Quick Tip: Wet Join
Mary Beth TempleWhether you are changing colors during a row or round, or adding a skein of an existing color, using a wet join (called a Spit Splice in the olden days!) gives you a quick, solid join and cuts way down on having to weave in ends. All you need is moisture, heat and agitation, and a yarn that is at least 70% animal fiber. If you prefer a more traditional method, here is Jen Lucas showing you her best methods for adding a skein: https://www.theknittingcircle.com/video/join-new-ball-yarn-project-023528
Hi, I'm Mary Beth Temple and I like to use this wet join when I am joining wool. Saves me weaving in some ends later and it makes a nice sturdy joint. Now, this only works on things like wool and alpaca. You want a minimum of 70% natural animal fiber because otherwise this, this little trick does not do the thing. So the first thing I wanna do is I want to unp the bottom inch and a half or two inches of the strands that I wanna join.
So I'm just pulling the Plies apart and fluffing it up a little bit. Now, if I'm joining bulky, I usually will go in with the scissors and trim out some fluff because two bulky on top of each other is a lot of stinking yarn. But this is a light worsted. So I'm not that worried about it, but I'm going in there and fluffing it up, roughing it up, letting the scales of the wool sort of pop out. So they work.
Now, I'm going to overlap my rough edges and hit it with a little water and I'm gonna tell you the truth in the olden days we used to call this a spit splice. I personally have never spit on it, but that's what it came from. So you want to get this pretty damp. So you see the fibers are overlapping. The last thing you have to do is you need heat and friction and that's gonna come from your hands.
So I'm gonna get these guys in between my hands and it's like you're starting a campfire with a log. You're gonna go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Your hands are gonna generate a little bit of warmth and you're gonna have a lot of friction, which is awesome. That's exactly what we're after. Essentially, what you're doing is you're felting these two ends together one more.
Now, I would not knit with this until it dries because you could still pull it apart while it's damp. But now I have my two yarn ends joined and I will have no ends to weave in and once this dries it's super sturdy. It is going nowhere. I'm Mary Beth Temple and I hope you enjoy this little blast from the past tip.
