Things I wish I'd known as a beginner - "Right Side" and "Wrong Side" in Crochet

 

Oh boy, now this is a real doozy and it can completely change your perception of what right and wrong is. Now, if you're a right handed person like me, you'll follow patterns diligently, and work your work 'in the round' as shown on the left above. That's fine, until it comes to the point in the pattern where it tells you to attach safety eyes, or start stuffing. Once you've committed to either of those things, you continue to finish off your work and then get an email from polite Amigurumi folk telling you that your work is 'wrong side out' (but hey honey, it looks fine anyway!)

The truth is, it doesn't really matter which side is out or in, but 'right side out' does look slightly neater and chunkier. So here's a piece that's wrong side out: 

Yep, Baby Yoda on the right hand side (not the scruffy first attempt but the neater one) is wrong side out. Does it look that bad really? Naw, well I don't think it does. 

So here's a piece that is right side out: 

As you can see, the piggy's head is composed of those delicious little "V" shaped stitches that are common to Amigurumi, and fair enough, things do look a bit neater. 

The problem

The problem with switching to 'right side out' before you finish your work is that you will have to try and 'work backwards' for the remainder of the piece. This isn't so bad when you're working flat, but when you're working 'in the round' or in 3D like the piggy above, it becomes a pretty big goddamned problem if you can't get your brain used to working backwards (clockwise as you hold your piece) as opposed to forwards (for me that's naturally anticlockwise - Entirely different and advantageous if you're a left hander as you'll naturally be working 'the right way round'. 

So the only bits of advice I can give you are as follows

• Do what you think looks best. Right side out or wrong side out, it really doesn't matter a fig if your work is neat enough on the side you choose to expose to the world! Amigurumi fanatics can be a bit snobby about it, sure, but let 'em! If your work pleases you and pleases the person it's for, it's done its job. 
• If you do decide to switch, switch as late as possible so you don't have to work too many rows 'backwards'. When you're closing off, your work naturally starts to go a bit weird and 'holey' so the more stitches you can put in for your natural way of working before stuffing and closing up, the better (and most softcore stuffing will fit through a fairly tiny gap so bear that in mind. Safety eyes are another matter though, do those when you can and follow a pattern to the letter in the placement of them, your work will look so much better for it if your eyes line up properly and aren't too close together / far apart!)
• If you find it impossible to work backwards when you've flipped your work, darn it closed neatly rather than trying to crochet it closed messily. 

I really hope that helps you. I still don't have a solid 100% answer (and haven't been able to find one with frantic googling) about working backwards once you've flipped your work so if you have any tips to share, please bring 'em on!