Horizontal color change

I’ve gotten many many requests for a good tutorial about changing colors horizontally when crocheting. The requests for a tutorial started coming when I first came out with my Lola crochet dolls patterns. They have these cute striped legs. Buuuuut…not everyone seemed to know how to changes colors properly. They had these not so pretty step like color changes. We don’t want that of course. So I made a clear, step by step tutorial for all of you. No more step color changes 😁😁

First I would like to show you what I mean with the horizontal color change. If you have a look below at the Lola crochet patterns from my shop, you’ll see they all have striped legs. That’s what I mean with the horizontal color change.

As you can see, a not so neat color change would kind of look a little less pretty. To make sure you don’t have that problem I prepared a video for you and below that a step by step pictures tutorial.

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Step by step pictures tutorial

Up next is the step by step pictures tutorial. I’ve added instructions under the pictures so you can easily follow and understand.

Picture 1: do not finish the last stitch! Stop when you have 2 loops on your hook

Picture 2: hold the new color like this

Picture 3: pull the new color through the 2 loops on the hook to finish that last stitch

Picture 4: make a slip stitch in the NEXT stitch

Picture 5: continuation of that slip stitch

Picture 6: still making that slip stitch

Picture 7: your slip stitch is done

Picture 8: pull the yarn of the previous color but don’t pull too hard

Picture 9: make 1 chain (THIS CHAIN 1 DOES NOT COUNT AS A STITCH. DO NOT USE IT AT THE END OF THE ROW. IF YOU DO ANYWAY, THEN YOU WILL BE INCREASING EACH ROW AND THE WHOLE THING WILL GO COMPLETELY WRONG)

Picture 10: make your next stitch or start your next row in the very same stitch in which you just made that slip stitch

Picture 11: i just made my first single crochet in the same stitch as that slip stitch

Picture 12: at the end of the row you have 2 choices =

1. continue with the same color. To do that make 1sl st in the first single crochet you made with the new color. Then chain 1 (see pictures 13 and 14 below) and repeat the steps 10-12. If you will be changing colors often, I recommend you continue starting and ending every row like this. If you change color only once, there is no need for a slip stitch + ch1 at the end of every row. Only during the color change and after the first row in the new color
2. change color again. To do that repeat steps 1-12

Picture 13: to end your row make 1 slip stitch in the first stitch you made with the new color (not the slip stitch though. That one does NOT count as a stitch)

Picture 14: still that slip stitch in the first stitch

Picture 15: should look like this now. Pretty isn’t it. No weird, visible color change!

Do let me know if you have any more questions about this tutorial. You can do that in Whatsapp by clicking the Whatsapp icon in the right-hand corner at the bottom of your screen. Click here if you would like to send an email.