Heads or Tails?! ~No Snip'n'Sew method~

One of my "pet hates" with crochet projects are TAILS! The endless hours having to sew them in makes me wanna' ...!!!.... I usually try and work over them whenever possible, but we all know the tapestry needle is one of the things in our tool kits :)

The Trip Around The World Entrelac (Tunisian Crochet) Afghan by Brenda Borg (http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/trip-around-world-throw) is a beautifully worked entrelac pattern. The trouble is all them fiddley little tails! At least there are with Mikey of the Crochet Crowds YouTube tutorial (love his tutorials though)... Kim Guzman has a Tunisian Entrelac pattern that is worked in straight rows too, its nice and can give the same "checkerboard effect" but sometimes all those beginning chains just make me wanna ...!!!... 

Anyway onto how i do this afghan without 100's of tails... This isnt a tutorial on how to complete the afghan plenty of other fantastic examples out there :)

Okidoki, here goes...

Once you have completed your first square, pull up the last loop big enough to pass your yarn ball thru

Then pull up, creating a slip knot

I like to join my second colour where the the first square tail is, so I can work that sucker in straight away hehe

Then, once you are doing the "7th stitch" lock the 2 tails in to it by yarning over with tails flat against the "7th stitch wall"

See? That 7th stitch locks the tails into the work :)

When you get around to where your first colour slipknot-tail is, you basically ignore it and carry on for the moment. 

The ignored blue tail (top right), and we have completed round 2 of the pattern. 

Do the same thing as you did with your first ball "Slipknot-Tail"

You could quite easy set this down SAFELY :)

Now onto round 3...

You want to move your starting point to the top right corner of the first square of the last round (whew what a mouthful!) then just draw up a loop. You dont want to make it too tight or too loose, you will be working over it at the end of the row. This does NOT count as a chain when you do the starting 7

This is what it looks like after starting row is finished. 

Once you have completed your first square it should look something like this, now you are going to work over that yellow tail to have it set higher ready for the next row. And don't forget, in round 3 and onwards, you will have inner worked squares (like this one is about to be) and outter worked squares like row 2. 

(Working over the slipknot-tail)

Once you have worked the 5th row, leave  the tail and continue around

This is what it looks like after completing the "slipknot-tail-lift" (woah cool terms huh? Hehe) and don't forget you have inner squares to work now... 

Once you get to the end, its the same again, SLIPKNOT-TAIL making. 

Pull up last loop on hook to pull yarn ball thru, then secure. 

This is what it looks like after round 3 and slipknot secured. 

Heres the back view...

YAY! No tails!!! Keep going like this for the rest of the pattern. Of course if you are using more than 2 colours, you will probably have tails still (if you don't work them in as you go)

Now onto round 4... 5... 6... Ahh?! You get it :)

Thats my way to do a two colour, "NO SNIP'n'SEW" method of the Trip Around The World Afghan :)

SLIPKNOT TAIL LIFT WORK OVER

Slipknot tail

Tail lift

Lift work

Work over

Over Slipknot

Slipknot tail

Tail lift

Lift work

Work over

Over slipknot...

Yes I'm getting carried away (should know me by now, thats MY normal hehehe)

Good luck with yours!