Colour Changes in the Round Without a Visible Jog

Amigurumi is worked in a continuous spiral rather than joined rounds. That is what keeps the fabric smooth, and it is also why a colour change leaves a small visible step where the new colour starts one stitch higher than it ends.

Which fix you want depends on what the colour is doing.

The rule that applies to every method

Change colour on the last yarn over of the previous stitch, not at the start of the new one.

Work the final single crochet of the old colour up to the point where two loops are on the hook, drop the old yarn, then pull the new colour through both loops. The stitch you just finished belongs to the old colour, and every stitch after it is clean. Changing at the start of a stitch instead leaves a half-and-half stitch that no amount of tidying will hide.

For a horizontal stripe: the invisible join

At the end of the round, slip stitch into the first stitch of the same round before changing colour. This lifts the round up to meet itself so the step disappears, at the cost of one stitch that sits slightly proud.

Use this for a striped body or a scarf-like band, where the eye follows the line around and would notice a jog.

For a belly or a muzzle: carry the yarn

When the colour changes several times within a round — a cream belly panel on a rust body, for instance — do not cut and rejoin. Carry the unused colour along the inside of the work, laying it across the tops of the stitches and crocheting over it.

Two things matter. Keep the carried strand loose enough that it does not pucker the fabric, and remember it will be visible from the inside, which is fine for a stuffed piece and not fine for anything open.

For a whole part in a different colour: do not change at all

If the ears, muzzle or paws are a different colour from everything around them, work them as separate pieces and sew them on. It is more finishing work, but the edge between colours is crisp in a way no in-round change achieves, and you avoid carrying yarn through a part that is only four rounds long.

This is why most well-written patterns give the muzzle as its own piece rather than as a colour block on the head.

Where to put the change

Wherever you change colour, put it at the back of the piece. In a spiral there is no true “start of round”, only where your stitch marker is, so decide early which side is the back and keep the marker there. Every jog, join and woven-in end then lands somewhere nobody looks.