Tag: how to

How to Spit Splice Yarn and Make Knitting Simpler

When knitting with wool and changing colors or adding a new skein, use the spit splice join to make things simpler and have fewer ends to weave in.

Only recently have I begun to spit splice yarn. When I discovered how easy it is to do, I became hooked.

Wool is a great fiber to use for knitting. In my opinion, sweaters need to be made of wool. A sweater is made to be worn for warmth and wool is the perfect choice.

To the best of my knowledge, spit-splicing only works when knitting with wool. If the yarn is a wool combination, I am not sure. Wool is a sticky fiber and water (spit) will help hold the strands together. Also the brisk rubbing of the wet wool connects the fibers.

Lopi yarn with Lettlopi, Alafosslopi, and Plotulopi

Wool Yarn Only

This is exactly why wool garments need to be hand-washed. The combination of water and friction changes the fiber. It will totally ruin a wool garment if it goes into the washing machine and / or dryer. It is also why felting wool works, which shrinks an item on purpose.

Warm Up sweater knit in Lettlopi
Warm-Up Sweater pattern

I am knitting a pattern called the Warm-Up Sweater by Espace Tricot (see pattern link at bottom of page). It is a simple raglan, top-down knit. I chose it to use up some of my Lettlopi wool. For some reason I have a lot of brown yarn. Then, I decided to combine the browns to make wide stripes for a less boring knit. (Lettlopi colors used are Murky and Acorn Heather.)

Spit-splicing is perfect for this type of patterning of colors.

How to Do the Spit Splice Join – With Photos

To do the spit splice, I change the colors by cutting the end of the yarn I have been using, as normally would be done. In this case it’s the lighter brown.

Instead of adding that new, darker brown color to my needle, I will combine the two colors of yarn together to form one strand. This will gradually bring in the new color and leave no ends to weave in – which is the best part!

Lettlopi wool sweater knitting brown
Warm-up Sweater
brown wool Lettlopi yarn to spit-splice
Two brown wool yarns

With the Lettlopi yarn, I can easily separate each end into two strands. They pull apart and unravel nicely.

Lay the ends together to overlap a bit and twist together.

Spit on that entire entwined section of wool to make it nice and wet. (Someone somewhere said spit works better than water – and quicker too.)

Once the yarn is wet, rub the section briskly between the palms of your hand. I usually have to rub a few times to fill in any loose holes. Do a little tug to be sure the yarns have stuck and do not pull apart.

unravel the yarn ends
Unravel each strand
spit splice how to
Combine and twist together

Once the two strands are stuck together, I have a section of yarn that is made up of both colors. Part of that section is a bit thick, but the yarn is thick and thin on its own, so this works.

Here is my spliced bit of yarn. As I continue knitting, the yarn goes from light to dark and blends in nicely for my next section of darker brown.

spit-splice
Wet yarn and rub until they stick
spit-splice wool
Knit with new color strand

I’m doing the splicing close to the beginning of round marker but it is not exact. It won’t matter. My two yarns are close in color and they just blend nicely. Also, this pattern has the BOR at the back, right shoulder where it wouldn’t been seen anyway.

Why Spit Splicing Makes Knitting Simpler

In the end, the reason for doing the spit splice join is to save myself the hassle of having to weave in ends. In this striped sweater project I would have had two ends hanging at every row of color if I had added yarn the traditional way. That would be a lot of ends when the sweater is complete!

Joining the yarn and not leaving ends means I will only have the cast-on strand, underarm strands, and cast-off strands on body and sleeves to weave when I am done. That is a win in my book!

spit splice knitting no ends to weave in
Rows of color with no ends showing except the cast-on

Other Uses For the Spit Splice Joining of Yarn

Also use this joining method when changing to a new skein, or if the yarn breaks, or if you come across a knot, and so on. I recently knit a colorwork sweater with Plotulopi wool which would come apart very easily on the slightest tug. I used the spit splice join a lot on that one!

Get the Warm-Up Sweater pattern at Ravelry

YouTube Video on Spit Splicing

If you’d like to watch this process on a video, here is one by iKnits that is short and to the point: https://youtu.be/h5UwY8NDtP0

Picking Up Stitches The Easy Way For Garter Tab Cast On

When I began knitting a few years ago, I had no idea what it meant to “pick up and knit” or how to “pick up stitches”. Then, I knit a crescent shaped shawl and had to do a garter tab cast on. I remember watching a video that really didn’t help me much. I made a mess of the garter tab after four tries I said enough!

The garter tab cast on made absolutely no sense to me. It is often used to begin a shawl that is knit outward from the center top. Eventually I figured out that using a crochet hook to pull that yarn and pick it up was way easier than using a knitting needle – as I’d seen in some videos. But I was looking at the whole thing the wrong way. Use two needles and knit the stitches!

Often it’s difficult to find good knitting videos and if you find some you like, stick with those creators. For instance, Very Pink Knits has some good videos, although they are usually long because she likes to talk. Purl Soho has a few good videos – they get right down to business – but they don’t cover some techniques I’ve searched for. Brooklyn Tweed and Andrea Mowry are other video makers I like to watch.

For the Garter Tab cast on, I found Andrea Mowry’s Garter Tab video to be very helpful. Even after all this time, I finally learned how to do garter tab easily! Use a spare needle to pick up the stitches, and then knit them. It couldn’t be easier.

Some shawls I have knit which required a garter tab cast on.

  1. Moon Sisters – orange
  2. Sun Kissed – variegated
  3. Bays Edge – green
  4. Spindrift -purple (my first ever shawl and I’m not sure this one required a garter tab)
  • Moon Sisters Shawl
    Moon Sisters Shawl
  • knitting sun-kissed shawl
    Beginning knitting the Sun Kissed shawl pattern
  • knitting the Bays Edge shawl
    Beginning the shawl
  • knitting a shawl
    Beginning the Spindrift Shawl

Stephen West also does a garter tab video and shows off his fantastic shawls too (at the end). I’m not much of a shawl knitter but he made me want to start one. He’s also quite a character to watch.

In fact I would use this same procedure for picking up gusset stitches while knitting socks. This is truly the “pick up and knit” I’ve heard about.

Anyway, these are some links to help you get going with a shawl so you won’t dread that garter tab cast on.

More About Knitting Shawls

Why Knitters Need to Swatch and Get Gauge

Learning the importance of knitting a swatch and keeping that info for later. It’s not a waste of time, but a necessary part of knitting patterns.

I’ve been seriously knitting (as much as possible) for a couple of years now. I still consider myself a newbie to the knitting world. The more I knit, the more I realize I still have a lot to learn. (Photo at top: Miss Babs sends along this little bits of yarn to try out whenever I place an order, which I think is so cool!)

I want to say that I am a beginner in many ways. Swatching and getting gauge is still something I need to work on. I am searching for information on these subjects myself. This page is full of good links to help me as much as any reader.

Swatching is Not a Waste of Time

When I first began to read about swatching I thought it was going to be a tremendous waste of time. And then I would just have to unravel the swatch before I began knitting the item. What was this gauge thing and how off could I be? Plus, I really didn’t understand how to make a swatch.

This Very Pink Knits video was very helpful in making me understand more about making swatches.

Tie Knots For Needle Size Used When Swatching

In the Very Pink Knits video above, around 7:15, she will show you this handy trick to remember needle size used when swatching. Leave a long tail and tie one knot for each size. In my swatch samples below you can see I have 5 and 7 knots tied which means the dark green swatch was knit in a size 5 (US) and the lighter was knit with a size 7.

knots for needle size used in a swatch
Knots in the tail represent needle size used

I was thinking about swatching incorrectly. Each swatch can be kept as a reference to go back to and use when knitting something in the future. A swatch, made correctly, can be stored with other swatches to build an inventory over time. Of course labeling each one is important to remember the yarn used, needle size, etc.

using tags to save swatches
Tags can be used to save swatch info, but must be attached to each swatch

Gauge is found by counting stitches across and also rows (up and down). Rows aren’t as important for scarves or items that can be a bit longer or shorter without a problem.

Changing needle size will help with gauge. Most times I need to go up a needle size to get gauge. This means I knit tightly and get more stitches in my 4 inch swatch count than there should be. When I go up to a bigger needle my stitches are bigger so there are fewer within the measurement. The type of yarn can also be a factor.

As you can imagine, not all knitwear designers knit the same, and they probably don’t knit the same way you do. And if you change yarn type – that matters too! This is why gauge is important to figure out before knitting something like a sweater. Pattern designers will give you the recommended gauge and you keep trying to knit swatches until you get that gauge – or very close to it.

Convert suggested needle sizes using this excellent chart (link below) which lists US, metric, and UK / Canadian sizes.

Knitting Needle Conversion Chart

Keep Reading: Recent Blog Posts

Fair Isle With Multiple Colors, How to Choose Yarn

Tips for deciding on yarn colors when knitting a project that calls for multiple strands of color.

One of my favorite types of knitting is stranded knitting using two or more colors. Fair Isle is the best, where only two colors are used at a time on any one row. When more than two are used in a row, it is not technically Fair Isle. It’s more difficult to manage three strands of yarn also. I avoid that, but using two colors, one in each hand, is quite fun.

I’ve seen a lot of knitters complain that they are not good at choosing colors for this type of knitting. When five or more colors are needed in a project, like the hat below, combining the perfect colors can be daunting. It is tough to envision them blending throughout the work. But, there are ways to choose colors that will work.

Katie's Kep hand knit hat in stranded colorwork using Rauma Finull yarn
Katie’s Kep knit in darker colors

First I Choose a Background, or Main Color Yarn

I enjoy picking out the colors for a colorwork project myself. By day, I do design work for my job and create graphic designs which have to do a lot with color matching. Maybe this is why I enjoy choosing my own yarn colors for projects.

My tip is to find the base, or background color first. I could change it later, but finding the base color gives me something to work from. Usually it will be something neutral which goes with a lot of colors, such as white, tan, gray, or black. Basically any color that you will NOT be using in the design and makes a good contrast for the remaining yarn.

Decide on a Bright or Muted Combination

Before knitting, get a good idea of how the end product should appear. Do you want it to match a coat or sweater you own? Will it be brightly colored, or have muted colors to match everything? Is the design something that should pop, or blend? And most important is to choose colors you will love to wear.

For the first Katie’s Kep hat I knit I decided on dark blue as the background color. From there I decided that I wanted brighter colors which would stand out a bit. Even though I messed up on the pattern (a little) overall I am happy with the colors.

When I knit my second Katie’s Kep, I chose tan as my base color and I wanted a more muted overall design with earthy tones. The colors I chose were not bright, but were meant to blend nicely. See both hats in the slide show below.

  • Stranded fairisle colorwork hat
    Cute free pattern, Katie’s Kep, done in Rauma Finull yarn
  • Katie's Kep Fair Isle hat
    Katie’s Kep Fair Isle hat begins with a corrugated rib around the brim.
  • Katie's keep crown star
    Crown star
  • Katies keep number two
    Tan version of Kep

Choose Which Design Elements Should Stand Out

In the Keps I knit, the important design elements were the floral sections. After deciding on tan for the base, next I thought about flower color. The orange was perfect. Once the larger parts of the pattern were chosen, I needed colors for the smaller rows which separate the floral images.

For the tan Kep, I chose colors that are not “true” and have somewhat of a “gray” tone to them. For instance, in place of a real blue I would choose a gray-blue and in place of orange I would choose a rust orange. When adding row that will contrast a bit more, I chose something totally different like dark purple. Fortunately a lot of nice wool yarn, like Rauma, J&S, and Shetland is dyed in these neutral colors to make it easier to combine them.

Then there is always the copy option. The designers themselves are usually quite good at choosing colors. Here is where it is okay to copy someone online…!! Knitwear designers will usually list their yarn and colors used which takes all the guesswork out. For instance, when I knit Katie’s Kep, there were four different yarn color combinations included in the FREE pattern. I did not use them, because I like to come up with my own. But for anyone needing that help, it was right there to use.

Knitting Books That Help With Colorwork

If you like the idea of DIY, begin learning by simply studying Fair Isle colorwork knits you find online. Or buy books that have Fair Isle patterns and color selection ideas. I have Alice Starmore’s Book of Fair Isle Knitting (affiliate link to Amazon) and wow, is it ever full of inspiration! Mostly it’s over my head at this point, but I love to skim through and see the beautiful colorwork designs. It’s a fabulous book for any knitter’s library.

I also have A Shetlander’s Fair Isle Graph Book and began knitting a hat using the “green diamond” design shown on this page. It turned out that my yarn stash included colors that closely matched the colors in the book!

colorwork green diamond hat
Same colors!

And Then There’s Black and White

Just as easy, is the option to buy a kit to knit a stranded colorwork project. The yarn colors are pre-selected for you and you pay for everything at once and are ready to knit. A lot of times yarn stores will create kits for popular patterns.

Last but not least. Have you ever heard to turn your yarn image into black and white to check the contrasts? If you are wondering how that works, check out this blog post that explains it.

The Katie’s Kep is meant to use five colors, but that is up to the knitter really. Colorwork patterns are perfect for using up scrap bits of wool.

Get the Katie’s Kep free hat pattern here. Join the multitude of knitters who have already knit this wonderful pattern.

Yarn Color Combination Inspiration

Find some great ideas to inspire your newfound confidence in combining yarn colors at the places listed below.

Knitwear Designers Who Create Stranded / Fair Isle Patterns

Are you a Fair Isle designer? Let me know and I’ll add your link here.

A Few of My Previous Colorwork Projects

Clicking the title beneath the photo will take you to the project blog post page. I don’t have a link for the light blue hat, but it’s the Fana Cap pattern which is in the “Hat’s On!” book.