This week I learned a fantastic method to join yarn that I’d like to share with you. It looks intimidating but it’s not as hard as it looks. I suggest you try it out the minute you need to join two strands of yarn. I promise, you will thank yourself later for learning how to join yarn this way. The results are so clean your two ends of yarn will look like a continuous strand.

Materials needed: Yarn

Scissors

Embroidery needle



Note on embroidery needles: Make sure the needle is large enough to thread the yarn into it, but small enough for the needle itself to fit inside the yarn.

1. Find yourself needing to join to strands of yarn. I’m using brown and cream for a funky blanket I’m making, more on that later.

2. Thread the yarn into the needle (I use the technique in this video), leaving an end of around 4 inches. You can leave less at the end, but it will be harder to maneuver the needle.

3. **Fun begins here** Insert the needle inside the yarn for about two inches, making sure you don’t lose the loop at the end. Tip: Stick a pencil or a crochet hook inside the loop so you don’t have to worry about the loop disappearing.

4. Once the needle is wrapped by the yarn, pull the needle out the other end and take out the loose end. See how that pencil/hook is doing its job so nicely?

5. Thread your second piece of yarn into the needle, again leaving around 4 inches at the end.

6. Take out the pencil/hook from the loop you made with the first yarn, and thread the needle (with the new yarn) through the loop.

7. Repeat step 3, inserting the needle inside the yarn. This time you don’t need to worry about the loop because its being held in place by the first loop you made.

8. Once your needle is wrapped by yarn, pull the needle and the end of the yarn out.

9. Examine the joined yarn and start pulling from each end. If you did it right your two pieces of yarn will be safely joined and wont budge. You can snip off any extra yarn that is poking out but be careful not to undo your hard work.

And that’s it! This gets much easier the more you practice, so I recommend you practice this as much as you can. Joining yarn this way will help you avoid many loose ends to work on.

Have you discovered any interesting techniques to join yarn or change colors?

P.S. – I have no idea why this is called a Russian Join. I can only assume this bit of genius originated amongst Russian crafters. 🙂

Peace out,

L.C.