Color Changing Woes

[Karma2759]

I have only been crocheting for a few months now. Recently I decided to get into making amigurumis and it is definitely a learning process. My biggest issue seems to be that when I am doing a pattern that requires a lot of color changes my work starts to twist.. For example if I am making a frog with a dark green body and light green stomach I would have to keep switching between dark and light green every row. After a while I notice the light green in the front starts to look like it’s twisting off to the side. If I finish all the way up to the head then it will look like the frog is looking off to the side because of the twisting. I cannot figure out how to stop this from happening and trying to research the problem I have not found anyone else asking this particular question. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Granny Square]

Hi, welcome to the 'ville!

Good news, you aren't doing anything wrong.  Bad news, crochet stitches have a bias, and will do that in the round - if by twist you mean the line drifts like this /.

There is a technique that calls doing yarn under versus yarn over when making a stitch that should help.

 

 

[bgs]

There are many good tips geared for amigurumi here.

https://www.planetjune.com/blog/tutorials/crochet-tutorials/

and besides the one Granny Square links to above this one is also interesting

https://www.planetjune.com/blog/a-colour-changing-crochet-investigation/

 

[Karma2759]

Thanks for that link, I didn't even know about yarning under! Also yes I'm talking about thr entire section of color in the front is twisting to the side. I managed to include some pictures this time. I made a Stitch from Lilo and Stitch and you can tell in the pictures his body and legs are facing one way while his head is facing the other way. That was unintentional. Now it is happening again with my current project. The black part is twisting so the bottom of hte head does not line up with the top.

[bgs]

As Granny Square said crochet stitches do not line up one on top of another so when you continue going around the same direction you get the slanting.  Your work looks normal to me.  Here is another interesting link.  

https://blog.irarott.com/blog/2017/02/09/mystery-of-slanted-seams-and-crochet-stitches/

[Karma2759]

36 minutes ago, bgs said:

As Granny Square said crochet stitches do not line up one on top of another so when you continue going around the same direction you get the slanting.  Your work looks normal to me.  Here is another interesting link.  

https://blog.irarott.com/blog/2017/02/09/mystery-of-slanted-seams-and-crochet-stitches/

That looks like it might be the solution I've been looking for. Thanks so much for the link! Now to try and train my hands to do this new type of yarn over...

[ReniC]

And, just another one of many suggestions to omit slanting stitches.

[Karma2759]

These tips just saved my life! To think all of this stress and aggravation over something as simple as how I yarn over or whether I crochet in the front loops... I started over and you can definitely see the difference between the two. I  also noticed the new one came out a bit smaller but I think that's because of my tension while trying so hard not to yarn over the way I'm used to. You can see how the original was twisted so the bottom was turned away from the top. The invisible decrease mentioned in one of the links also helped a lot. I was ready to give up on this altogether but this was a real confidence booster. Thanks again!

[bgs]

You are doing a fantastic job.  Your stitches look really good on the things you have shown us.  I cant believe you have only been at it a few months.  Please share photos of your work in the show and tell section.  

[Karma2759]

12 minutes ago, bgs said:

You are doing a fantastic job.  Your stitches look really good on the things you have shown us.  I cant believe you have only been at it a few months.  Please share photos of your work in the show and tell section.  

Thank you so much, I will do that.

[Granny Square]

Deleted what I just posted about Reni's link to the old post above, now I'm not sure which loop that person used  - it sounds like back loop, which I know works, but it leaves a ridge, which is why I didn't suggest it here.  

I've not swatched it, but I can't see why FLO wouldn't look like both loops (i.e. slant)...but then I am not sure why BLO does work, so....  

Edited May 10, 2020 by Granny Square

[Granny Square]

Huh, you don't know until you try it--front loop only works.  Here is a swatch in the round, done front loop only; the bottom few rows is with only 1 red stitch, the top is 2 red stitches.  It does look pretty straight, altho the right edge is a little blippy; I imagine you could do a surface slip stitch 'outline' to clean it up.

[Granny Square]

Here is what BLO does, bottom half is doing it the usual way thru 2 loops, then the part with the red is BLO.  Plus is that it is 'cleaner', minus it has a ridge because the front loop is hanging out there, and is a little odd looking <<<<

BOTH this and the previous one were done by changing to the new color in the last pull thru of the prior color's stitch.  On the FLO sample above, I tried it without doing that and the right edge was even messier.

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by Granny Square

[Granny Square]

Link to surface slip stitch technique, it's like embroidery with a crochet hook (really easy, oddest part is the yarn feeds from underneath)

https://www.crochetspot.com/how-to-crochet-surface-crochet-or-surface-slip-stitch/