Hello everyone! Tara here—

During lunch yesterday, Britt and I were talking about knots and discovered that we have very different opinions on them.

When my aunt taught me to crochet, she told me that you should always knot your work. As I learned more and crocheted more, I continued to knot my work, but I would also weave in my ends and then knot them a second time.

Adding the extra knots gave me a piece of mind: especially with pieces I knew would get thrown in the washer (and dryer). Sure, I knew those knots would eventually give, just like the knots on any shoe, but I also knew the piece wouldn’t unravel because the ends were still woven in. And, on the VERY rare chance that the woven-in ends un-wove themselves, I knew there was a magic knot holding the two yarn ends together.

The knots are added security, so I use them in all of my projects.

On the other end of the spectrum, Britt hates knots and doesn’t use them at all.

Knots can pull and distort your stitches and they leave hard little bumps in your work. If you weave in your ends thoroughly, you really shouldn’t ever have to worry about them un-weaving.

I tend to use more acrylic yarn, while Britt uses more wool, which could have something to do with our preferences.

Once wool is set and the ends are woven in, they really don’t go anywhere, and you don’t have to wash it often. When you do wash it, more often than not, the pieces get handwashed.

With acrylic, especially the acrylic yarn that has a silky sheen to it, the yarn can have a tendency to move and unravel itself.

Acrylic also has to be washed way more than wool, and most people will throw an acrylic piece in the washer instead of handwashing it.

So there are definitely pros and cons to knotting your yarn ends together, and, in the end, it really comes down to personal preference.

Do you knot your yarn? Let us know in the comment section!

– Tara Orchard, Editor of Crochet! Magazine