Have You Tried the Russian Join?

February 28, 2017 by Sarah White 1 Comment

Weaving in ends is one of the things about knitting that a lot of knitters don’t enjoy. It’s a necessary evil, particularly in large projects or projects where the color changes often.

I usually just weave in my ends the old-fashioned way, but if I’m working with wool I’ll sometimes do a “spit splice” (I don’t actually spit on it, though, I use water to felt the ends of two balls together).

Another option is the Russian join, which is a way of sewing the ends of two balls together. There’s a good video tutorial at BHooked Crochet if you haven’t seen it before.

It works best on plied, natural fiber yarns (because they hold together a little better). Brittany says she’s skeptical about the strength of a join made this way, but I think if you don’t pull on it too much it’s OK.

I like the idea of using this join if you were making a magic ball, or a larger ball out of small odd balls that you wanted to use in a project. Not having ends to weave in would be great, and it eliminates the need to tie knots to join all those odd balls together. I’m definitely going to try this soon and will share the results with you!

Have you ever used the Russian join? I’d love to hear your thoughts and all about when you use it.

[Photo via BHooked Crochet.]

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Enid Burns says
March 4, 2017 at 10:43 pm
I’ve used the Russian Join on a few projects. It is a bit fussy, but the payoff is worth it.

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Christmas Sock Knitting Patterns

Why should the fireplace get all the fun? Instead of knitting stockings this year, why not whip up a pair of Christmas themed socks? These Christmas sock knitting patterns are lots of fun to make and you can wear them to holiday gatherings for years to come.

For our friends in the southern part of the world, there are the Christmas in July socks from the Kiwi Lodge – Kylie (Ravelry link). These shorty socks are covered in Christmas trees and have bright pink heels and toes for a tropical feel. There’s also an option to make a longer sock if you celebrate somewhere it’s colder.

Twin Stitches Designs (Ravelry) has a fun pattern with mix and match colorwork motifs you can use to build your own cozy Christmas socks. From the sample socks I see Christmas puddings, trucks hauling trees, Santa belts, ornaments and a couple of different borders. There may be more patterns included but the listing doesn’t say. Make a pair that matches or use different motifs on each foot for extra holiday cheer.

If you want to stick to Christmas puddings on your holiday socks, check out this cute pattern from Stone Knits. These lovely socks feature a band of puddings around the leg and a bit of holly by the toes.

These vintage holiday light socks from Grey Owl Knits by Sarah are classic looking and lots of fun at the same time. I love this color combination but of course you can make your lights and stripes whatever colors you like or have on hand. They’re worked using stranded knitting.

And if you’d like even more of a mix of patterns for your socks, try Barbara Ceglédi’s Christmas Chaos socks, a free pattern on Ravelry. The pattern includes 25 little motifs you can choose from, ranging from snowflakes and Christmas trees to elf hats, reindeer and hearts.

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