Finishing Amigurumi: Tucking in the Tail

Just a quick tip today; many of you probably already know this, so this short post is really geared towards very very new beginners to crocheting. Also, I'm pretty sure I've instructed people to hide the tail in some of my patterns, so maybe this will help people who have no idea what I'm talking about!

There are two basic types of crochet pieces:
Type 1. Some pieces are left open and then stuffed and sewn onto other pieces. A good example of this kind of piece would be the arms or legs of an amigurumi animal.

Type 2. Some pieces are crocheted all the way closed when they are finished; stuffing occurs while there is still an opening, but the opening is crocheted closed to finish the piece. A good example of this kind of piece would be a ball shape, like in an amigurumi fruit.

No matter which type of crochet piece you are doing, you should be left with a little yarn tail. In crochet pieces that are Type 1, you would use the tail to attach the crochet piece to other crocheted pieces... the tail is like your thread! But once you've finished sewing your pieces together, what are you going to do? For crochet pieces that are Type 2, you usually aren't going to sew your crochet piece onto anything... it's essentially done just the way it is! So what do you do with the tail? If you cut it where you ended your crocheting, your whole crochet piece could unravel.


To finish your amigurumi for both Type 1 and 2 pieces, use your crochet needle or a yarn needle to pull the tail THROUGH your crocheted piece/ amigurumi. Then, at the point where the tail exits the amigurumi again, pull the yarn taut and snip the remaining tail off... the rest of the tail should disappear into the body of your amigurumi!

Here it is in real life: