If you want to make the monster stripy stash basket or any other type of bag with a flat circular base, such as the cluster stitch bag, its a good idea to join your rounds to avoid a nasty seam.

This tutorial shows you how to make a neat transition between stripes when using different colours of yarn. Neat joining for crochet circles makes such a difference to the final result.

Neat joining for crochet circles

The photos in this tutorial show the neat join for round 1 of a flat crochet circle. The technique can be used for any join when you are working in the round. It makes a crochet circle much neater and also works well on the sides of a bag that are worked in horizontal circular stripes.

Step 1

Usually you would join the round with a slip stitch but with the neat join, you just pull the tail end of yarn through the last treble stitch in the round. Thread the yarn onto a darning needle.

Step 2

Working from the front of your work to the back, put the needle through the first treble stitch. It should pass under the front loop and the back loop of the stitch.

Pull the yarn through but do not pull too tight. Bring the needle and yarn end back to the front of your work. The gap between the beginning and end of your round should still be about 1cm (half an inch).

Step 3

Find the last treble of the round and place the needle through the gap between the front loop and back loop at the top of the stitch. You are again working from the front to the back of the crochet circle. Pull the yarn through.

Step 4

As you pull the yarn you will see a figure of 8. Pull gently and ease the tension until you have a closed circle with the stitches at the join looking exactly like those around the rest of the circle.

The neat join completed

This is the larger crochet circle from the BobWilson123 cluster stitch bag that was made as a project for August with the Bagalong with Crafternoon Treats group on Facebook. You can see how the join really is seamless…

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