Russian Join

Another way to join two strands of yarn is with the Russian join. This method creates no holes and there’s no weaving in. Not a bad deal, right?

A couple things to know about this method:

• If your yarn is thick – say roughly bigger than worsted – this may not be the method to use as the join is double thick. The added thickness isn’t very noticeable in thinner yarns though. 
• Similarly, very thin yarns (laceweight and cobweb) aren’t great candidates either.
• Your yarn should either be a single-ply or a looser-plied yarn. Tightly plied yarns are possible to join with this method but it’s harder.
• If your stitch pattern uses a lot of YOs this isn’t the best joining method to use.
• Similarly, working this join in with a decrease will make the decrease twice as thick. You’ll have 4 thicknesses of yarn where you work the decrease.
• It works well for both knitting and crochet.
• It can be done on the RS or WS row.
• I suggest working it mid-row – don’t do it at the end of a row. You still want to place it somewhere that won’t be seen as much though.
• There are no ends to weave in!
• Precise color changes can be difficult to achieve although you will get better at approximating the exact location with practice.

Materials

• New yarn
• Darning needle (a straight one is a lot easier to use in this case)
• Scissors

Step 1: with the old yarn, take the end and thread it through the darning needle. 

Take the new yarn and put it through the loop at the end of the old yarn. Repeat steps 1-3 with the new yarn. 

Trim both tails so they’re close to the strand of yarn. 

Grasp the yarn and hold it so you’re on the area with the tails. Pull a bit to neaten. 

Don’t grab to the outside of the woven strands though – you’ll pull out the join. 

This join is stable once it’s knit and gets twisted with the stitches. That’s why you don’t want to use this in an area that has lots of YOs. 

Here are a couple pics of the join before you knit.

Now you’re ready to work with your newly joined yarn – and no ends to weave in!