00:00Hi everyone! Today I'm going to show you how I do the joining method for my
00:06amigurumi. Now when you crochet, some instructions, for example on my patterns,
00:13will ask you to do a chain one at the beginning of the round and end with a
00:18slip stitch to join with the first stitch in the round. What that means is
00:24instead of working in a continuous spiral, you're going to join each round
00:29so that the rounds are even and uniform and it doesn't continue to go in a
00:35spiral. So here's an example of a doll that I made with a joining method. This
00:42is the supermodel doll base and to show you in the back, as you can see, there's
00:51this seam and the seam is created with the chain one and joining method. So a
00:58disadvantage of this method is that it will have a seam in your amigurumi. Now
01:05the advantage of that though is that if you are doing a lot of color changes, you'll
01:11see that the color change is completely even for each row. So for example, the
01:18turquoise for my doll's top, it goes all the way around and it's all in one row. Now the
01:30opposite of that would be crocheting in the round or in continuous rounds and I'll
01:36show you an example with one of my other designs. This is the Little Red Pandora
01:42doll. And if you look back here on her foot, when I worked on her design, instead of joining
01:54in the round, I opted for a seamless doll. So she doesn't have a seam. Unlike this doll here,
02:03you see the seam on the back. So it's a seamless doll. And by doing that, when you work in
02:13continuous
02:13spirals, when you change colors, you're going to see that there's kind of this abrupt change. So
02:20instead of being uniform and together in one row, like the turquoise is here against the peach,
02:28you'll see that the brown, um, since it's in the spiral, it has to stop here and continue with
02:34the white. So it's not an even color change. And it's more noticeable if you're doing it repetitively
02:41with, um, different, with colors over and over again. So here you can see that with the color change,
02:49joining, I mean, sorry, working without joining in the round will lead to this. Instead of a smooth
02:58um, an even color change. All right. So with that said, um, I'm going to go ahead and show you
03:07how
03:07to chain one and join in the round.
03:15So taking the yarn, what you're going to do is, um, I'm going to just do a standard, um, beginning
03:24so that you can see how the concept works, but I'm going to start off with a magic ring
03:32chain one and six single crochets in the magic ring. This is your first stitch. The first single
03:42crochet, two, three, four, five, and six.
04:00Now, as I tighten this, um, crocheting in the round means that you are going to keep doing single
04:08crochets on top of the previous round. But instead of doing that, I'm going to join with a slip stitch.
04:16So I find that first single crochet that I made, which is right over here.
04:24That's one. And I hope it's, it's a little small. Um, but I hope you can see it. So if
04:33we count backwards,
04:34that's one way to help too, you can go one, two, three, four, five, six, and you'll see that that's
04:40the sixth, the first single crochet. So I'm going to insert my hook into that first single crochet
04:47and pull yarn through in a slip stitch, just like that. That closes my round and it means I've just
04:56joined it. Now for the next round, I'm going to chain one to start and then I'm going to increase
05:05around.
05:06I'm making a circle here. So I'm just going to increase around. That means two single crochets in each round.
05:35And get this ball of yarn out of the way. Okay.
05:56All right. And as you finish, what you should have are if you increased around with six single crochets
06:05in the magic ring to start, you should have 12 now. So I have one, two, three, four,
06:12five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. Now at the end, you're going to notice that there's
06:20one single, one partial stitch over there that you haven't gone into yet. Don't go into that one
06:28because that's, that's not, um, a stitch that you're going to, um, that that's not a stitch that
06:36is counted in this round. Okay. What you're going to do is you're going to slip stitch into that first
06:42stitch you made, which is that first single crochet, not counting the chain.
06:49And so I'm going to insert my hook, grab yarn over and make a slip stitch.
06:58There we go. And as I do that, you'll see that the circle closes up perfectly. And as I keep
07:06working
07:06around and around, you're going to notice that your circles will never look like a spiral. Well,
07:14it will never be a spiral. It will always be a closed circle, a full circle, which is really nice
07:21if you're okay with having a seam and you want to make even looking color changes. Okay.
07:28So I'm going to do this one more time for one more round so you can see how that goes.
07:33Remember to chain one to start. And then what I'm going to do is single crochet and increase around.
07:41So single crochet and increase.
07:55I'm crocheting pretty tightly here with this small hook. I'm using a 2.75 millimeter hook
08:04and I'm using, um, medium weight yarn. So it's getting a little bit tight. But tight is good for amigurumi
08:14because you don't want your stitches to be too loose and have any stuffing, um, poke out or show.
08:25All right. So I did a single crochet and now I'm doing an increase.
08:32Single crochet.
08:37Increase.
08:40Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was going out of the, out of the screen here. Oops. Okay.
08:49Um, single crochet. Wait, did I do an increase there? Yep. Single crochet.
08:58And this is going to be my last one. Increase.
09:05Last stitch for this round.
09:12All right. And if you look here, here's the start of our round. We're going to close up the circle
09:19now.
09:20Here's that, here's the end of it. So we're going to insert your hook into that first single crochet
09:27that you made in this round, which is right here. Don't go into the chain, go into the single crochet.
09:32Okay. And yarn over, pull through like a, with a slip stitch. All right. There we go.
09:42Perfectly round circle. And to keep going, remember you chain one, single crochet in that same stitch,
09:52go all the way around and end with a join by slip stitching to the first single crochet.
09:59All right. Well, I hope that, um, tutorial was helpful. If you have any questions,
10:04feel free to ask me in the comments below. Happy crocheting. Bye now.
