How to Join Yarn in Your Knitting Project

When to join yarn, why you shouldn’t knot, and six effective ways to join a new ball of yarn in your knitting project

I have two questions for you.

First: do you (or did you once) stick solely with either a) knitting with one color of yarn or b) very small projects, so that you wouldn’t have to worry about using a different ball of yarn within your project?

Second: if you got over this, did you tie a strand from another ball of yarn to the yarn you had been knitting and carry on?

My answers to these questions are “no” and “I absolutely did.”

I didn’t stick with only one ball of yarn because I loved stripes, and I thought I’d add stripes to my projects however I felt like doing so. And it made perfect sense to me to simply tie together the ends of the yarn I just finished knitting and the yarn I was about to use.

As I gained more knitting experience, however, I discovered that I needed to find a better way!

Why Not Knot?

There are two reasons why you may not want to knot yarns together:

Number one: yarn has a tendency to shift even from within a work of knitting.

It is very possible for yarn to shift to the point where a knot that you thought you had hidden on the wrong side of the work to end up on the right side. “Right side” as in “right in everyone else’s sight.”

Yikes!

Number two: unless you use a knot that’s guaranteed not to loosen… the knot could indeed loosen over time, which could result in an unraveling project.

Yikes, again!

Fortunately, there are several better ways to join another ball of yarn into your knitting. But before we get into that, let’s answer this question:

Why You Might Need to Join Yarn

Why would you ever need to join yarn?

Can you avoid it forevermore?

Well, probably not. There are three main reasons you might need to join a new ball of yarn with the yarn you’ve been using.

1. You’re knitting a large project that requires multiple balls of yarn. If you’re knitting, say, a large blanket or a sweater, you may as well get comfy right now with the idea of joining yarn, because it’s going to be necessary.

2. You’re knitting a project with multiple colors. You’ll need to join yarn whenever you start a new color.

3. You’re knitting a smaller project, but you find a knot in your ball of yarn. This shouldn’t happen extremely often, but it does sometimes happen. You’ll need to cut that knot out and secure the ends somehow.

(Sadly, even if you manage to avoid numbers 1 and 2, you probably won’t be able to avoid this one!)

When to Join Yarn

There are two basic times when you might need to join yarn: either at the beginning of a row or in the middle. Normally, you’ll want to join at the beginning of a row if at all possible. That’s because you’ll be better able to hide the ends of the yarn if you join here.

When will you not want to join in the beginning of a row? There are really only two possibilities:

1. You’re doing colorwork that requires you to start a new color in the middle of a row (intarsia or stranded knitting); or

2. You’re running really low on yarn and you want to waste as little yarn as possible in adding more yarn. In a perfect world, this shouldn’t happen, but let’s face it, we’ve all been there, haven’t we? It does happen sometimes.

If it happens to you, and you change colors mid-row, don’t beat yourself up about it. You’re not a disorganized mess of a person. You’re human. (I have absolutely done this.)

If you’re circular knitting, be very careful about adding yarn at the beginning of a round. The space between the last stitch of one round and the first stitch of the next round tends to be slightly unstable anyway. If you add the loose stitch that invariably develops when you join a new ball of yarn, you could create even more instability.

You might consider joining yarn in the middle of the round to combat this.

However, certain types of yarn-joining techniques don’t create a loose stitch. It’ll depend on the method you use.

6 Ways to Add Another Ball

Pick up and Join

I’m not sure this method really has a name other than “pick up and join.” You pick up the end of your new ball of yarn, you hold it against the needle, and you start knitting.

Videos of each method are below. First, how to pick up and join in flat knitting:

You’ll notice she does mention tying the yarn, but the idea is just to secure the yarn while you’re still knitting. Later, you’ll untie the yarn and weave in your ends.

Pick up and knit in circular knitting:

Join and Knit In

The next method is almost as simple and goes by many names. I’ve seen it called “Join and double stitch,” “Join and double knit in,” or “join and knit in.”

It’s similar to “pick up and knit,” only with this method you’re holding both old and new yarns and knitting them together. Then, when you come to these stitches in the next row or round, you’ll knit them together as one stitch each.

Both of these methods will require you to weave in ends at some point afterwards. If you’ve struggled with this (I still do, even after years of knitting!), I highly recommend this fantastic video from KnitPurlHunter.

Join and Twist

If you’re knitting horizontal stripes with flat knitting, you can use “pick up and knit” quite easily.

However, if you’re knitting intarsia or vertical stripes and want to join a new color mid-row, you’ll need a slightly different method. A great one to use is called the twisting method.

Spit Slice or Felted Join

I’m not going to type that first term again because I find it kind of gross, to be honest! But I’ll gladly use the second term, so gracefully called “Felted Join.”

This technique works best with 100% animal fiber, although according to the video below, you can actually use a yarn that isn’t 100% animal fiber. But because the process involves felting two pieces of yarn together, it will work best with pure animal fiber (ie, a fiber that can be felted).

Russian Join

This is my favorite way to join a second ball of yarn that’s the same color as the original. (You can use it for changing color, but you have to be a little more proactive in the process.)

It’s rather difficult to describe in words. So, before letting the video explain all, I’ll simply say that it produces a practically invisible join that requires – hold onto your chair – no weaving.

Let me say this again: you won’t have to weave in any ends!

Braided Join

This is the one method I have yet to try, though I’d like to do so soon. It’s very similar to the Russian Join, but it tends to add less bulk. Like the Russian Join, it creates an almost invisible join without requiring the weaving in of ends.

This join is almost exactly what it sounds like: you’ll split the plies of the yarn you’re knitting with and the yarn you want to join, then “braid” the ends with the working yarn.

Hard to visualize? No worries–check out the video below!

So there you have it, fearless knitters! Several ways to join a new ball of yarn (either the same color or a different color) without knotting.

If you know of any other ways to join yarn while knitting, feel free to let me know. In the meantime, try some new methods and become a more confident joining knitter!