Issy Does Moscow...

...or, How to do a Russian Join.

This past weekend at our "Knittin' on the Lake" retreat, Isobel was kind enough to demonstrate for us how to join new yarn to old yarn in a way that eliminates the need for weaving in ends later.

Filmed by me and embedded here for your edification:


(Feedblitz subscribers click here to see embedded video)


The basic technique: (still pictures of the technique can be found here and here; another video, more professional than mine, can be found here): when joining one strand of old yarn to one of new yarn, wrap the ends of the old and new yarn around each other once, so that there's about a six-inch tail on each side, and then, using your darning needle, sew the wrapped old end into itself, and the wrapped new end into itself. This may require loosening the spin of the yarn just a bit, to work the darning needle through the yarn.

In the particular project in this video, the yarn being used is Noro Silk Garden for the Sursa Shawl, which is being knit using two strands held together, one strand from each end of the same ball of Noro, so that when you get to the end of that ball of yarn, (really the middle), there is a loop, rather than a single strand.

I apologize for the several instances of out-of-focus filming -- the fault lies entirely with the filmmaker. Please be gentle with your critique of this amateur film-making and editing effort.

I hope you enjoy!

:-)

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