Glue (Fray Check), weaving ends, and to knot or not?

[crosette]

I've heard (I think it was on here somewhere) of people using some type of glue to secure yarn ends after weaving. I am really paranoid about my yarn ends wiggling free especially when I've given the item to someone as a gift.

 

I was at the craft/fabric section in Walmart and asked the fabric-cutter-lady about it and she was shocked and got all snippy with me (-"We don't glue yarn ends we crochet over them!").

 

So anyway, I just wanted to know...am I imagining reading about this?!

[Catana]

I'll be trying the Fray Block on one of my next projects. I'm also trying something completely different--a knot. After I do some weaving, I take the end to an area of heavy stitches, pull it out a bit and tie a small knot at the end. Then I pull it back until the knot is caught in the stitches. This might not work with very smooth yarns, but I think it will help with rough ones, boucles, thick, thin, etc.

[Sharon]

I ALWAYS knot my yarn, weaving in a tail.

[Catana]

I ALWAYS knot my yarn, weaving in a tail.

 

I guess I wasn't very clear. LOL My way is just the opposite. I do knot the yarn before I start weaving the tail, but the extra knot is at the very end of the tail, just before you would cut it off. The small knot pulls back into the work and catches (hopefully) in the stitches.

[sjkmaurice]

I'm sorry to hijack the post, but are we not supposed to knot our yarn? How do we keep the ends from coming out? I don't trust just weaving in, and I've always knotted my yarn. I know you're supposed to change colors or join in with a new skein in a seam or the end of a row, but I didn't know you weren't supposed to knot the yarn.

[xantha]

I'm sorry to hijack the post, but are we not supposed to knot our yarn? How do we keep the ends from coming out? I don't trust just weaving in, and I've always knotted my yarn. I know you're supposed to change colors or join in with a new skein in a seam or the end of a row, but I didn't know you weren't supposed to knot the yarn.

 

Do what works for you!

 

On some fabrics, if you knot the yarn, it's really noticable (laceweight, fingering weight, plain patterns mostly).

 

When I change colors or join, I basically use the join as the knot, I don't knot the ends together. Then I weave in.

 

I mean, my stitches basically knot the two together. If I work half of a stitch with the existing yarn and then join the new yarn and work the other half with that one, I'm basically using my stitch pattern to knot the yarn together. Then I weave the ends in and even if the ends come unwoven somehow, the yarn doesn't come apart because the stitch is holding them together.

[Sharon]

I must be weird, I knot even with doilies.

[xantha]

I don't knot on doilies, but it's all a matter of preference! if you can knot and you can't see it and it works for you, awesome!

 

I think perhaps I make awful knots and that they're easy to see or I'm no good at hiding them or something because my joins + weave-ins look better than my knots.

[sjkmaurice]

Well, you learn something new everyday! I haven't had a problem so far with knotting, but I don't make doilies, either. My daughter is a "clothing picker." I fear if she found a loose end and it wasn't knotted, that would be the demise of the sweater/dress/hat/whatever.

[Empress Busy Bee]

But that's my point, everyone does things different and I don't think there is one standard way despite what CGOA says, which seems like it's only about 9 or 10 years old, I don't know.

I do know I've never had any problems with my things and I do still have a lot of my blankets, which all I made back then.

I do have the current issue of and it actually doesn't say anything now. It just tells you how to change colors, nothing about weaving or knotting.

Maybe the "rules" have changed since I started but I don't think any one book or guild has the final say or authority to tell people what to do.

Again, just my opinion.

I'm sorry if I seem so hard headed about this. I don't mean for it to come across that way. I just felt like I was being told my way was wrong, then I felt like I was being called a liar and stupid. I'm sure that's not what you meant, but it is how I felt.

However it's all good.

[Empress Busy Bee]

I've been crocheting for over 20 years and I've never read anywhere that says you're not supposed to knot. I almost always knot.

That's not to say don't knot. I agree, do what works!

[Donna]

But have you read anywhere that says you are supposed to knot? No. I guarantee it does not say that in any published book. If you check the directions in any crochet book for joining new yarn or changing colors, they will usually give quite detailed instructions but they never, ever say to knot.

 

From the Crochet Guild of America web site:

CGOA: Teaching A Child to Crochet: Objectives

Joining a New Yarn and Finishing Off Ends

 

Objective: To introduce to students the proper procedure for joining a new yarn and finishing off ends.

 

Demonstrate joining a new yarn at the edge of work. Discuss leaving the yarn ends hanging to weave in later and why you NEVER tie a knot. Discuss using yarn needles and finishing off only one yarn end at a time. Discuss how to properly fasten crochet off. Show a sample of a striped fabric. Talk about using color and stripes to create a design.

 

[crochetchronicles]

I agree with Jess. We all knot things differently. Some are better at it than others. Sometimes I knot, other times I don't.

[xantha]

While CGOA say it as such (and I agree to a point), if someone feels more secure knotting, so be it. If people knot ends and still win competitions, obviously it's not an necessarily an issue in terms of how the item looks or wears...

 

Interestingly, joining and stripes was one of my first projects as an adult. I didn't look up how to join a new color: I just did it. Knotting never came to mind as an option; I thought the best way would be to incorporate the join into the regular stitch, so that's what I did. It wasn't until much later that I read that that actually was the "proper" way to do it.

 

I personally feel like knots are less secure, not more secure. I hate it when I get a skein/hank of yarn and there's a knot smack in the middle of it. I cut it out and rejoin.

 

All that said, I do think everyone should do what works best for them.

[AmyOH]

I see this thread has migrated from glue, so I thought I'd ask--does anyone sew their ends? I find even with the most careful weaving (and knotting) my ends like to migrate. So I've been considering both glue and sewing, but haven't made a decision...

[Donna]

I don't disagree, Jess. If anybody wants to knot, fine. But I am a firm believer that it is very important to know how any procecure is supposed to be done. Once a person knows and fully understands the correct way, then go on and do it a different way if you want.

 

The only reason somebody is going to win a competition with knots in their work is because the judge didn't find them. (Some judges are better than others, as is the case with everything in life.)

 

This thread has some good discussion of how to weave ends securely. And in it SamplerLady says:

If you are going to enter any of your work in competitions do not tie knots. If the judge can find them, your work will loose so many points it might as well be eliminated from the competition.

[Empress Busy Bee]

I don't know. I've been knotting on most of my things for a long time and it works. I also pretty much learned out of magazines. If there such things as bibles and encyclopedia back then, I never saw them and probably couldn't afford them.

I found this in one of my 1990 magazines. So I guess some things do say you can knot.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/EmpressBusyBee/temp%20stuff/knottingends.jpg

 

Just my opinion, I don't want to argue about it and every one has their own way of doing things.

 

As for glueing, no I don't but who knows what future project I might want to do it on. It sounds like a good idea for some people though.

[Donna]

I'm quite surprised to see that. Unfortunately there is no author given for those instructions, so we can't contact the person and find out why they think it's okay to knot. I would be even more surprised to find that no readers had written to the magazine to dispute that instruction; I bet they did. I don't have any current copies of Crochet World, but I'd be interested to see if they've changed it by now, 15 years later.

 

The main reason I do not knot (and yes, I have tried it) is that I find that although the knot itself ususally stays tied, the yarn right next to the knot tends to work loose, pulling out from the work, creating loopy bits that will stick out. Depending on how the rest of the ends have been worked in, the knot itself may pop out of the work.

 

Thus I find knots to be very much less secure than not knotting. Ends that are worked in well are much more secure than knotted ends. And if you knot and then work in the ends securely, then you'll likely encounter the issue of the loopy bits and/or the knot popping out, with no way to rework in the ends to try to hide the knot again, because they've already been worked in securely.

[diamond]

Wow, Donna, I'm glad I read this thread. I've been knotting for so long, it's a habit with me. And I am preparing to enter into a contest and I would have put knots in my work. I don't know why or when I started but it's been forever. Now I need to readjust my thinking because I don't want anything to hinder me. Thanx for the great info. But other than contest pieces, I think I'll keep knotting. I feel more secure knowing my pieces won't come apart because of the joining.