I remember many, many years’ ago, before I was a professional designer, I looked for ways to avoid weaving in cut ends on finished projects. Anything I could do to change a design so that I would have fewer ends to weave in later was the goal. And, it still is. I will go out of my way to find clever things like working the yarn up the side edges of an afghan or do clever designs that include elements that look like individual motifs when they’re not.
The projects made in my reversible ripples technique show this quite well. Little bits of color here and there to form shapes that fool the eye into thinking that there are individual motifs instead of working all in a row.
But, there are times when I start working on something and, although I know the yarn ends are going to be a crazy jumble of time-consuming mess, I love the way it looks and I just have to continue. This is what happened with my Vanilla Latte Afghan in Afghans for All Reasons and Seasons.
Super easy triangle motifs. Such clever construction. And, those motifs go really quickly. Four rounds and boom! You’re finished. Since I always wait until after a project is finished in order to weave in the ends, I realized this one was going to be crazy. But, I persevered. Which perhaps wasn’t the smartest thing to do. To date, this project has the highest number of ends to weave in. Not including the ends used for any seaming, there are 276 motifs with 4 ends a piece. That’s 1104 minimum. It took me three days to seam the motifs and weave in all the ends. THREE. DAYS.
So, when I start a new project like I did this weekend and I discover that it will require a lot of cut ends, I first toy with ideas of whether it will look better without the color changes. ha! Then, when I decide that it *must* be done this way, I toy with the idea of whether to weave in the cut ends as I go. ha! Since neither of these options appear to be allowed by my personality, I can only console myself that there are only 400 cut ends on this one. And, I’ve already done 1104! So, I can do this. 
August 13, 2012 at 3:08 am
Ilove your work i am just going to start your sweetheart ripple in vivid pink and black so looking forward to seeing it progress.
August 13, 2012 at 4:50 am
I’m with you- I always wait til a project is done before weaving in the loose ends. I have Loose End and Die Hard marathons, Brucie Baby keeping me awake and aware as the Thousands get woven in and clipped.
August 13, 2012 at 6:45 am
I most often leave ends to sew in later because if I make a mistake and have to rip back, sewn in tails might be a problem. When I run across a project with a lot of color changes or obviously will have a lot of tails, I either work it in one color to reduce the number of tails or I pass that one by. That said, when I made my TARDIS afghan I knew three wold be many tails and I did it anyway. LOL So I do see your point and know that “have to” feeling! As the years pass, I am slowly finding that sometimes sewing in the tails can be just as calming as the crocheting. No thinking required.
August 13, 2012 at 7:29 am
You beat me, Kim. I also leave the ends until I’m finished, in case I have to redo something along the way. My highest number of ends that I’ve woven in (at least since I started counting) is over slightly 900. But, it usually is worth it!
August 13, 2012 at 9:12 am
I always try to figure out a way to work in ends as I go. I loathe having to do it later!
August 13, 2012 at 12:16 pm
I feel for you!
that’s a humongous number of ends. I will weave in ends as I go along as long as I know that the area is totally correct and I won’t have to rip & correct. weaving in ends while I watch TV is about the most painless way I can do it. That triangle motif afghan is sure pretty though!!