Have you ever been crocheting something in the round, like a cute beanie, only to end up with an unsightly seam running down your make where you join the rounds? It’s something that I cannot stand on the beanies I make for my shop. To me, ugly and disjointed seams scream “unprofessional” and I just can’t sell them when they look like that (call me Ms. Perfectionist).
Enter, the invisible slip stitch to join! This technique is great when working in the round to reduce the visibility of the seam as it pulls the seam from the right side to the wrong side of your work and can be used with most stitches. In some cases, like in my Gemstone Beanie pattern, this technique eliminates the look of the seam altogether!
While many people seem to know about this technique, it’s something that is harder to find information about online. That may be because it can go by different names such as invisible join, inverse join, reverse slip stich to join, backwards join, hidden slip stitch. To make things even more complicated, some of these terms also apply to other techniques! No wonder it’s difficult to find information about it. It seems everyone has their own name for it, but I learned it as the invisible slip stitch to join and is what I call it in my patterns, so is the term I will use here for this technique as well.
To perform this technique, when you get to the end of your round, remove your hook from your working loop. You may want to pull up on your working loop to make it a little larger and give it some slack so you don’t accidentally pull it out. Then, insert your hook from the back side into the first stitch of the round, or the stitch you want to join to. Make sure your working yarn is under your hook.
Then, place your loop back onto your hook. You may want to tug on your working yarn to tighten up your loop again.
Then, pull the loop through to the back of your work.
And that’s it! Chain and continue with the pattern as written. Having trouble visualizing it? Check out this YouTube Short:
In reality, it’s not a true slip stitch as you’re basically pulling the loop from your last stitch through the first stitch, rather than involving a yarn over and pull through like you would typically do, so be aware of your stitch placement at the end of your next round as what is typically the join space can get a little lost, especially is you really tightened your loop. Double check your stitch count to make sure you have the right number of stitches if you are unsure.
So let me know, did you find this helpful? Make sure to share this post with your crochet friends so they can make prettier seams as well, and happy stitching!
