Invisible Joins

About these techniques

Invisible joins are awesome! They can give you a clean edge to create a cleaner color change, to make assembling pieces easier, or just to look nice. Try an invisible join when you're about to tie-off a piece or just before a color change.

Below you'll find step-by-step instructions for three different versions along with images (right and left-handed).

• From the back
• From the front
• To make a new stitch

These techniques work by cutting your yarn and using the end to create a fake stitch over the top of another stitch. This blends the end of the row into the beginning of the row and lessens the "jog" created by working in a spiral.

From the back:

This is the technique I use when finishing an amigurumi piece in the round.

1. Cut your working yarn (leaving a long end) and pull out the end.
2. Skip one stitch, then thread the end under the two loops of the next stitch from the back. This will create a fake stitch over the top of the first stitch of the round.
3. Thread the end back through the top of your last created stitch, then under one leg of the V from your last single crochet (the leg closest to your fake stitch).
4. Then thread the end under the top two loops of the single crochet you skipped in step two (the first single crochet of your round).
5. Tighten your newly created loop to the size of the other stitches and secure.

From the front:

This one is a little more simple than the version worked from the back.

1. Cut your working yarn (leaving a long end) and pull out the end.
2. Skip one stitch, then thread the end under the two loops of the next stitch from the front. This will create a fake stitch over the top of the first stitch of the round.
3. Thread the end back through the top of your last created stitch.
4. Tighten your newly created loop to the size of the other stitches and secure.

Make a new stitch:

So this one isn't worked over a stitch to replace it but creates its own stitch. I like to use this technique when I'm making flat shapes (like this circle). It creates a clean shape without adding any extra bulk.

1. Cut your working yarn (leaving a long end) and pull out the end.
2. Using an embroidery needle, thread the end under the two loops of the first stitch of the round.
3. Then thread the end back through the top of your last created stitch.
4. Tighten your newly created loop to the size of the other stitches and secure.