double knot yarn join with a colour change...

During my quest for learning new techniques in crochet, I came across a new method for joining yarn that leaves you with no ends to sew in.

EDIT: Just noticed that the video isn't showing for some reason. :(
You can access it here -> http://youtu.be/-nq_7EXTWHE

Not being a huge fan of sewing, this appealed IMMENSELY to me. I've tried it with lots of different yarns and found that for most, it's a fairly secure way of joining and if you are using the same colour, it's almost invisible. But then I got to thinking, what if you wanted to do a colour change using this method? How would that work? So I did some playing around and the following was the result...

So you start off with by completing the whole stitch in the old colour.

Then cut the old yarn leaving a tail of approximately 2cm, or the width of your thumb if you can't be bothered measuring. The tail needs to be long enough for you to grab to tighten the knot, but will be cut off after you're finished so the shorter the tail, the less yarn you waste.

Undo a couple of stitches so you have enough room to manipulate the yarn to make the knots

Then it's time to join the new colour! You can watch the video I've posted at the beginning of this post but basically, you need to do the following...

Old colour goes under the new one...

over the top of both...

back under the old and through the loop...

The knot needs to be made leaving a tail that is approximately 1cm longer than the tail you left back at the beginning. So if you did 2cm, then the tail will be 3cm. If you did a thumb width, then the tail will now be a thumb width plus 1cm.
(This assumes you are working with DK (8ply) yarn with a 4mm hook. If you are using a smaller hook, then you will need to make the extra smaller, if you are using a larger hook, then you will need to make the extra longer. As a guide, the extra needs to be between 2 and 3 times your hook size which means that the last loop will be in the new colour.)

Tie a knot in the new colour. Make sure you pull the tail and strand of each yarn hard to make the knot nice and tight.

Pull the two strands to bring the knots together.

Cut the tails. Always cut the new colour first, then test your knot. If it doesn't hold once the tail has been cut off, you can redo it, making it tighter, or use a different method, and you should still have enough tail on your old colour to do something else. If you cut the old colour and then find out that the knots won't hold with your yarn, then you'll be very very very sad.

BUT if this is the first time you've done this, you might want to actually leave this step until after you have redone the stitches to make sure you are happy with where the knot is.

Redo the stitches you've done. The working loop on your hook should now be the new colour. If the knot isn't quite in the right place, you can play around with your tension on the last couple of stitches to get it in the right place. Or if you haven't cut your tails off, you can move the knot. Once you are happy with where the knots are, if you haven't cut your tails off yet, you can do that now.

Can you see the knot? It's not invisible - there will be a spot of each colour visible, but if you are doing the changes at the end of each row, and doing a border, those little knots will be covered up. But there are no ends to sew!!! How cool is that???

Now, this will not work with every yarn. I've found one that is too slippery (a cheap one from the $2 shops that's just label "knitting yarn 100gms super value") - the knots will unravel when you rub them with your fingers - so please make sure you tighten the knots as much as you can, and then have a little play with them, rubbing them back and forth between your fingers, to make sure that they hold... 

Let me know if it works for you or if there are any yarns you've found that you definitely shouldn't do this with.

:)