In this tutorial I show you how to finish off an open amigurumi piece neatly in both continuous rounds and joined rounds. [note: Looking for a tutorial on how to finish closed pieces instead? Visit this page: closing pieces neatly.]

Continuous rounds: 

When working in continuous rounds with amigurumi your piece will inevitably end with a jog: the end of the round will be higher than the beginning of the round, resulting in a step up.

If the piece will simply be flattened and attached to another piece, this isn’t too much of a problem and it won’t necessarily be noticed, but sometimes your piece will remain open and will not be joined to another, so this step, or jog, will be an eyesore. Or, maybe you find it easier to join a piece to another when the surfaces are more even, so would like to reduce the jog. What do you do? You can make a “fake” stitch that slopes down from the higher, end of the round to the lower, start of the round, making the difference in height less noticeable. Here is how to do it:

(a) Once you have finished crocheting your piece, cut the yarn, leaving about a 6 inch tail (unless specified otherwise). Pull the working loop all the way out, until the end of the yarn has been pulled through the middle of the last stitch.(b) Thread your yarn needle with the yarn tail. Skipping the next stitch (the first stitch of the last round), insert your needle from the inside to the outside into the second stitch.(c) Insert the needle back into the original stitch the yarn tail comes from (the last stitch of the last round), going through the middle of the stitch from top to bottom, bringing your needle to the front of the piece.(d) Pull the yarn tail until the new “stitch” is the same size as the surrounding stitches. Done!

Want the yarn tail on the inside of the piece?

No problem! Simply reverse the process:
(a) bring your needle through the second stitch from the outside to the inside of the piece, then (b) bring it through the middle of the stitch the yarn tail comes from, towards the inside of the piece.

And that is it! Looks good, doesn’t it! Nice and neat, with no noticeable jog, or step-up. Basically, with this technique you are making a new stitch over top of the first stitch of the last round, replacing it (so you still have the same number of stitches in the last round). This new stitch can act as any other stitch, so if you are going to be attaching your piece to something else, simply treat it like a normal single crochet.

Joined rounds:

You can also use this same technique to finish joined rounds neatly! Don’t know what joined rounds are? Read my tutorial on the technique first. I like using the invisible finish stitch with joined rounds because it covers up not only the first stitch of the last round (like for continuous rounds above), but ALSO both the last joining slip stitch and chain, creating a more seamless finish at the top of the piece.

(a) Do NOT join with a slip stitch at the end of the last round. Instead, cut the yarn and pull the end through the last stitch, just like for continuous rounds above.(b) Thread your yarn needle with the yarn tail. Skipping the slip stitch, chain AND first stitch of the round, insert your needle from the outside to the inside into the second stitch.(c) Insert the needle back into the original stitch the yarn tail comes from (just like for continuous rounds), going through the middle of the stitch from top to bottom, bringing your needle to the inside of the piece.(d) Pull the yarn tail until the new “stitch” is the same size as the surrounding stitches.

Just like for continuous rounds, this new “stitch” can act like all the other stitches in the round, replacing the first stitch (so you still have the same number of stitches in the end).