How to Change Colour in Crochet: Сhanging Yarn in Amigurumi

Most people pick up the basic stitches faster than they expect. The wobble tends to come later, at the point where one colour stops and the next begins. That single join is what separates a make that looks a bit homemade from one that looks properly finished.

Learning how to change colour in crochet comes down to one small move and a couple of tidy habits. Before you start, it helps to have your basic kit within reach. The crochet tools you need are the same ones you already use for any amigurumi, plus a yarn needle for tidying the ends.

Here is what you'll learn:

• The exact point in a stitch where a colour change really happens, and why it lands earlier than most beginners expect

• How a change at the end of a row differs from one worked in a spiral, and the little step amigurumi leaves behind

• When to carry your spare colour along the back, and when to cut it off and rejoin

• The trick to hiding your ends so the join disappears once the piece is stuffed

• The slip-ups that give a messy join away, and a quick fix for each

What makes a crochet colour change look clean?

The trick beginners miss is timing. You swap colours one step earlier than feels right, partway through the last stitch of the old colour. The change happens before that stitch is even finished off.

Here is the move. Work your stitch in the old colour up to the final step, the moment you have two loops on your hook, and you would normally pull the working yarn through to close the stitch. Stop there. Drop the old colour, pick up the new one, and pull that new colour through the two loops to close the stitch.

That last pull sets the colour for the next stitch. The stitch you just finished still reads as the old colour. The loop now sitting on your hook is the new one, ready to go.

This same swap sits behind every clean crochet colour change, on every project, with every stitch. Get it once, and the rest is tidying up.

Flat and friendly, the crochet colour change at the end of a row 

Working flat, in rows, gives you the easy version of this. A crochet colour change at the end of a row has two things working in your favour.

A loose tail tucks away down the side of the work as you go, out of sight. And the colours meet without any awkward step, since each row stacks cleanly on the one below. 

So you make that last-loop change on the final stitch of the row, turn, and carry on in the new colour. The join lands right at the edge where nobody looks twice.

Amigurumi asks a little more of you, which brings us to the round.

The amigurumi colour change in a spiral 

Amigurumi is worked as a continuous spiral, round after round, with no join, closing each one off, which is what keeps the surface smooth. That smoothness comes with a quirk. With no seam to mark where a round ends, an amigurumi colour change starts the new colour one stitch higher than the old colour finished, leaving a small step, or jog, where the two meet. 

That jog is normal, and every amigurumi maker works around it. You can soften it with a seamless join, a small finishing technique that lines the two colours up and brings the step down to almost nothing. 

A yarn with clean, well-defined stitches makes the whole change easier, since you can see exactly where one colour ends and the next begins. If you want a hand picking shades that show off your work, our guide to choosing the right yarn walks through the best options for amigurumi.

Carrying the colour or cutting it off

Once you have made the change, you have a spare colour hanging there. You have two sensible ways to deal with it.

Carrying the colour along the back

Carrying means you never cut the old colour. You lay it along the wrong side of your work and crochet over it as you go, trapping it inside the stitches. When you need that colour again, it is right there waiting.

It earns its keep on short, frequent swaps, the kind you get with stripes a round or two deep or little flecks of contrast where the colour comes back soon. Hidden inside a stuffed piece, the strand never shows. 

Carry a colour too far, and the trapped strand can show through on the right side, especially once stuffing stretches the stitches open. Keep carrying short, and it stays out of sight.

Cutting and rejoining

Cutting is the better call when a colour has done its job for a good stretch. You finish the last stitch in that colour, snip it, leaving a tail of a few inches, and rejoin wherever the colour next appears.

The inside of longer colour blocks stays clean this way, with no strand sagging across the back and no long float showing through. The cost is a few more tails to secure, a small price for bigger sections. 

To rejoin, you bring the new colour in with that same last-loop move from earlier, leaving a tail to weave in once you are done.

When to carry and when to cut 

The choice comes down to distance. A short gap with the colour returning soon, carry it. A long stretch, or a colour you are finished with, cut it. Still torn? Look at the float on the back, because once a carry would run longer than two or three stitches, cutting almost always looks neater. 

How to hide your yarn ends?

Ends are where a lot of first makes fall down, and they are the easiest part to put right.

The neatest habit is to crochet over your tails as you work. On the wrong side, lay the tail along the top of the stitches you are about to make and trap it under them for an inch or so. By the time you have moved on, the end is locked in, and you never have to come back to it.

For any tails left over, thread a yarn needle and weave the end through the back of a few stitches, then change direction and weave back the other way. Those two directions stop it from ever working loose.

Amigurumi forgives a lot here, since every end you leave gets tucked inside a stuffed shape, hidden for good once you close the piece up. Even a slightly messy tail vanishes the moment the stuffing goes in.

Common slip-ups at the colour change 

A handful of small habits cause most rough-looking colour changes. These are the ones to watch for.

Try it on a companion

Colour changing clicks the moment you do it with real yarn in your hands, on a make that puts a switch right in front of you. A two-tone companion is the friendliest first go, something like a Nala the Whale or Maple the Fox, where the change comes in early, and the result is small and squishy.

Have a look through the full range of Fuppys companions and pick the one you like best. Every kit comes pre-started with the hook included and slow, step-by-step tutorials, so you are never left guessing where the change goes. Make your first clean colour change on something you will want to keep.

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