How To Make the End Cap Finishing Stitch

Technique Tuesday Crochet Tutorial – the End Cap Finishing Stitch

2/10/2015

Technique Tuesday - Step-by-step crochet and knitting photo tutorials by Shibaguyz Designz

Technique
End Cap Finishing Stitch

What is it?

The End Cap Finishing Stitch is a technique for weaving in that last stitch in a row of crochet.

Why Use It?

The End Cap Finishing Stitch creates a tidy corner on the end of a row of crochet. This weaves in the yarn tail at the end of the row but does it with style!

In our never-ending quest to fine tune our stitching and finishing techniques, we wanted a way to both weave in the tail from that last stitch but do it in a way that didn't look all wonky.

How To Make the End Cap Finishing Stitch - A free step-by-step crochet tutorial by Shibaguyz Designz

The End Cap Finishing Stitch is especially helpful when the end of your crochet row won't have a border or another piece of fabric stitched onto it and this last stitch will show as part of the finished project. The End Cap Finishing Stitch provides and neat and tidy end cap while weaving in the tail invisibly.

Why use it? Because you are proud of your work and want every stitch to look as good as it possibly can. And, when a technique is this easy, who NOT use it?

NOTE: The End Cap Finishing Stitch works equally well on the last stitch of a knitting row. The technique for knitting will be similar to the single crochet example we show below.

Click the "Read More" link for the full tutorial.

To Work Today's Tutorial

Here's a list of materials we used to make today's End Cap Finishing Stitch tutorial. While you can, of course, use any materials you have on hand, these materials listed are what we recommend you use while you are learning.

Yarn Used
CYCA 4
Worsted Weight, 100% Pure Wool

Hook Used
H-8/5.00mm Crochet Hook

Notions
Yarn Needle

Skillz Used
We used three swatches for today's crochet tutorial. As is usually the case, we used foundation stitches to start our swatches. If you'd like to do the same, here are tutorials for each of those foundation stitches. Really, if you haven't tried these, you really should.

Foundation Single Crochet (Fsc) – See our crochet tutorial by clicking here:
How To Make The Foundation Single Crochet Stitch

Foundation Half Double Crochet (Fhdc) – See our crochet tutorial by clicking here:
How To Make The Foundation Half Double Crochet Stitch

Foundation Double Crochet (Fdc) – See our crochet tutorial by clicking here:
How To Make The Foundation Double Crochet Stitch

While we are only showing the End Cap Finishing Stitch today, you will need to weave in the rest of the yarn tail. Our full tutorial for weaving in crochet ends is here: How To Weave In Crochet Yarn Tails

Break It Down

We're going to demonstrate this technique on three different stitches: Single Crochet (sc), Half Double Crochet (hdc), and Double Crochet (dc).

NOTE: You can click on any of these photos to enlarge them. They won't open a new window or anything. Personally, I need to enlarge them to see all the details… it's easier than getting out a freakin' magnifying glass… (grumble grumble).

How to Make The End Cap Finishing Stitch On A Single Crochet Stitch

1. Here we are at the end of our swatch… yes… it's a tiny little swatch. We're only demonstrating the very last stitch so there's no need for a great big ol' swatch.

We have made our last single crochet stitch and are ready to cut the yarn.

2. Yarn cut… tail pulled through the last stitch.

Often, we see crocheters make an extra chain at the end of their rows adding a little knot before the yarn is cut. ACK! Y'all know how we feel about extraneous knots. (Click here to see last week's tutorial on the Knotless Starting Chain.)

Just make the last stitch, cut the yarn while the last loop is still on the hook, then pull the tail all the way through that last stitch. It will be okay… really… deeeeeep breath, y'all…

3. Grab your yarn needle and thread the tail through it.

4. Where you are going to insert your needle for making the End Cap Finishing Stitch for a single crochet stitch will take a little thought here.

When you reached the end of the row 2 rows below (see NOTE below) your working row, you had a loop on your hook before you did your chain 1 to move up to the row 1 row below your working row. That loop on your hook is now sitting there at the end of the row 1 row below your working row with two vertical bars facing outward. It looks like a chain stitch on the outside of the row 1 row below.

You are going to insert your needle from back to front under those two vertical bars of that stitch as shown here in the photo.

To help you visualize this stitch better, go back to the end of your single crochet row and make that last stitch, turn, chain 1, then make your first single crochet of the next row. Do this S-L-O-W-L-Y and you will see exactly where this little end stitch comes from.

NOTE: When instructed to work in stitch 2 rows below, insert hook in indicated stitch in the row numbered 2 less than the row you are working. For example, if you are working Row 5, a stitch “2 row below" is in Row 5 – 2 = Row 3.

5. We've pulled the needle through so you can see how this makes the first side of the End Cap Finishing Stitch.

6. Now you are going to insert your needle back into the stitch where the tail came from originally. This is exactly how we make the Duplicate Stitch for finishing crochet and knitting in the round or in the middle of a row.

7. We want you to see how the back of this looks. Note that we are also inserting the hook through the loop under the head of the single crochet stitch.

When you are making a single crochet stitch, this loop is the second loop on your hook before you "yarn over and draw up a loop" to complete the stitch.

Go ahead… make a single crochet stitch slowly so you can see exactly how this loop is created. You will have a much better understanding of how this technique works.

8. Pull the yarn all the way through the loops and VOILA! Weave in the rest of the tail as usual and you have a neat, clean, tidy corner finish.

NOTE: Be mindful of your tension here as you are making this stitch. If you pull the tail too tight, you will get a scrunched up end instead of a nice corner. Adjust the tension as needed to achieve the look you want.

How to Make The End Cap Finishing Stitch On A Half Double Crochet Stitch

Okay… now that we've done this once, the rest of these are going to be much easier. The only real difference is there you insert your needle first. Stitch on…

1. Like before, we've cut the working yarn WITHOUT making one more chain stitch at the end of the last stitch of the row. We've also threaded the needle.

Look closely and you'll see that we've inserted the needle from back to front between the two vertical bars of the half double crochet stitch created when we inserted our hook into the last stitch and drew up a loop. Easy to see… fiddle with it a little bit until you can get it right in the middle of these vertical bars as shown in the photo.

2. As before, you will insert your needle back into the stitch where the tail came from…

3. …again making sure the needle goes through the head of the stitch and through the loop just below the head of the stitch.

4. Pull the yarn through and there you go!

As always, we don't block these tutorial swatches because we want you to see exactly what your work should look like as you go through the tutorials.

Here you can see the End Cap Finishing Stitch just melts into the fabric. All you or anybody else is going to notice is a clean and tidy corner.

How to Make The End Cap Finishing Stitch On A Double Crochet Stitch

1. Here we go with a double crochet stitch. Again, working yarn cut, no knots, needle threaded, and GO!

Insert your needle from front to back through the two vertical bars at the base of the double crochet stitch. Yup… same as we did for the half double crochet stitch.

2. Watching your tension, pull the yarn through and insert the needle back into the head of the double crochet stitch where the tail came from originally.

3. View from the back of the stitch showing how we carefully made sure the needle went through the head of the double crochet stitch AND the loop just under the head. This secures the tail nicely and provides the starting path for weaving in the rest of the tail.

4. Pull the yarn through and, if your tension is right, you'll have a neat and tidy corner that just blends right in to the rest of your crochet fabric.

TAADAA!!

A Final Word… or two…

Despite how simple this technique is, that doesn't mean it is necessarily easy to do properly. As we all know, SIMPLE does not always equal EASY. Mmmhhmmm… we hear you all nodding. What makes this technique so easy is just doing it a few times. The key is to be mindful of the tension of the yarn as you make the End Cap Finishing Stitch so the resulting stitch blends in seamlessly with the rest of the fabric.

Like we always say: With any new technique it takes a few times to get the muscles to coordinate so the result is flawless and effortless. That's okay… work the End Cap Finishing Stitch a few times. That's how we get better at what we do and how we make our already good crochet skills FAB!

And… hey… if you aren't happy with your experiment rip it out and go again! You'll get it!

Thanks for dropping by for another Technique Tuesday! Our goal is to build the skillz of our FAB fiber community here on the web and it's always great to hear from you all that what we are doing is helping you and your fiber friends.

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Stitch On!
S&J

Oh hey… before you go… Here are a few more pages we thought you might be interested in. Click on any of the photos below… enjoy!