Spit Splicing

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This tutorial demonstrates how to join wool and wool blend yarns. It's the perfect join for the middle of your knitting, and for when you really don't fancy having ends to sew in later. It works best with wool yarns, as it utilises the properties of wool, which felts.

That said, I have been able to join wool/alpaca blends, wool/acrylic blends and even machine washable wool, provided the major blend is wool. These do take an extra bit of effort, but they normally felt, especially if you're joining them to a pure wool yarn.

1) To prepare for the join, fray open the ends of the yarn(s) and remove about 2 inches (5 centimetres) of one of the plies. If it's a single ply yarn, unspin it and remove roughly the same amount – 25% – of fibre to the same length.

2) Next, overlay the frayed ends so that they join better. The reason for removing one of the plies is to remove the bulk when it is felted. Overlap the frayed ends to the point on each where the ply was removed (about 2 inches (5 centimetres) overlap).

3) Now you're going to felt the ends together – use some warm water or saliva, and rub the interlaced ends together between the palms of your hands until they are sufficiently joined.

4) And hey presto, a really neat little join! Give the new yarn a gentle tug to make sure it's strong enough – if it isn't firm, it may need some extra felting, as per step 3.

Support

As always, if you have a question about this technique or need some help with it, leave a comment below! I’m afraid I’m unable to offer help via email or private message, but you’re welcome to post in our forums.