This is a quick and easy tutorial about a quick and easy way to join a new ball of yarn to your project without making a knot.
We’ve already discussed several ways to join yarn (click here for a refresher), but the method explained in this tutorial makes a much neater join without any effort at all. No fiddling with the yarn tails and no tying one yarn to the other.
Let’s see how this simple method works step by step.
In this demonstration, I will use yarn in a contrasting colour to help you clearly see how this method works. In real life, it is better to use this way of joining yarn when you attach yarn in the same colour.
STEP 1
When it is time to join a new ball of yarn, make sure you have a yarn tail that is around 25 cm / 10″ long.
If you don’t have a ruler, aim for a length that is 1.5 times the distance between your thumb and index fingers.
It is ok to have a longer tail. You can always trim it later.
STEP 2
Insert the tip of the right needle into the first stitch on the left needle. Go from right to left if that stitch should be a knit or from left to right if you plan to purl it.
Take the yarn from the new ball and fold it leaving a short tail (around 10 cm / 4″). Place the fold on the tip of the right needle so that the yarn tail is at the left side of the yarn coming from the ball (otherwise, the stitch will be twisted).
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Pull the new yarn through the stitch to make a new stitch. It will be a knit or a purl depending on the stitch pattern you follow. In my little swatch, it is a knit stitch.
STEP 3
Work the next stitch using the yarn tail that is left from the “old” ball of yarn. Knit or purl it depending on the stitch pattern you use to make your project.
STEP 4
Work one stitch using the yarn from the “new” ball – the yarn that we attached in step 2.
STEP 5
Now switch back to the old yarn and make one more stitch using that yarn tail.
If you want to spread the place of join even more, repeat steps 4 and 5 one more time. Continue to work on your project using the yarn from the new ball.
As you see, the yarn is joined seamlessly, without any knots or added bulk. Once you weave in the tails, the place of join will become almost invisible.
Of course, it is very much visible in my swatch because I attached yarn in a contrasting colour, but the join looks very neat when the yarns are of the same colour.
And here’s how the swatch looks on the wrong side of the work.
I trimmed the yarn tails but didn’t hide them to make it easy for you to see the spot where the yarn was joined. When the tails are woven in, it is hard to tell where the place of join is located.
This method works great for joining a new ball of yarn both when we work back and forth and when we work in the round. Plus, we can use this approach to attach the yarn at the beginning of a row or in the middle of a project.
SAVE IT FOR LATER
This and 44 other in-depth tutorials are part of Knitting Collection #5.
