# Joining yarn



## ichree (Oct 25, 2011)

Can anyone tell me the best way to join yarn on the machine. I know that you can just knot it but is this the only way or are there other techniques.
Thank you
Ian


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## Leonora (Apr 22, 2011)

Hi Ian, when I join yarn on the knitting machine, I do it at the right hand side edge. Just hold the last of the 'old' yarn, together with a length of the 'new' yarn, having threaded the 'new' yarn into the yarn feeder, and keeping a firm hold on both yarns slowly knit accross the row to the left. You can of course do this on the left hand side too. Before you knit back across to the side where you joined the 'new' yarn, interweave one loose strand first along alternative needles for about 10/11, then interweave the second strand of yarn onto the other non used needles, then slowly knit across to the other side, keeping hold of the strands of yarn down out of the way. You have now joined yarn, and woven ends in at the same time. Trim ends when work is off the machine. Good luck Leonora.


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## Jenya (Dec 26, 2011)

Thank you for sharing your method of joining yarn. I am a new machine knitter, so even though this may seem basic, it is good info for us beginners.


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## Entity (Sep 13, 2011)

This is what I normally do. It's simple, easy and quick.

I pull out a few needles and weave the tail through these needles as shown below. (Please Note: The scarf that I was making below was knitted with bulky yarn on a standard gauge machine. I knitted on every 3rd needle with this piece. Please ignore this and imagine that the needles are next to each others or however you're knitting. In other words, don't skip the needles if you aren't knitting as such.)










Weave backward a few more needles...










Then, I knit one row across with the 2nd color. Next, I weave the tail of the 2nd color through several needles again and continue to knit with the 2nd color.










Once the piece is all knitted, all is left is just cutting off the left over tails.










The weaving tails are invisible and they stayed quite intact into the knitted fabric. Here are photos of front and back:

BACK










FRONT










Hope this helps.


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## Marv (Jan 27, 2011)

Check out You Tube for Russian Join I use this all the time and love it.


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## Osunny (Jan 29, 2011)

ichree said:


> Can anyone tell me the best way to join yarn on the machine. I know that you can just knot it but is this the only way or are there other techniques.
> Thank you
> Ian


Check out youtube for the Russian join. I just learned it myself and it is so invisible that it's really amazing..


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## KBruno (Jan 20, 2012)

Very good idea, do you not have problems knitting chunky yarn on a standard machine?


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## Ellie in Houston (Mar 10, 2011)

Entity - That is great!! Ellie


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## kestep (Feb 15, 2011)

I just learned how to do that and I love it!!!


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## kestep (Feb 15, 2011)

The russian join


kestep said:


> I just learned how to do that and I love it!!!


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## HennaLadyKim (Jan 14, 2012)

Marv said:


> Check out You Tube for Russian Join I use this all the time and love it.


I love this method!!! Use it all the time. Saves a lot of weaving in the end too! 



 :thumbup:


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## jwkiwi (Oct 9, 2011)

I made my daughter a Harry Potter scarf last month, I wish I had asked this question then, as I had to sew in what felt like a thousand strands when I finished knitting it!!


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## ebbtide2011 (Dec 14, 2011)

ichree said:


> Can anyone tell me the best way to join yarn on the machine. I know that you can just knot it but is this the only way or are there other techniques.
> Thank you
> Ian


I use the Russian join for both machine and hand knitting and it is so easy and doesn't show at all. Just type Russian join knitting in your browser and you'll get several videos on the process.


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## jwkiwi (Oct 9, 2011)

I looked at the Russian way and wondered if it was difficult to change colors using this method.


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## HennaLadyKim (Jan 14, 2012)

ebbtide2011 said:


> ichree said:
> 
> 
> > Can anyone tell me the best way to join yarn on the machine. I know that you can just knot it but is this the only way or are there other techniques.
> ...


I posted it above


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## Patrina (May 17, 2011)

I love this site thank you Entity for all the trouble you went to explaining this. Im new to machine knitting and have a baby cocoon on machine and wondered how to go about joining a new yarn. So with your very clear pictures I will carry on.


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## pengee (Jul 24, 2011)

The Russian join that you use for hand knitting works just as well on the machine. I tend to join at the start of a row but if I didn't judge it right I use the Russian join with great success. the directions ar on the site - just do a search and you will find it.


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## HennaLadyKim (Jan 14, 2012)

Marv wrote:
Check out You Tube for Russian Join I use this all the time and love it.

I love this method!!! Use it all the time. Saves a lot of weaving in the end too!
Here is the video of how to do the russian Join


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## Entity (Sep 13, 2011)

Great! Thanks all for showing a new technique (new for me ) of the Russian Join. It'd be a good technique to use for instances when I don't change yarns often. But for when I'm in a hurry and change yarns as often as the scarf I'm making below, the weaving technique works well.

Thanks again for asking the question, I learned something new as well )


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## Entity (Sep 13, 2011)

KBruno said:


> Very good idea, do you not have problems knitting chunky yarn on a standard machine?


No, not if it's knitted on EON or skip more than 1 needle. As for the tension, I avoid threading the yarn into the tension disk of the tension rod.

If the tension is still a problem, I'd take off the 2 round brushes under the sinker plate of the carriage (Brother KM) to ease more tension. Keep in mind that this set of brushes has its reason to be there. To compensate for the work of these brushes, weights must be used evenly across the knitted fabric. I normally use the cast on comb and hang weights evenly across to distribute even tension, ( shown on the 4th photo of page 1 in this thread).

These same 2 techniques can apply when using boucle yarn.


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## Melanne (Aug 22, 2011)

Wished I'd knowned that trick a week ago when I was making my scarves for the Spc. Oly. I will be using it often now though.


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