Half Double Crochet Intarsia Tutorial

Okay, so when we're looking at our chart to figure out our color changes and what we need to do, you have to think in terms of the row that you're working. Not only do we have blue over here, this is one big blue square, but once we have color changes This blue, we're not going to run the end of this blue all the way over here to join it back up. We're instead going to create a different ball of blue, same yarn, just a different ball, and start working this whole section here in that other ball of blue. That way, we'll have a totally reversible fabric. So as we work, we'll have one ball of purple here, a ball of green, we'll have two blues for each side. So I've worked already up through here, and I am right here, right now actually I think I'm on number four here, let's see, chain two, and I've got three half double crochets. So I need one more half double crochet. And then I'm switching to my purple. So when you are changing color in half double crochet, it's very simple. You're just going to yarn over, insert your hook into your next stitch, pull up your loop, and stop there. So the last stitch that you make in the blue, you're going to work to the last step. So you have three loops on your hook, then you're going to grab your purple. So I'm just going to lay that down real quick. Okay, I've got my purple. I'm just going to lay it right on my hook. I'm going to pull that through to take over the blue, and now I'm ready for my purple. You can see that the blue is a little bit higher, this last stitch is a little bit higher than the rest. When you come back, you can tug it down, or you can go ahead and tug it down right now. So I just grab the blue and you can pull it down a little bit to bring it even. It'll still kind of pull up, but once you bring it back up to work this next row over here, it's going to tug it back down to be even with the other side. So now, I'm going to do five stitches in purple, but I'm only going to work up to the end of the fifth stitch. I'm not going to do the fifth stitch. So yarn over, insert my hook. If you want to catch your purple tail to start weaving it in or to kind of secure it, you can do that. Just yarn over, pull through all three. And here's number five, so I'm going to stop on that last step. Green, because green is our next color. And we're doing the same thing. We're laying it over the tail in there with the next stitch. Insert my hook into the next stitch, the tail right on top of my stitch so it will get caught between my stitches here. Five in the green. So this is where we have to add in our new blue, so it's the fifth. Because if I just grabbed my tail over here and brought it all the way over, I'd still only cut this, so I'm gonna have to join in some new yarn over here anyways. I don't know why I cut that. Um, but if I brought it all the way over and then joined it in, you could do that if this is a one-sided project, so if you're not going to be looking at the back side, you can always do that if you don't want to be working with lots of tails of yarn, because every single ball you join in, you're going to have two extra tails to weave in. Up to you, but if you want this to be truly reversible, you want to join in new color every time your color changes. I'm going to grab another blue. You can see that if you have a project with lots of colors, lots of colors in your chart, you're going to have a lot of different tails to weave in, but the finished project will be really cool. You'll be able to see it from both sides. I'm pulling in the blue, lay it on top. So if you have, oops I'm doing single crochet, if you have multiple colors or multiple balls of one color, so if I had a couple more blues that I needed and I only have one skein of blue, Start rolling little balls in it, so just keep on rolling until you think you have enough to cover that section that you need it for and cut it off. That way they will be loose. I didn't do 5 like I was supposed to. I'm going to do 4 stitches on the end here. I was supposed to have 5, but I guess I didn't do my foundation chain correctly. So I'm going to work into this top of the chain 2 for the last, and counting the chain 2 as my stitch. You'll notice I kept the tail in all of these stitches. You can work over your tail for quite a bit and then even the rest of it. Just make sure it's the same color as what you're working. So now when I turn my work, I just keep using the same blue. So I'm going to chain 2, half double crocheting into the next stitch. If your chain 2 does not count as a stitch, the designer states that, then you'll just do a half double crochet in there, and the chain will kind of sit off to the end. So once I get to my color change, since it's right here, I'm going to stop. I'm going to grab my tail. This is one thing that you kind of want to keep consistent. So I'm going to keep all of my tails on one side just so that when I pull them through they are all on one side of it. So I'm going to keep the front side the cleanest side. These are still all going to be pretty hidden, but I want to kind of keep it as neat as possible on one side. So I'm bringing this tail, instead of leaving it just hanging off in the back here, I'm going to bring it to the front so that it's on the same side as all these other tails. Then I'm going to grab my green, and I'm going to bring it up to join in. So you'll see that it will create just a little line that goes straight up to the work, but it kind of fades in with the rest of the work, so it's not a huge deal. I'm going to yarn over and once, and you can also even kind of weave it into your stitch, so if you go behind it and then do your half double, it's going to kind of create right into the stitch so it's less noticeable. It kind of looks like part of the half double from the row below. If I don't do that, it's still not very noticeable. So if you don't want to take that extra step, don't worry about it. Just work into the stitch. A little bit more noticeable, but not quite. When you're looking at it quickly, you're not going to notice it. So if you want, go behind the tail, and then go into your stitch. That will kind of help move it over and blend it a little bit more, and then do the rest of your stitches. I'll do that again with the purple. The darker color yarn, of course, is harder to see anything, so you're really not going to be able to see that tail very much. So again, I pull the tail to the front, grab my other tail, yarn over, pull through, then yarn over, and then I'm going to go behind the tail and into that first stitch. So notice the tails, I just leave off, again on the next row we'll be pulling them up again. But this is what we'll do. So on the next row, because the tails are already on the right side, once we change they're just going to stay on this side, so it's not a big change. Just remembering to move them to all one, the same side when you work is the hardest thing to do. You just pull it to the front so that it's out of the way. That's how you're going to do your half double, pull that through there. So that's how you're going to do your half double intarsia. If you need to... Once you get to the new color, it's the same thing, if it's left off right where you finished, and then you're going to pop up to purple, then you don't need to change any balls of yarn, but if you're left off over here, you'll have to get a new ball of yarn, so it just depends on your graph, how you're going to work it, how many tails, if you want the yarn to show in the back, so if you don't care about the tails running across, you can save on your balls of yarn. But if you want it truly reversible, you want yarn for every single picture, for every section of color. So like up here, once you finish whatever side you finish on, you can get rid of that ball of blue and finish off. And once you turn, then you can just go straight across with one ball of blue. So it all works out in the end. Take the time to make the balls if you want a reversible fabric, but that's how you're going to work. If you need more info on changing or working diagonals, check out my other intarsia tutorial, the single crochet one. This one is just basically how to change color in half double crochet and how to do the little chart. That's about it. I go into more detail in the single crochet, so Same principles, it's just doing half double crochet here instead of the single crochet. So that's it for HDC Intarsia. If you have any questions, leave them below, and thank you for watching.