Craft Blog Crochet Pattern Store Mailing List

Colour Changes in Amigurumi

The basic explanation

To make a neat colour change, keep an eye out in your crochet pattern or instructions for the approaching change. As you make the last stitch in the old colour, pause before the last step of that stitch. For the final ‘yarn over and draw through all loops on hook’, substitute the new yarn, so you draw the new yarn through your loops. This gives a cleaner edge to the colour change.

Left: last loop of previous stitch uses new colour; Right: first complete stitch in new colour

Full Tutorials

Need more details? For full illustrated step-by-step instructions, jump to:

What to do with the yarn

You have several options for what to do with the yarn colour you aren’t currently using:

Carry the yarn along the top of the row you’re working into. This is known as tapestry crochet, and is an excellent technique to use if your pattern continually switches between two or more colours of yarn. However, it adds bulk to your stitches, so if you only use colour changes for a few rounds, and don’t carry the second yarn the rest of the time, the piece may end up looking bulkier around the area with the colour changes. Also, if you aren’t careful, the carried colour can show through between your stitches, particularly if you stuff your work firmly, which can stretch the stitches open slightly.

Left: The grey yarn is carried along the top of the row; Right: The row of shadowy areas (marked with arrow) are actually the grey yarn peeking through - notice that the ’shadows’ only appear in that top row where I carried the grey yarn

Drop the yarn to the back (inside) of the work and pick it up again when it’s needed. This is a quick and easy method if you’re changing back again after one or two stitches, but leaves a long annoying span of yarn inside your work for any more than that.

A view of the inside after several colour changes of several stitches each time (note that this is a demo piece only!). I don’t recommend leaving connected strands of yarn this long inside the piece; they can cause difficulties when you try to stuff your work

Drop the yarn to the back (inside) of the work and cut it. Knot this end together with the loose end of the new yarn. This can be a bit time-consuming, but if you tie each pair together after you’ve crocheted a couple of stitches past the colour change, it’s not too much trouble. A tip: the knot is simply to prevent your stitches from working loose, so don’t pull the ends too tightly when knotting them together; the goal is to maintain the tension in the yarn so the stitches stay even.

The two ends knotted together inside the piece. Tie the knots as you go - it can be difficult to reach them once you’ve crocheted a few more rounds!

My preference is to use a combination of all three methods, depending on the pattern. I generally cut the yarn and tie the ends together to give a smooth neat finish, but if I’m just making one or two stitches in the second colour, I usually drop the yarn to the inside, or crochet over it, so I can resume using it a couple of stitches later.

7 Comments »

  1. Wen Rou Said,

    February 18, 2008 @ 9:23 am

    Thanks, that was very useful :)

  2. Joy Abara Said,

    March 5, 2008 @ 10:25 pm

    A crochet beginner dreading a color-change, so far I’ve been sticking to the ‘monochrome’ amigurumi. But this tutorial is so encouraging, I’m excited to try a 2-toned amigurumi!

  3. mocaloca Said,

    March 27, 2008 @ 8:05 am

    This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for putting the time!

  4. Joel Said,

    March 28, 2008 @ 11:17 am

    I’m working on a little ‘rumi dog in blue and white, and have been adding little spots on the body. This gives me more options — thanks!

  5. Amigurumi Tutorial 3 (additional techniques) | Hook and Needles: Knitting and Crochet Blog (cool stuff, techniques, and things I find) Said,

    April 15, 2008 @ 12:12 pm

    [...] You’ll often want to add a splash of color to your projects. The following video shows how to change color yarns. PlanetJune also has a Colour Changes in Amigurumi tutorial. [...]

  6. Melisa Sriwulandari Said,

    May 28, 2008 @ 5:59 am

    Hi, if you don’t mind, I’m placing a link to your tutorials in my blog.
    http://ami-quelle.blogspot.com
    Thank you very much!

    Regards,
    Melisa

  7. Rebekah Said,

    June 29, 2008 @ 4:37 am

    Your amazing! Thankyou!

RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI

Leave a Comment