Carrying Yarn Along the Side of a Project

I love stripes, you love stripes, everybody loves striped crochet projects! However, unless you’re using a self-striping yarn, you’re going to be working with multiple skeins at the same time. With some patterns, the only solution is to cut the yarn every time you switch to a new color. But sometimes, you can carry the yarn along the side, leaving only the ends of the skeins to weave in! Here’s how to carry yarn along the side of a crochet project!

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Carrying Yarn Along the Side of a Project – Right Handed

video

Carrying Yarn Along the Side of a Project – Left Handed

As Seen in This Video (click for more info!)

• US – K, 6.5mm Furls Alpha Series
• Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice

Essentially, you want to keep the unused yarn running along the side of your work at just the right tension. Too tight and it will shorten the sides of your rows, making the project longer in the middle and shorter on the sides. Too loose, and you’ll have loops of yarn flapping about, loosening your stitches, and getting caught on everything around it!

The yarn that is carried along the side until you’re ready to use it again might be referred to as “carried yarn” or “yarn floats” or “floated yarn” – or whatever other terms a designer might come up with! But those are the most common I’ve seen, and the “floating” make sense – you are essentially keeping the yarn right along the surface of the side of the project, just right there, waiting to be used again.

Sometimes these floats can get pretty long – you might only change colors every few rows, or you might have lots of colors/skeins in use. When that happens, it can be very helpful to loop the unused color into an end stitch or chain in the color you’re using. This just tucks it up in place along the side, helping to keep the right level of tension, and avoiding those pesky loops sticking out the side!

Of course, you can float yarn for striped projects worked in the round too – but you won’t be able to edge them, so be sure to keep them on the inside of your project. Tension is even more important here, so you don’t end up with a pucker in your hat or cowl or… whatever you’re making!

So… it takes a bit of practice. Sometimes you can fix too-tight sides with a bit of blocking, and you can fix too-loose sides with a good solid border or edging – you’ll want to add a border or edging of some sort to cover the floats anyway. But the more you do it, the easier it gets to carry the yarn along so that no one can see it who doesn’t know to look for it.

I hope this tutorial for carrying yarn along the side of a project has been helpful to you! Thanks for watching – and be sure to Pin it for easy reference:

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