How to Join Yarn in Knitting (4 Methods: Spit Splice, Russian Join & More)

Two questions decide which join you'll use. First: are you staying in the same color or changing colors for stripes? Second: what fiber are you working with - animal (wool, alpaca, mohair), or plant/synthetic (cotton, linen, acrylic, bamboo)?

Staci knits her sample swatch in chunky wool with a purple-to-blue color change so every join is easy to see. The four methods coming up cover every combination of those two questions. Read through all four first, then pick the one that fits.

Spit splice felts the old yarn end to the new yarn end so they become one continuous strand. Wet about an inch of each yarn end, overlap them in your palm, and rub vigorously between your hands for about thirty seconds. The friction and moisture mat the wool fibers together. When you tug the join, it holds.

This only works with animal fibers - wool, alpaca, merino, mohair. Cotton and acrylic won't felt no matter how hard you rub. It also leaves a slightly muddy zone where the two colors blend, so use it for same-color joins, not stripes. The fabric feels a touch stiffer for about a stitch and a half, but on a finished sweater nobody will ever notice.

The Russian join works with any fiber and gives you a crisp color change with no muddy zone. Thread the tail of the old yarn onto a tapestry needle and weave it back through the plies of its own strand for about an inch. Pull through, leaving a small loop. Repeat with the new yarn, threading it back through itself. The two strands lock together where the loops cross.

The trade-off is a couple of tiny pokey ends that may work their way to the front of the fabric and need trimming as you wear the piece. On 100% wool they tend to felt in and disappear over time. Use this for stripes, for cotton and acrylic, or any time the color change has to be visible and clean.

This is the everyday method for stripes and for any fiber you can't spit splice. Knit the last stitch of your row with the old yarn, then drop it. Pick up the new yarn, leaving a six-inch tail, and start the next row with it. Tie a double knot with the two short tails and pull it tight against the edge of the work.

Once you weave the ends in later, the knot vanishes into the seam allowance or the edge stitches. Staci recommends this method specifically for slippery cotton, where a snug double knot is the only thing that keeps the join from working itself loose over time.

Sometimes you run out of yarn ten stitches into a row. If you just drop the old ball and start with a new one, you get a big V-shaped hole exactly where the join lives. Here's how to close it.

Option A: tie a small single knot with the two tails, watching your tension so the fabric doesn't pucker. The knot pulls the gap closed. Option B (animal fibers only): skip the knot and weave the tails in opposite directions through the stitches - send the purple tail to the right and the blue tail to the left. As you weave, the natural pull of the stitches closes the hole. Either way, your worst-case mid-row join becomes nearly invisible.

Quick decision guide for any project you start.

• Wool sweater, staying in the same color? Spit splice every time. It vanishes.
• Wool stripes or a clean color change? Russian join. Crisp line, no muddy patch.
• Cotton or acrylic, any reason? End-of-row knot. The fiber won't felt and the knot is your only secure option.
• Ran out mid-row by accident? Tie a small knot, or weave the tails in opposite directions on wool.

Once you have all four in your toolkit, you'll never see another join you can't make disappear. From here, the natural next stop is weaving in ends - the technique that finishes every join for good.