What to do with those pesky ends

2001 Sept 11
Never Forget
WTC

Katrina
August '05

THOSE PESKY ENDS

What to do with those pesky ends?
update c2004 Sandra Petit, http://www.crochetcabana.com

Please click on thumbnails to view a larger image. Thank you.

Many crochet projects begins with a slip knot. In the Getting Started section, I explain how to make the slip knot.

The first end (also called tail) I will cover is finishing off. First how NOT to finish off.

Do NOT knot and cut, leaving a tiny piece of yarn which is not long enough to sew in. Here are a couple of pics to demonstrate the incorrect method. (more on why we do not knot below)

Here are two proper methods of finishing off your project. I use the granny square to demonstrate.

The first is the normal finish off. There is almost always a little hump or small area at the spot of joining

You've just completed your last stitch...	join with a slip stitch by inserting hook into top chain of beginning ch-3 in this case	yarn over and pull through stitch then...
pull through loop on hook to complete the slip stitch, snip yarn about 6" from end	yarn over again	pull through
continue pulling that strand all the way through that loop	tighten and voila! you're done - when people talk about knotting the end, this may be what they mean. You do NOT tie ends together and knot. You just pull through and tighten.	Leave a long tail as noted and sew or weave that end in as shown below in the rest of the tutorial

Here is the Invisible Finish Off or IFO
I now have a tutorial on the method, but here it is in brief.

Note: I first read about this method in a wonderful book "200 Crochet Blocks" by Jan Eaton, though this my own explanation of the method. I have since seen it other places as well. I end nearly all my pieces in this manner now.

Figure A

1) after completing your last ch-1, with right side facing you, pull yarn through and cut at least 6" from end (I believe in long ends so more is better)

extra note: If you are using this method for something other than a granny square, you won't need the ch-1, so you can just snip the yarn about 6" from the end and pull through, then continue with the rest of the steps

Figure B

2) thread a large eye needle with the strand you just cut, insert needle under top 2 strands of stitch to left of beginning ch-3, (some enter from front, some from back), pull yarn through

Figure C

3) Entering from front, insert needle into the middle (back loop) of the last stitch completed. In this case you will insert hook in your last ch-1, between the front and back loops.

Figure D

4) Pull through to back and weave ends in on the wrong side as normal (several inches one way, turn, and several inches in the opposite direction is optimum).

Remember not to pull too tightly or your piece will pucker

Why do we not like knots?

Excellent question and I don't believe I never covered this before!

First you should understand what I don't mean by knotting. I don't mean the normal finish off where you pull your long tail through to finish your work. This keeps it from unraveling. I also don't mean loosely tying two pieces together when you've joined a new skein of yarn while you continue working and then weaving in each of the long tails later (after untying). If you are not sure what your group means when they say knotting ASK because some groups have strict rules about knotting and you want to be clear on this and you want your hard work to be used.

What I do mean by knotting is tying your two strands together tightly and/or then tying them again. Or tying your single strand into a knot. In either case if you cut the strand right after the knot, I will shake my finger at you and frown. This is bad, bad, bad. It's okay if you did it in the past. Move on and do it correctly now. And teach others the correct method. We need to nip this practice in the bud. I believe that right and wrong is a blurred line in most things crochet - if it works for you, it is okay. But some things are wrong at the core because they are harmful to your work in the sense that it will not give you a quality finished product that will bring pleasure to the recipient for many years.

Knotting and cutting at the knot is one of these. Knotting and leaving a 1" piece of yarn is another. ALWAYS, always leave a long tail - by long, I mean several inches - 4 or more. Your needle is a couple inches. It has to be longer than your needle or how will you weave it in? Sure you can use your crochet hook, but let's not get off topic. :-)

I see you shaking your head at me. I am not answering your question of WHY? Why is this bad, you want to know. Here's why.
1) they can pull apart, before, after, or during a washing -- no matter how tightly you think you've tied them. I've had them come apart while I was assembling an afghan. I haven't personally had them come apart in the wash because I don't do this myself and when I get squares for assembling, I check them carefully before they get into an afghan. I have on occasion missed a couple and hence, I know they do come apart.

2) If you did tie them tightly, this can weaken the strand and it may break. I have also seen this when, in order to save the square, I've tried to sew in strands that have been knotted. If you pull too tightly on them the yarn breaks. You can see this yourself if you pull tightly on yarn. Some kinds are more susceptible to breaking than others, of course.

3) It creates a bump that you can feel. This is actually painful to sensitive skin (cancer patients and preemies for example) and even if you do not have sensitive skin it is not good to feel that hard bump in an otherwise soft, smooth piece.

4) knots are hard to crochet over, particular in adding to a piece (for example, an assembler adding to a square) or joining squares or strips or clothing pieces

5) After washing, the tip of the sewn in tail sometimes pokes out and can be clipped if you sewed in a long strand. In the case of two ends that have been knotted, occasionally the section where the knot is will come out. This is next to impossible to sew back in because there is no "open" segment to thread. I usually end up unknotting the section and hoping there is enough to sew in afterwards as this is the only way to get it back into the work.

The preferred, professional method of finishing is to weave in long tails. See below for the why of the long tails.

Moving on to the other kind of ends. You have finished that beautiful, beautiful afghan. You have crocheted the last row and finished off. Oh, it took soooo long but it really came out great! Dad (Mom, Hubby, Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, Brother, Sister, Friend, Boss...) are going to LOVE it! But wait, what's that? You didn't sew in the ends? Bummer. Then you are not finished and depending on your pattern, you may have just a few, or a whole lot of ends to sew in which may take an hour or two to a few days to take care of. If you are working on a project with a deadline - don't forget to account for time to sew in the ends and do the border etc. This will sometimes take several days if you have limited time for crocheting.

About.com has one method of sewing in ends with a great pic.
http://crochet.about.com/library/bl_weave_ends.htm

Here are some generalities about taking care of those pesky ends.
First, when you are getting near the end of your project and you have not taken time to sew in your ends, start being really nice to everyone in the house who can hold a needle. Fill the house with cookies, their favorite dishes, sleepover guests, whatever makes them happy. Then look very sad and sigh a lot. They will want to know why you are doing this and you, of course, will note that you have all these ends to sew in. If only you were 2 people, or 3 or 4, it could be done so quickly. :-) Okay, that probably won't work, but sometimes you might be able to get a child, usually a daughter, who might have pity on you and give you a hand. Don't count on it though. LOL

Seriously now - a few points
1) When you sew in your ends, please try to make it as invisible as you can. The invisibility factor may be a tough one - especially if you are using variegated yarn. Sometimes it is nigh on impossible. Just do the best you can.

2) Sew ends in on the wrong side of your work. That makes it easy for you to make sure you did them all and none are sticking up after washing, and it also makes for a nicer, finished look when displayed with the right side showing.

3) Don't just sit your white yarn on top of your navy blue yarn and think no one will notice. THEY WILL! Take the time to go up a row or find some way to hide that yarn. Make sure it is SECURE.

There are several ways to do this (see details below). If you are afraid you haven't done a sufficient job, then wash the item. When it comes out of the dryer (yes, you can throw acrylics and cottons in the dryer - check the label for other materials) any ends sticking up can usually be clipped if you have left a super long end and sewn much of it in.

4) I am a believer in leaving super long ends (6" or longer) and sewing in as much of them as possible (go in one direction, turn around and go back in the other). I keep my afghans a long time and I want others to enjoy theirs for a long time as well. Remember that people who do not crochet will still wash their afghans and little pieces may stick out every now and then. If they clip the pieces and you only left a small strand, soon there will be little left and it may come apart.

Why do I have to leave long ends?

Because I said so. LOL Nah, really. There are several reasons that I, and other experienced crocheters, suggest leaving long ends. Dee Stanziano of Crochet with Dee put these into list form for us. I have rec'd permission to share them with you in my own words.

1. the more you weave in, the less chance your afghan/sweater or whatever will later come apart. (added note: some folks like to weave a few inches and one direction and then head back in the other direction for extra stability. See my tutorial on ends for more info on taking care of those pesky ends.)

2. If you left a long tail at the beginning of your foundation chain, and you find you made too few, you can make more chains with the beginning long strand. As Dee says, "it's a plug on amazing "fudge-ability" crochet has to offer over knitting".

3. In later years if a hole develops or repair is needed, the crocheter can use that long tail to make the repair, matching the fiber and color exactly.

Amy Ries of Project Rest Assured also gives some insight into why the long ends (reprinted with permission) from the viewpoint of an assembler joining squares.

Assembling is like building a house of cards. You make a square with a certain yarn, a certain tension, a certain pattern. Several other people also make squares with a different yarn, a different tension, a different pattern. Then I [the assembler] come along and add yet another card to the tower with my yarn and a joining method. It creates stress on your square that wouldn't normally happen if you just made a stack of squares yourself and joined them all together. I've seen the best intentioned squares unravel, and it's horrible to have it happen once the ghan is complete. That's why I say that making a complete ghan is your chance at individuality. Making squares is all of us coming together making something as similar as possible. That's why there are rules about squares. Not to cramp your style, just to make sure we create something that will last. If your square comes to me with a problem, it takes me extra time to fix it. That adds up to less ghans that I'll have time to assemble.

3) Also, don't sew over two strands at once, because it gives a bulky look and ruins that pretty piece you just finished. If you want to sew over both ends, then you might sew over one of the strands and then bring the other one up to the next row or round, and sew over it there. You would thread the second end, weave it through the stitch above it and then lay it across the row or round you are currently working on.)

4) I usually try to sew ends in on the wrong side of the work.

5) When I talk about threading the needle here, I am talking about the long, rather thick needle one uses for plastic canvas and, obviously, crochet. I like the #16, 2" needles. I keep a pack in my crochet bag. The ones I have in there now say Susan Bates, 2", 5cm, No. 16. I find these are not too sharp and just long enough. That doesn't mean you can't like a different kind or size. That's just what I use.

6) Don't pull too tightly as you weave or your work may pucker.

Here are the different methods I have used to hide those ends. No one's complained, but maybe I run with a very polite group. :-) As always I love/hate suggestions and I will take/not take every one and I would love/hate to hear your thoughts. Ha! Just kidding. I do appreciate every comment that helps to make this site better, easier to use and more useful to you all. Please never hesitate to let me know if you know a different method, don't find the way I worded it is clear, think I need more pictures, find spelling errors (egads!) and such.

Why are there so many methods to do these things, you ask? It's because no one can agree on which is the right method so, in fairness. I feel I must allow you to see all those I know and make up your own mind.

Method 1:
The experts (people smarter than me) usually suggest you go a few inches in one direction (left or right) and then weave back in the other direction. In this case, you thread the needles and work your yarn through the center of your stitches in one direction. Then turn around and go back in the opposite direction - be sure you are not undoing what you just did. Go round a stitch. Or you can go up or down (to the row above or below) through a stitch and then go back the other way. I don't mean to split your yarn, but to go into those in-between places.

Here's a little bit different view.

Some of you will notice that the pink and white afghan is upside down. Sometimes I do sew my ends with my work upside down as I prefer to sew right to left. (That may be strange. I really don't know as I've always had that preference.) You do it whichever way is the easiest.

Please click on the thumbnails to see a larger picture.

At this point, I turned my work around so that the previous top was on the bottom.

See that strand on the far left in the picture. That is the second strand from the joining. It just happened in this case that I had a knot in the yarn and had to clip and join in the same color here. I left that piece in the picture so you could see how far I went in both directions. In the second picture, can you tell where the yarn was sewn in?

Method 2 (variation of Method 1):
Thread your needle and go up and down a few stitches, rather than left to right or right to left.

Just keep going up and down through the stitches until you've gone through a bunch of them.

Method 3
This is for those of you who want to get rid of some of those ends as you go.

Joining and ends go hand in hand so to speak. I noted in the previous section that you should sew over a couple of stitches, then thread a needle with the yarn and sew it into the front loop of a few stitches? What this means is that you take the yarn that matches the color of the row you are going to be working on (very important) and pull it up and to the left, laying it over the work between chain-1 and the first stitch.

Fig. 1
Bring dark color forward and up, between ch-1 and first sc

Fig. 2
Work your first stitch over the dropped yarn to lock the yarn in place.

Place your hook in your stitch, going under that strand you just pulled up. Sew over it for a few stitches (say 3) and then thread your needle as noted before. Insert your needle behind the front loop of the next stitch (be careful not to split the stitch) and come out the bottom. Continue in that manner for about 4". I like to do several stitches at once, inserting my needle over and under several front loops at a time and then pulling through. When I've gone far enough, then I clip the thread and stretch the piece just slightly so that the end goes into the fabric. (You may choose to go down and up each stitch individually, which is fine.) Then I go back and pick up my crochet hook and continue to work the pattern, going through both front and back loops and working over those woven in ends. The ends are invisible and tucked firmly into place - if it is done with same color strand.

Here are the steps in pictures:

Step 1
Insert needle, top to bottom,
through front loop

Step 2
2 ways to go here - either bring needle through several front loops at a time, or go through each one individually, bringing needle down and up through each one

Step 3
If you have done several at a time, then gently pull yarn strand through, being careful not to stretch it too much

Step 4
Go back to the where you were before you began sewing and work your pattern stitches over both front and back loops. (It shows here because I used a contrasting yarn so you could see what I was doing)

Here is an example using same color yarn and single crochet stitches

Well, that is one method of taking care of those "pesky ends" if you want to do it as you go along instead of at the end, when you have finished your project and go, whoa. Well, even if you only do some of your strands as you go along, you'll have less of a challenge in front of you as you work to finish that project. Obviously when you join yarn there are going to be two strands - one will match the last row, and one will match the upcoming row. When you do that second strand you can weave it up and do the same with it.

Method 4:
Crocheting over ends as you go. Well, that's easy. Just lay your strands over the top of your stitches and continue crocheting. Remember that if you have two strands, do not crochet over both at one time as this will be too bulky. I know I've said that before but, well, it's true. Don't do that. :-) If you are careful to match your colors where possible the ends shouldn't be visible.

Of course, after you've finished each of these, I am sure you realize you must clip the yarn. I usually wash my afghans when I've completely finished them. Then after they're dried (I machine dry them.) I check for any ends that are poking out and clip those. Then I feel good about giving it away. :-)

If you are working with afghan stitch, Cindy Murray demonstrates a method of weaving in ends.

Crochet Cindy (Afghan Stitch)

I'm sure there are other methods out there, but this should hold you for a while. :-) Thanks for visiting!

Happy Crocheting!

07/28/2008

The buttons above were my first at the Cabana. I keep them for sentimental reasons. :-)

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