How to Join a New Ball

If you crochet a large piece of fabric, you are inevitably going to use up all of the yarn from one ball and need to add another to continue working. Or, if you are using multiple colors in the same piece, you will need to add a new ball when you switch to a new color.

When adding a new ball, join the new yarn at the end of a row if possible. To do this, work the last stitch with the old yarn until two loops remain on the hook, then yarn over and pull through with the new yarn to complete the stitch. That’s it. Continue working with your new ball of yarn.

When you weave in your ends later, any looseness where you switched yarn will be removed. If it bothers you, you can temporarily knot the yarn ends together. Undo the knot before weaving in ends to avoid the roughness of a knot on your finished piece.

To join a new yarn in the middle of a row, you have a couple of options. You can join in the last pull-through of a stitch and weave the ends in later as described above.

Another option is to work until about 36 inches of the old yarn remains, then work several more stitches with the old yarn over the end of the new yarn (shown in double crochet in illustration). Then change yarns as previously explained.