Welcome to my first tutorial of 2017. As you may know from my post WIP Wednesday I am working on a CAL by the fabulous Bluebird and Daisy.So far it’s going well and progress has been fairly quick, I’ve almost completed parts 1 and 2 now. Part of the pattern involves carrying  yarn to create patterns using the Granny stitches. I’ve tried all sorts to hide the carried yarn, and although the pattern tutorial shows strands across the back my personal preference is to hide them because I want the back to look as much like the front as possible.

I decided to share what I did as I thought it might help anyone else who is as bothered about visible carried yarn as me. (I think if it were a jumper it wouldn’t matter but I’d be likely to see both sides of a blanket!)

To begin with, complete the first two rows as per the pattern, carrying the yarn to the wrong side of the work. Then, when working the third row of Granny stitches, you insert the hook into the space and under the strand of carried yarn.

Once you have done that, work your treble (US double) as normal and repeat the process twice more to complete a set of 3 stitches, all of which encase the carried strand of yarn. If your pattern ends 0n a row with multiple colours you may want to add two single coloured rows in order to hide the carried strands from the rows below as you are always working 2 rows behind with this method. 

Repeat this for every strand you wish to cover along your row.

You will be left with a very small amount of the carried yarn showing, but it will be far less visible.

I have only tried this method with Granny stitches and, although it is time consuming, I think it makes my finished work feel more neatly presented. The only slight drawback is that, depending on your tension, you make lose a little of the definition of the gaps in your work because the carried strand is pulling your new group of trebles down slightly. Its really a personal choice, visible yarn or a slight change to the appearance.

I hope you’ve found this useful, especially if you’re new to crochet colourwork  (I’m more used to changing colours every round or row than using two or more in one so it was a great learning  curve for me.)