The Silk Lace Series: Joining In New Yarn
Aside from blocking, one of the most challenging aspects of the Silk Lace yarn is joining in a new strand of yarn and the subsequent weaving in of ends that ensues. If one's project is under 1000 yards and one does not have cats that enjoy chewing through the working strand of yarn while a knitter is sleeping peacefully, one will only have 2 strands to weave in at the beginning and the end of the project knit with a single skein of Silk Lace yarn. But nobody ever operates under ideal circumstances at all times, so the issue of joining in a new strand continues to vex knitters.
Side note: this most likely vexes crocheters as well, but the attributes of crochet give a crocheter other options for dealing with ends of yarn, so we will focus on knitting.
One could use the "Russian Join" to deal with the ends, but this technique is difficult with a yarn as thin and slippery as the Silk Lace.
There is a fairly easy and relatively painless process for joining in a new yarn and knitting in these ends so weaving in of the ends at the finish of a project is unnecessary. The process is quite intuitive and easy when knitting with the yarn in front of you, but not quite as easy to explain. If these directions prove confusing, please leave a comment and I will do my best to clarify and answer your question.
Let's start with a small swatch in stockinette, where half way through the swatch, a strand of red yarn is joined in to replace the blue yarn that started the swatch.
Instead of immediately discarding the strand of blue yarn, the swatch is knit with both the red and blue strands held together for approximately 10-12 of stitches. The blue yarn is then dropped and the row is finished with only the red yarn. In the photo below, these doubled stitches are demarcated between the "A" and "B".
On the next purl row, the row is started with just the red strand, but at the stitch directly above where the original blue strand was dropped, just above the "B", the blue strand is picked up again and several more stitches are knit with both the red and the blue strands held together. The blue strand is then dropped at the stitch next to "C" and only the red yarn is continued with in the knitting.
On the next knit row, this method is again employed at the stitch next to the "C". The blue strand is picked up and several stitches are knit with the red and blue strand held together. At the point "D" the blue is dropped and the red strand finishes the row.
This is deployed again in the next purl row, as seen in the stitches between the "D" and the "E". At this point, the blue strand is dropped for good and the remaining strand is cut to 8-10 inches to be left until after blocking, at which point, the strand can be cut quite close to the finished garment.
While this process is carried out with the red and blue strand, the exact same method was used for the other end of the red strand and, in the photo above, the doubled stitches can be seen to the right and just below the "F".
Both strands have effectively been "weaved in" by the knitting rather than with a blunt-tipped needle after the garment is finished. This technique can also be used immediately after the cast-on row with the initial strand of yarn. The knitter does not have to deal with these ends after the garment is finished, rather just using a blunt-tipped needle for the final strand of yarn at the end of the project.
In these photos, the swatch was not blocked heavily and the gauge of the knitting was kept quite tight relative to the Slk Lace yarn so the doubled stitches could be readily seen. In actual lace garments, the combination of blocking and the thinness of the Silk Lace render these doubled stitches nearly invisible unless one has excellent eyesight and knows what one is looking for. Additionally, the more Yarn Overs the project has, the more invisible these doubled stitches tend to be.
Next up: Blocking.
Wonderfully simple with your excellent pictures and description! Thank you.
Really useful. Thank you. I'd love to see what it looks like in an actual lace pattern as well.
Thanks for the tutorial.
What colors did you use for the sample swatch? I love the blue particularly.
Fantastic! The colors you've used are so beautiful!
Great timing. I've been trying to come up with some creative way of dealing with my ends when I finish my first skein on a current project, and this will be perfect! Thanks, Sundara. :)
I thought your tutorial was so interesting and useful I passed it along on the Daily Chum today (http://www.limenviolet.com/blog/?p=4628). Thanks again.
Add me to the admirers of this tuturial. What a great way to handle joining in yarn and the cast on tail. I can hardly wait for the blocking entry as I'm sure you'll also have some good tips and tricks in that.
That's so interesting. I'm still trying to find the "perfect" pattern for the lovely Guava yarn I got and all these tutorials will be so helpful when I finally find the pattern.
Would you recommend this method for other yarn weights as well? I guess with a wool yarn you could do the wet-splicing....
this is a brilliant summary of the differences needles can make. Thank you for this and the new yarn joining process. You are a good teacher!