Frog, frogging and using frogged yarn

The title is making me laugh, it feels like I am doing a tongue twister! 

Kidding aside, let's get to it.

What is frog or frogging in the crochet world? Frog or frogging comes from the phrase "rip it" "rip it".

Say that fast enough or with an accent and "Rip it" can sound like "Ribbit" like a frog.

Where does "rip it" fit in to crochet? Generally when mistakes are made you will need to undo the stitches back to where the mistake is.

If it is a large amount, you grab the yarn and just start ripping (a.k.a frogging) them out.

If asking your fellow crocheters what to do about a mistake rounds or rows back, the typical answer will be to "rip it" or frog it.

Now that you know what frog and frogging are and how they apply to crochet, we will talk about the yarn that you just frogged.

Most crocheters will do everything they can not to waste yarn as it can be quite expensive depending on location or preference.

They will frog out the yarn, fix the mistake and continue on using the same yarn they just frogged.

I do not.

I will do my best to explain why.

But let me clarify that I also do not use expensive yarn.

Almost all of my patterns are done using yarns in either Red Heart super saver or Bernat super value.

These are acrylic yarns that are common in the USA and Canada.

For Amigurumi I choose these yarns for their hold, durability and value of course.

But (there is always a but...) I do find that these yarns don't stay the same after frogging, I couldn't say whether other yarns do this as well but I am assuming probably.

As you can see in the picture below, that there are certain points in the frogged yarn that have been compressed, smooshed or stretched.

I like to use the word compressed.

Say I do the first 5 rnds of a head with my trusty G (4.00mm)hook, my gauge is going to be 5 sts and 5 rnds is 1 inch square.

But if I do this with frogged yarn, my gauge turns into 7/8 of an inch square

So there is an obvious difference. 

 

If I am just going to frog a few stitches or even just one round, I will use the same frogged yarn cause the difference wont hurt the project overall. 

If I need to frog a good portion of the work, I will cut the yarn and attach fresh yarn. 

Now keep in mind attaching new yarn works very well with amigurumi but not so much with other crocheted items. 

 

Most of the crocheters I have talked to about this subject hadn't noticed the difference until they tried it themselves. I encourage you to give it a try and see if your crochet style ends up with a difference. Some projects this will matter and some it wont, it is all up to your personal preference and crochet style. 

 

Hope this was informative and helpful, happy crocheting!