Use Needle Felting to Join Yarns

Weaving in ends is a chore that most knitters do not enjoy, and we have developed some ways around the problem, whether it’s allowing tiny knots to join ends or making a felted join.

My Poppet has a variation on the felted join that doesn’t involve water and has the fun of allowing you to get out your frustrations on your yarn. She decided to use needle felting to join bits of wool yarn together into a fun ball that changes colors automatically, no weaving in of ends required.

This is a really fun idea for making a ball of leftovers that you can then use in a project, and it’s a fun way to practice needle felting without having to have the accuracy a lot of projects using that technique requires.

Is this something you would try? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[Photo via My Poppet.]

Next Pattern:

I happen to live in the Northern Hemisphere, but I know we have a lot of Southern Hemisphere friends, too, who are heading into the cooler months as we are warming up. Whichever one of the seasons you’re in, you might want to stitch up this sweet little hood.

This pattern by saskie&co is called snug hood and it uses two colors of yarn to make a close-fitting pixie style hood (almost a balaclava but it doesn’t cover your face, though there is a neck covering portion to keep you a little warmer). You can use the fingering weight wool and mohair held together that are called for in the pattern, or use a single strand of DK weight yarn.

The neck portion and the edging around the face are worked in ribbing in a single color, while the body of the hat includes an allover colorwork flower pattern. The project is worked both flat and in the round and there is colorwork that is knit flat, which means you’ll have to purl in colorwork (which some people don’t like; also, you can’t see what you’re doing as well on the back of the work).

The pattern comes in one size and the colorwork is charted. Testers noted this is a quick and easy project and a great way to learn some new skills (chart reading, working stranded colorwork flat) if you’ve never tried those things before. They noted the hood is cute, comfortable and warm, and a few said it didn’t take as much yarn as the pattern suggests, so bear that in mind if you’re trying to use stash.

Speaking of the pattern notes, check out all the cute color variations in the projects on Ravelry. From pink and red to blue and white to gray and cream, there are lots of great options to think about.

You can buy this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: saskie&co]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?