When I first started to crochet, I hated weaving in ends, and there seemed to be a lot of support for my dislike. Weaving in ends was old school, and creating pieces that did not require much weaving in ends was somehow better, but somehow, I have learned to achieve some semblance of zen when I take needle to yarn ends and weave them in.

Many patterns seem to emphasize speed over process, using large hooks and multiple strands of yarn to make some thing large very quickly. There is even a method called “mile-a-minute.” While I find many mile-a-minute patterns delightful, I don’t crochet because it can be done quickly; I crochet because creating crochet pieces brings me joy and peace.

In the last few years, I have begun to concentrate my efforts on experimenting with color, and these efforts have necessitated that I come to terms with ends. One of the tools I found that helped in this regard are Clover bent tip needles in the blue chibi.

I discovered them when I was working on a project composed of 1681 little squares which necessitated weaving in twice that many ends. I had a variety of darning needles both straight and bent tipped, but I kept losing them. Someone suggested that I get a chibi so that I wouldn’t continually lose my needles, and about a quarter of the way through, I decided that a chibi was worth trying.

The only chibi available at my local yarn shop was the blue-tipped Clover. Initially, I wasn’t thrilled with the price, but once I got home and used my new darning needles, I was more than satisfied and felt that it was money well spent.

Since then, I have given the blue chibi as a gift at least a half-a-dozen times, and all of the recipients have enjoyed them.

Today, I got my Clover chibi out and let my darning needles work their magic on the afghan that has eluded me.

Here is today’s before picture:

and here is today’s after:

Another consequence of using the Clover chibi is that I no longer lose the darning needles. I don’t know if this is because of the chibi, or because I love my darning needles so much, I don’t want to lose them.