Ways to Join New Yarn without Weaving in Ends

Lots of knitters hate weaving in yarn ends, so it’s popular to wonder if there are ways to join in new yarn that don’t involve having to weave in ends when the knitting is done. Here’s a quick look at three of the most popular options and how to do them.

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First, you can tie the yarn ends together using a knot that’s known in the yarn world as the magic knot. It’s super strong, easy to do, and theoretically you can tie it, trim the yarn ends super close to the knot and never worry about it again. I usually leave a little bit of a tail when I do this just in case, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a knot come undone when I did it properly.

This is the way to make a magic ball, where you take all your tiny yarn leftovers and join them together to knit with. Knotions has a tutorial for how to do it.

If you’re working with wool or other natural, feltable fibers, my favorite way to join a new ball of yarn is what’s known as the felted join (or, if you want to be more dramatic, spit splicing, since you can do it with saliva instead of water). Basically you separate out the plies a little bit on the end of the new yarn and the old yarn, add a little water and rub the ends together between your hands until they sort of felt together.

I’m working on an intarsia vest right now that has about 20 different balls of yarn across the width of it and the only way I can handle it is by working with a piece of yarn about as long as my arms and using the felted join to make it back into a continuous strand. If you want to know how to do this, check out the tutorial at Brooklyn Tweed.

Another good option is known as the Russian join, which has the benefit of being able to be used on any kind of fiber. You need a yarn needle to work it, but once you know how it’s pretty quick and easy to do. Sheep and Stitch has a good photo tutorial of how this one works.

Of course if you’re working a sweater or a hat or something with an inside, you can sometimes just leave your tail ends hanging and not worry about it.

What do you do when you join new yarn? Do you like weaving in ends? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo: Sheep and Stitch]

An Easy Way to Weave in Yarn Tails as You Knit

Great Ways to Weave in Ends

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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