joining yarns

Found a nice tidbit on joining yarns, i admit i've gotten lazy and just knot the pieces and it gets buried in the stitch or to the back .. ive been lucky so far ;)  but here is another method i've used along with using 2 threads from each piece.  This is just the how-to that Kathleen has posted in her Knitting Daily article, to see the full article [read more...]


Overlapping Old and New Yarn

Use this joining method in an inconspicuous place, such as 1-2 inches from the side edge or in a textured area. This method is well suited for wools, synthetics, blends of any kind, and novelty yarns that are worsted-weight or finer. When worked with nonelastic yarns such as cotton and ribbon yarn, this join may be visible from the right side.

Step 1. Overlap the end of the old ball and the beginning of the new ball for about 6 inches.
Step 2. Work two stitches with the two strands held together as if there were a single strand.
Step 3. Drop the strand from the old ball and continue working with the new.
Step 4. On the next row, work the double-stranded stitches as if they were single-strand stitches. During finishing, secure the two loose ends by weaving them diagonally into the wrong side of the knitted fabric (weaving them horizontally or vertically may create a visible ridge on the right side).

—From The Knitter's Companion by Vicki Square

Now the trick here is how you position the new yarn with the old yarn. Take a look at the Step 1 illustration above. See how the tail of the new yarn (shown in blue) points to the right and the end of the old yarn points to the left? That's the key. I was holding the tail and end of the old and new yarn together and not overlapping them correctly, creating a twisted stitch with the new yarn.

No more bummer!!