Mosaic crochet or sc stripes – how to close your rounds

On the blog

Check out Chantal’s beautiful version of the Bluebird shawl (design by EclatDuSoleil) crocheted in Whirl yarn (col Forbidden Fuchsia)

On YouTube

I had a mishap with my webcam, which decided to stop recording after about 20 minutes, without letting me know. I discovered this too late to be able to do anything about it, so I decided to publish the video anyway since I had already said most of what I wanted to say before the cutoff.

Please bear with me while I get better at this video thing… I will try to do better next time!

Mosaic crochet or sc stripes – how to close your rounds

Having written all these newsletters on mosaic crochet, I couldn’t resist – I had to start a project using this technique!

It’s a project worked in the round, so the question is, how to close the rounds as neatly as possible?

I meditated on what I already knew, I browsed the Internet for ideas, I thought about what I had learned, and I came up with a method that I find quite satisfying.

Here are three striped circles worked in the same colors, the same yarn, the same hook and the same number of rounds. Their only difference: the method used to close the rounds.

To the left, a circle worked as a spiral. It’s an easy and useful method when working in one color only – but with stripes, not so much.

In the middle, the “classic” way to close rounds: sl st in the first st in the round (with the new color, of course), then ch 1 before working the first st. It’s better than spirals, but you can very clearly spot the start/end of each round.

To the right, the method I’m going to present in this newsletter. It’s a clear improvement, don’t you think? The joins are almost invisible, and the stripes remain clear all around!

I have just finished my round in grey, simply by working a sc in the last stitch in the previous round. I elongate the loop on my hook so I don’t lose it, and I remove the hook.

I insert my hook under both loops of the first stitch in the round, from back to front.

I put the “live” loop back on my hook (it’s easier from the back of the work, as shown here), and I pull it through.

Here we are, back on the right side. The first and the last stitch in the round sit together without using a slip stitch – the round is closed.

The next round will be red – ch 1 with the red yarn (waiting patiently at the back of the piece).

The next step is to pull the grey yarn tight so that the grey loop is minimized and disappears behind the work.

All we can see now is the red loop on the hook. I pull it up so that it’s long enough to run along the side of the first sc and over its top, without making an extra “ch 1”.