good long tail and you just weave it in back and forth for a few rows and soon you can't see where you ended. I'll add that one in for some visuals. I'm a very visual person so I love photos :) Here's a few ways you can finish off a variety of pieces and have it look like it was done by a pro! Which you soon will be!

Here's what I mean by weaving in the ends. Moogly does a great job of showing how to do this. You'd be amazed how much nicer your pieces will look once you get in the habit of weaving in the ends. 

This doesn't really count as a "finishing" technique per se, but it does help in making a project look neat and keep those nasty ends tamed. The Russian join technique really does come in handy when you're doing a large project such as a blanket or a coat where you're using 15 skeins of yarn for a single project. The photos from the Lion Brand blog are wonderfully helpful (it does come with a text explanation as well if you need it).

I was quite hesitant at first to try this because it just looked like too much trouble. Well it isn't. It's actually much easier than it initially looks and once you get the hang of it, it's like second nature. So at least give it a try. If your worried it will leave a bulky spot in your project, it really is so well hidden, you have to *really* look for it. And even then you have to know where to look for it.

One thing I hate is when working in the round and finishing off that edge and having it lopsided. It just looks sloppy to me. This is a great way to finish off those pieces and give them that smooth professional edge. Now this also works on squares too. Once you crochet around your square (Check out the next link to see why this is really nice) and you need to finish off the square, just treat it as a circle and it works the same way!

Now, you've just finished crocheting a square. The edges of it always look ragged and uneven. There is a fix for this as well! Now not all patterns will have you do this. Which is fine because they may have you doing something else for the pattern to clean up those edges. But depending on the project, I add this in after finishing the piece to tidy up the edges and it makes a difference. The link has fantastic photos to learn it or if you do better reading them, it has that too :)

Now I'm sure those that do amigurumi and dolls are thinking "Hey! What about us? Where's the love?" Have no fear. I haven't forgotten you :) The headache in making these is that nasty little gap that ends up and then the stray yarn tail that seeps out and flies all over the place. Well this neat little finish from Planet June is a lifesaver!

There are other ways to finish up your crocheted project but those all kind of fall into edges rather than finishes. That's another post. I hope these neat little tricks can help you with your projects like they have for mine. Keep practicing them and you'll find they become second nature :)