Clean Color Change Between Rounds
A: BLO slst around. B: sc around, working in the BLO of both colors.
Cleanly changing to a new color takes two rounds- but it kinda only looks like one round when you're done.
In my patterns, I call these A and B so you can easily identify and count the rounds on your piece if you lose track. (I do constantly.)
A note about tension- keep your slst’s ~loose~. Slst’s are easy to make too tight. If they’re too tight here, it’s going to pinch the shape closed like a drawstring.
If you want to get real fancy, end the first color with an invisible finish before attaching the new color.
Going straight into a new color in r4, versus prepping r4 with a round of slst’s first.
The pictured shape would be written out like this:
Start in purple
r1 6sc in magic ring (6)
r2-3 sc around (12)
Change to yellow
r4a blo slst around (12)
r4b sc around (12)
r5-6 sc around (12)
After a round or two more, gently knot the tails (don’t pull too hard! Be just as mindful of your internal knot-tying tension), trim them, and keep on crochetin’. Boom, perfect straight-line color-change!
A small after note: I use to work the slst’s in round A under both loops, then sc through the chunky 3 loops in round B. I abandoned this a method while ago, but if you’re looking close at older dolls, you can see it’s a little different. I’ve since found this new minor change is cleaner, and doesn’t affect the end shape. So this is my suggested method, retroactively and into the future .