Part 3 of working ends in with a sewing needle: weaving ribbing

I thought I was done with ends forever, but evidently not quite yet. By e-mail and comment, there have been several requests for a diagram of weaving-in ends along a column in ribbing. Without further ado, here it is:--TECHknitter

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PS:  Here is a link to a post with 10 (!)  different methods of working in ends in knitting, eight of which are "as you go."
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You have been reading TECHknitting on: "weaving in ends in ribbing")

Part 2 of working in ends with a sewing needle: weaving

This post lays out the very last method in the recent series about working in your ends, a method called "weaving in." Weaving in ends has to be one of the only finishing techniques better done from the front of the work than from the back. The reason? If you work from the front, you can be sure that your tail is well and truly hidden. If you work from the back, you can be sure you're making a lovely back, but you can't be sure you're making a lovely front.

Weaving is a form of duplicate stitch--the threaded needle follows the path of the underlaying yarn, as shown in the two illustrations below. Because you want to follow the path of the yarn, not split the yarn, you want to use a DULL needle, not a sharp one. (Click here for further information on the two types of sewing needles.) The technique is shown is stockinette, but the theory is the same regardless of the fabric -- use a dull sewing needle to draw the tail yarn along the same path as that taken by the yarn in an underlying row or, in the case of ribbing, an underlying column.

After you've worked the tail in over about 3 or 4 stitches, draw the tail to the back of the fabric, and pull out the needle. Trim the end to a length of couple of inches or so, and leave it hang until you've made up the garment and blocked it. At that point, you can trim the tail to a length of perhaps 1/2 to 1/4 inch, leaving a little "tag" to felt onto the back face of the fabric. After a few futher washings, if the project is woolen, you can clip the tag off.

If the project was knit in a slippery yarn (cotton, linen, acrylic, etc.) then you're best off to leave the little tag-end hanging. If you don't like the look of hanging tag-ends, then another trick for "slippery" yarns is to combine weaving with the other needle-worked method, skimming. In other words, weave the tail for several stitches, then skim it in for a further few stitches. This isn't ideal because you have to use a dull needle for the weaving, and a sharp needle for the skimming, leading to either lots of needle-threading, or lots of cheating, but however you manage it, weaving+skimming really OUGHT to hold.

Desperation move: If weaving+skimming doesn't hold, take out a sewing needle, thread it with a single sewing thread or a single strand of matching embroidery floss, and sew the ends of the darn slippery stuff together--believe it or not, this is the *real* way to secure the ends in ribbon knitting, and the *only* way to secure the ends if you ever knit with a ribbon-covered cord.

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PS:  Here is a link to a post with 10 (!)  different methods of working in ends in knitting, eight of which are "as you go."
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--TECHknitter
(You have been reading TECHknitting on weaving in ends)

Part 1 of working in ends with a sewing needle: the skimming-in method

This whole series of posts started off when various readers wrote to ask about working in ends. As I wrote then, IMHO, the best way to deal with end is not to have any. So far, this blog has shown five different ways to work in ends "as you go:" felting ends, overlap join, Russian join, back join and overcast method. A sixth method, added by Noricum (a reader) is to use the tails for seaming, which also eliminates the need to work in the tail.

And yet, foresight will take you just so far. Sometimes, despite all your ingenuity and tricks, you're going to wind up with an old-fashioned hanging tail that needs to be worked in with a sewing needle.

In May, this blog told you there are two different kinds of sewing needles, sharp and dull. It is possible to work in ends using either kind of needle: a sharp needle (called a "crewel," or "embroidery" needle) is used for SKIMMING, a dull needle (called a "tapestry" or "darner") for WEAVING. The next post will cover weaving, today we'll do skimming.

SKIMMING

(Below) Skimming-in ends is done with a sharp needle. The tail is fastened down as it follows the needle, the needle "skims" though the tops of the purl heads along the fabric back. This really is a case of a picture being worth a thousand (or at least a couple of dozen) words so here it is, illustrated. An aside: after drawing this, I realized that I always work the tail into the row in stockinette, but I'm not really sure why--On further consideration, there's no real reason not to work the tail into the column, just like for ribbing, so if you're inclined, then do it that way.


(Below) For skimming-in ends through ribbing, turn the work inside out, and skim the end up one column of purl stitches, and down another. Because the purl stitches draw further into a ribbed fabric than do the knit stitches, skimming into the purls helps keep your tails invisible from both inside and outside of the fabric--handy when you want to fold your back your cuffs or hat brim. Be sure to work the needle through the very head of the purl stitch, which helps keep the skimming invisible from the front of the ribbing.In both of the above illustrations, the worked-in end takes a u-turn. This is very advisable in a slippery yarn, such as cotton, but could be skipped in wool. Also, these illustrations show the ends worked in, but before they have been adjusted--they are still stretched straight, under the tension imparted by the sewing needle. In real life, you'd stretch this area several times to adjust the tension, and you'd make up the garment and block it before cutting off the tails, giving those ends all the opportunity they need to draw up to their final length (and hopefully, to begin felting into the back face of the fabric).

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PS:  Here is a link to a post with 10 (!)  different methods of working in ends in knitting, eight of which are "as you go."
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--TECHknitter
(You have been reading TECHknitting on: "skimming-in ends with a sewing needle")

Part 4--overview and summary of "working your tails in as you go" in multi-color knitting

Over the last several posts, this blog has laid before you three methods, each of which joins two colors of yarn AND works in the tails "as you go"

• the Russian join,
• the back join and
• the overcast method

Which to use? As is usual in knitting (or life, for that matter) there are advantages and disadvantages--and you must make up your own mind. The Russian join is probably the least favorable--it's hard to make the join come out just where it should, ripping back to add stitches is very difficult, and this join is S*L*O*W.

The back join is more flexible than the Russian join, is faster, and accomplishes the same result. The back join can be modified so it is not quite as bulky as the Russian join.

The overcast method is not bulky, and it is fast, but because the tails aren't folded into the fabric itself with the overcast method, there is less "friction" holding in the tails. The overcast method is not only more delicate-looking, it is actually more delicate--more likely to pull loose than the Russian join or the back join.

It will have occured to you that it is possible to combine methods. A good thing to do in cotton, linen, acrylic or another slippery yarn is to start 8 or 10 stitches away from the join-point, overcast the old yarn to within 3 stitches of the join point, do 3 stitches of back join in the old color, 3 stitches of the back join in the new color, and then 6 or so stitches of overcast in the new color to finish up. (This one WILL hold!)

I like the overcast method in a hairy, thin yarn, like a Shetland wool, (thanks, Ysolda for the link). In this sort of super-holding yarn, tails can be expected to get all the traction required to pin them down from the surrounding stitches, without having to be actually knitted onto the fabric face. And, for thin stripes in thin fabric, like socks, the advantage of not having doubled stitches on the fabric face outweighs the downside of the join being more delicate, at least to my mind.

As the old folks used to say: "you pays your money, and you takes your choice" (but, a swatch will reveal much).

--TECHknitter
(You have been reading TECHknitting on: the overcast method for joining yarns in multi-color knitting.)

A short, sad tale of tails

The last few posts have been all about how to be conscious about ends--how to work them in as you go, so as to eliminate the trouble they cause if left unattended. Ironically, I failed to take my own advice on a new project.

I usually fish around inside of a new skein to find the inside end, so the yarn feeds from inside the ball. With an inside feed, your skein is less likely to be a kitty magnet--every pull won't make your skein jerk and jump around the way an outside feed will. The careful thing to do when you're using an inside feed is to wrap the outside end firmly around the outside of the skein, several times. As you knit, the skein gets smaller; what was once firmly wrapped is now loosely wrapped, so this little wrapping chore has to be done a few times during a project. If you forget to re-wrap, well...a loose end is the devil's plaything. The loose outside end will invariably find and tangle with the inside feed. Fail to keep track of that outside end--as I have done today--and you will have your own sad tale of tails.

This is a new yarn from Brown Sheep called serendipity tweed. On the (minor) downside, the high cotton content of the yarn means tangles are a problem--more like knots in a ball of string than tangles in a woolen skein. On the (major) upside, the cottony content means it doesn't make your hands sweat for summer knitting!

--TECHknitter

The overcast method--part 3 of tails and joining in multi-color knitting

Now we come to a third method for joining yarns and working in tails AS YOU GO in multi-color knitting, a delicate and very useful method which I call the "overcast method." (This is another "unvention," so if someone knows the real name, sing out in the comments, OK?)

Why a third method? Well, the first two "as you go" methods for color knitting--the Russian join and the back join--are both bulky, featuring doubled stitches on the face of the fabric. But the overcast method features no doubled stitches at all--the tails are worked in "as you go" ONLY on the fabric back. (Ok, I'm lying, a tiny bit of the tail appears on the front, but you ABSOLUTELY cannot see it.) Because a lot less tail yarn is incorporated into your fabric, the result is a more delicate join, suitable for fancy work and narrow stripes.This technique is called the overcast method because the tail is held in by fabric stitches "cast" over the tail yarn, the same way an embroidered overcast stitch holds in the floss laid under it. Specifically, the standing yarn is knitted by reaching first "over" then "under" the tail yarn. The illustration above combines the overcast method with the jogless stripe method--the (many, many) tails of these socks were worked in as the socks were knit. The only finishing involved clipping the tails flush with the fabric back after the socks were washed once. (Another view of these socks is here.)

The tension for the overcast method is adjusted afterwards, so the only real error you can make is if you accidentally knit a stitch using the tail yarn, instead of the standing yarn. If you DO knit a stitch using the tail yarn, you will NOT be able to pull on the tail yarn to adjust the tension, because the tail yarn will have been fastened down onto the fabric face--you'll have to rip back and do it over.

The overcast method is usually used in circular knitting--round and round. This is because back-and-forth knitters will usually change color at the fabric edge. Therefore, the illustrations in this post all show the overcast method in circular knitting. (It IS, however, possible to adapt the overcast method to back-and-forth knitting, and instructions for doing that are towards the end of this post.)

The overcast method involves three steps.

• BACKWARD overcast (work in old tail)
  
• INTERMISSION: switch to the new color, and work one round of plain knitting,
• FORWARD overcast (work in new tail)

Its complicated, but worth it--see for yourself (illustration below)--the yellow tails belong to the orange yarn, the light blue tails belong to the blue yarn.
So, fasten your seatbelts, and here we go with the...

BACKWARD OVERCAST

Suppose you are knitting in orange yarn (old color), and you want to switch to blue (new color), the first step is to finish up in orange, and work in the orange tail. Here's how to do both those things at once, using the backward overcast:

1. Knit the orange yarn to within some even number of the change point--to within perhaps 8 or 10 stitches in thin yarn, or perhaps within 6 or 8 stitches in heavy yarn. Loop the standing yarn over your tension finger so that the yarn coming from the work (the "working yarn") is in coming FROM BEHIND over your tensioning finger, and the yarn coming from the ball of yarn (the "tail yarn") is in front. For clarity, the tail in the illustration is yellow, although, of course, in the real world the tail would be the same color as the working yarn (orange). It will be much easier to do the overcasting if you can figure out how to hold the tail firmly against the back face of the fabric with a stray finger or two--this will put tension on the loop of yarn and make all the following maneuvers easier.

2. (Below) Create the first part of the backward overcast, the "over stitch," as follows: with your right needle, reach OVER the tail yarn, then hook the working yarn in the usual manner, and make a stitch. As the illustration below shows, the working yarn is wrapped over the tensioning finger from behind--the OPPOSITE from the way the yarn usually lies. As the illustration below also shows, the idea of reaching "over" the tail is pretty much the same idea as reaching "in front of" the tail.

3. (Below) Create the second part of the backward overcast, the "under stitch," as follows: with your right needle reach UNDER the tail yarn (yellow), then hook the working yarn (orange) in the usual manner, and make another stitch. As the illustration below shows, the idea of reaching "under" the tail is pretty much the same idea as reaching "behind."
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3. As you run out of yarn in the loop over your tensioning finger, pull more yarn into the loop from the tail; again, the tail is not fastened down to the fabric face but only has stitches cast over it on the back. As shown in the illustration between steps 5 and 6, the tail yarn runs along the back of the fabric, free to slide back and forth--it doesn't slide easily, but it does slide.

5. When you get to the color-change point, you should have ended with an "under stitch." The remainder of the yarn you had over your finger will lay as a loop on the fabric back, as shown in the illustration below.
6. Interlock the new yarn (blue) with the old yarn (orange) by threading the blue yarn through the last loop of the old yarn. Pull out a nice long tail of the blue (several inches, at least) and leave it hanging on the back of the fabric. Again, for clarity, the blue yarn has been given a light blue tail, although, of course, in the real world both portions of the new yarn would be the same color, and the worked-in tails would be invisible (as they are in the opening photo illustration of this post).

7. Pull the tail of the old yarn carefully to tighten, until the last orange loop over the right needle has the same tension as the rest of the orange stitches and the blue is snug against the back. This completes the backward overcast sequence. As shown in the illustration between steps 5 and 6, the tail of the old yarn (yellow) is now held down on the fabric back by the over-and-under action you did as you knit the last several stitches of the orange yarn.

The INTERMISSION

The next phase of the work is to work one round plain in blue. Therefore, leaving the light blue tail dangling on the back of the work, work one round in blue.

The FORWARD OVERCAST

1. (Optional) if you want your color change to be jogless, slip the first blue stitch you made right after the color change point. (The opening photo illustration of this post features jogless stripes made by this option.)

2. (below) You will now create the first stitch of the forward overcast sequence on the next stitch presenting on the left needle. (If you did select the jogless option this would be the SECOND blue stitch. If you did not select the jogless option, this would be the FIRST blue stitch. For comparison, the illustration below is NOT jogless, the second illustration of this post--above--IS jogless.) Take the tail of the blue yarn into your yarn-feeding hand, and, using a spare finger or two, anchor the tail so it is in front of the standing yarn (standing yarn-yarn coming from ball). Again, for clarity, the tail is illustrated in light blue, although in the real world, the tail and the standing yarn of the ball you are adding would be the same color. Now, just as with the backward overcast, use your right needle to reach OVER the tail yarn (light blue) then hook the working yarn (blue) in the usual manner, and make a stitch.3. (below) Create the second stitch of the forward overcast sequence as follows: with your right needle reach UNDER the tail yarn, then hook the working yarn in the usual manner, and make another stitch.4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you've overcast the tail by about the same number of stitches as you overcast the tail in the backward sequence. In other words, if you worked 8 stitches over-and-under the tail with the backward sequence, work 7 or 8 stitches over-and-under the tail with the forward sequence. After these stitches are worked, drop the tail and continue knitting onwards with the standing yarn.

At a good stopping spot, re-adjust the tail tension. The forward overcast usually needs less adjustment than the backward part of the overcast. In the forward overcast, the tail is not part of the same loop as the working yarn, so you will not have had any problem running out of yarn--there will have been no need to slide tail yarn into the loop around your finger. The backward overcast will need more attention, because you will have scrunched up the fabric somewhat by sliding the tail yarn under the overcast stitches to deliver more yarn to the loop over your finger, and then scrunched it back the other way when snugging up the interlock. Therefore, be sure to stretch the fabric back and forth over a fingernail to smooth out the fabric and evenly distribute the tail, especially on the backward overcast portion. Snip the excess of the tails off, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch hanging. Make up the garment and block it, re-adjust the tension of any loose join one more time, then clip the excess of the tail even with the back of the fabric.

MODIFICATIONS

As is evident, the thinnest stripe you can make this this method is 3 rounds high--any narrower and the backwards overcast of the old color would run right into the forwards overcast of the new color. If you MUST have 2 round high stripes, skip the intermission step, and simply work the forward overcast on the same round as the backward overcast. Also: if you choose the jogless option as it is written here, you will create "traveling" jogless stripes. For more information, or to modify the work to "stationary" jogless stripes, click here.

TRUE CONFESSIONS

1. If you mistakenly do an "over" where you should have done an "under," or an "under" where you should have done an "over," it really does not matter. You can even end on an "over" instead of an "under," like you're supposed to, and that doesn't really make a lot of difference, either--your loop will lay a little crooked, that's all. In fact, the only REAL error is to mistakenly knit with the tail yarn, instead of casting over it. You can test for that error by giving your tail yarn a little tug after each over or under stitch. If the tail moves, you're still on the right track. If it doesn't, tink back to where you mistakenly knitted the tail onto the fabric surface and do it again.

2. The fact is, that even though the instructions say to do it, and even though that's the way it is illustrated, I personally do NOT wrap the yarn over my tensioning finger "backwards" (tail in front) when I do the overcast. I leave it looped on the regular way (tail in back). I show it different than I do it because experience dictates that its easier to LEARN (and illustrate!) the overcast with the tail yarn held in front. Once you get the hang of the overs and unders, you'll have no trouble adapting to do the overcast method with the yarn wrapped the regular way over your tensioning finger. And of course, once you gain the experience to overcast from a regular wrap position, you can do the overcast method at pretty much the same speed as you knit--it might take a bit to get that fast, so hang in there.

The OVERCAST method in BACK and FORTH knitting

To work the overcast method in back-and-forth knitting, you work the backward overcast on the last row of the old color, as you get within 6 or 8 stitches of the end of the row. You switch yarns at the edge by looping the old yarn through the new yarn, as illustrated above, and then you work the tail of the new yarn into the next row by the forward overcast. If you like, you can reduce bulk by separating the two overcast rows--work the first row of the new color plain, and work another backward overcast to work in the tail of the new color as you come within 6 or 8 stitches the color change spot on the second row of the new color.

MORE HELP

If you find you are having trouble with the concept here, you may want to practice your "overs and unders" with a very similar sort of work--called the disappearing loop method for casting on. Rather than messing with your knitted fabric, practising the disappearing loop only requires a few inches of yarn. While the action is not exactly the same, if you master the overs and unders of the disappearing loop, you'll be miles ahead on the overcast method.

A FINAL PEP TALK
in the form of a movie script, accompanied by an imaginary soundtrack

(The scene: The camera focuses on a hand, scratching a head in puzzlement. The focus pulls back to wide angle, to reveal that the scratcher is a preoccupied blog reader, sitting before a computer, reading intently. The focus now pans in, again, slowly. The reader gradually becomes aware that violin music is starting softly in the background. Startled, the reader looks around, then turns back to the computer. The camera keeps panning until it is focused tight on the computer screen. The following words appear.)
"Overs and unders" can be confusing, especially if you have to teach them to yourself while sitting in front of your computer. However, it really will be worth your time to master this maneuver. Once you do, you can kiss your sharp needles GOODBYE! (The background music swells, its tempo increases.) All you'll need for working in ends will be your knitting needles, and a pair of scissors to trim the excess. The hour or two you put into practising the overcast method will repay you many times in the future. Think how you'll be able to add lots of color to any knitting, knowing you are...yes... free from the nasty, nasty job of working in all those ends! (Music reaches triumphant conclusion, reader nods to self and says "I can do that!" The camera pulls back to a final wide angle shot, and the reader is seen rushing from the room to fetch yarn, knitting needles and scissors.)

--TECHknitter

PS:  Here is a link to a post with 10 (!)  different methods of working in ends in knitting, eight of which are "as you go."
(You have been reading TECHknitting on: the overcast method for joining yarns in multi-color knitting.)

How it starts

This is how it starts...
As the song says, "teach your children..."
Happy Independence day

--TECHknitter

BACK to the back join

The back join (subject of a previous post) is a method for working in the tails AS YOU GO in multi-color knitting. The back join is NOT confusing, but judging from the e-mails in the TECHknitting in-box, the first post about it WAS confusing. It would be a pity to obscure such a useful technique with badly-written instructions, so here's another run at it--with an additional illustration showing the back join as it is being knitted.

The back join (one more time)

The back join is usually used in circular knitting (around and around) because back-and forth knitters usually change at the fabric edge. Therefore, the illustrations below show the back join in circular knitting. You can, however, do the back join in flat (back and forth) knitting--see number (8), below.

So, suppose you are knitting around and around on circular needles in LAVENDER and you want to switch to PURPLE. One vital piece of information you'll need to figure out is EXACTLY where you want the color change to be. The first two steps in the illustrated instructions below are MEASURING steps. As you get better at the back-join, you can skip steps 1 and 2, but for the first few times, it probably makes sense to go through all the steps.1) (above) Begin the back join by knitting to the last LAVENDER stitch. Now you need to somehow locate and mark the spot on the tail, just PAST this last lavender stitch. This is the spot where you will interlock your lavender and purple yarns in step 3. You can mark this spot with a pin or a paperclip, or you can mark the spot by pinching it--the illustration shows the spot being marked with a pinch.

2) (above) Once you have this spot marked, UNRAVEL the last three stitches you have knit, and RETURN the unraveled stitches to the LEFT NEEDLE. If you are pinching the yarn to make the spot, you have to keep hold of the spot as you unravel. If you are marking the spot with a pin or clip, you do not have to keep hold of the spot as you unravel--the pin or the clip remains in the tail to mark the spot. The illustration above shows the three last stitches already unraveled, and returned to the left needle. The knitter in this illustration chose to mark with a pinch, and therefore is keeping hold of the spot to mark it.

3) (above) In step 3, you will INTERLOCK the old color (LAVENDER) with the new color (PURPLE) at the spot you have previously marked. You do this by folding the PURPLE yarn over the LAVENDER yarn at that spot. The LAVENDER yarn is now folded back on itself, creating a doubled strand--one strand is the yarn coming from the work, the other is the strand going to the ball. The PURPLE yarn is also folded back on itself, and again, a doubled strand is created, with one strand of yarn coming from the ball of purple yarn, and the other strand being the tail--which you should leave plenty long--several inches, at least.

4) (above) Anchoring the LAVENDER end of the interlocked strand up against the fabric with your right hand, and anchoring the PURPLE end of the interlocked strand over your tensioning finger, re-knit the next three stitches. Because the LAVENDER portion ends at the very spot you have marked, and because this spot is just past the last of the three re-knit lavender stitches, your color change should wind up exactly where it ought to be. (If the color change ISN'T where it ought to be, just unravel, and move the interlock.) The illustration above shows a continental-style knitter with the interlocked doubled strands of yarn wrapped over the left forefinger, but an English-style knitter would do everything the same, only just wrap the interlocked doubled strands of yarn over the right forefinger.

5) (above) After re-knitting the 3 LAVENDER stitches, the interlocked yarn automatically will be at the doubled PURPLE strand, and you will knit the next three stitches with both strands of the purple. After three stitches, drop the purple tail, and continue to knit normally with a single strand of purple yarn. When you get to a good stopping spot, separate the lavender yarn from your work by snipping it free, leaving an excess tail of a few inches on the back of the work. The illustration above shows the result after the six stitches of interlocked yarn have been knit, the tails themselves are worked in, and the excess of both tails have been left on the back of the fabric. Because the tails have been doubled BACK on themselves, this join is called the BACK JOIN.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When you get to the color change spot on the next spot, do not be confused by all the doubled stitches--knit only 1 stitch into each doubled-strand stitch in the round below--you should get 6 stitches in this area, not 12. This is the same situation as when tails are anchored with an overlapping join in single-color knitting.

6) As stated above, the more you use the back join, the better you'll get at it. Pretty soon, you'll be able to completely skip the measuring steps of knitting, marking and unraveling (steps one and two) because you'll have gained a pretty good idea of just where the interlock should occur. In other words, as you gain experience, you'll be able to start the process from step three -- you'll be able to interlock in the correct spot without having to stop and measure first.

7) After you have made up and blocked the garment, you do not need to work the excess tails in any further--the actual tails are already worked into all those doubled stitches. Simply snip the excess of the tails about 1/4 or 1/2 inch from the back face of the fabric and leave them there. If the garment is woolen, then after another couple of washings, any excess tails which haven't matted themselves onto the back fabric face may be clipped off short. If the garment is made of cotton, acrylic or any other "slippery" yarn, you are probably better off just leaving a short length hang on the fabric back for all time--less chance of having the excess of a tail pop through to the fabric face as you move and stretch.

8) If you want to do the back-join in flat knitting (back and forth on two needles), or if you want get fancy and reduce the bulk of this join, or if you want to combine this join with the "jogless join" technique, there is information about how to do all three of these things at the original back-join post.

I apologize to those of you I confused the first time. Hopefully this version of the instructions will be easier to follow.

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PS:  Here is a link to a post with 10 (!)  different methods of working in ends in knitting, eight of which are "as you go."
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--TECHknitter
(You have been reading TECHknitting on "back to the back-join.")

Not suitable for children?

Even though I try really hard to stick to my knitting, sometimes the goofiness of the web just begs for comment. I've always thought myself the most harmless of women, so I had to laugh (and laugh!) of the big bad "rating" TECHknitting earned from THIS site. The reason TECHknitting did not get a "G" was because this blog uses the word "pain" twice and "kill" once. And indeed, so it does.

• Frogging the Russian join was once described as a "pain" and once as a "royal pain."
• When first learning to blog and spending massive amounts of time going up the learning curve, an early post concluded by saying I had to sign off because my husband was "ready to kill me."

Oops, there go those words again! Perhaps TECHknitting (that notoriously bad*ss knitting site) may now aspire to an "R" rating?
(Forgive me if you do not share my mirth--but I haven't been tickled by anything this silly in a l-o-n-g time!)

Addendum--after publishing this post, the new rating is PG-13.

--TECHknitter

Working in ends on multicolor knitting--part 2: the back join

The previous post showed the Russian join. That join is unquestionably an improvement over leaving the ends hanging, and ... (cue ominous organ music here) ... having ALL those ends waiting for you at the end of the project. However, the Russian join has several annoying tendencies:

• it's hard to get the join just where it ought to be
• ripping back (frogging) to correct an error is a royal pain--the bits of yarn are so precisely calibrated lengthwise that no slack remains for correcting a mistake.
• it's S*L*O*W
  

Here is a better join, an un-vention* I call a "back join." The back join gives you greater control over the exact place where the join will occur, you can easily pull it out and do it over if the join is not quite in the correct spot, and it allows you to leave extra yarn hanging on the back until the end of the project--so ripping to correct is easier. Further, unlike the Russian join, the back join can be modified to work in the tails over several rows--the extra bulk from the worked-in tails need not be confined in the several stitches on either side of the color change.

NOTE ADDED 7-1-2007:

DUE TO FEEDBACK INDICATING THIS POST WAS CONFUSING, A SIMPLIFIED VERSION WITH ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS WAS POSTED ON JULY 1, 2007 (CLICK HERE). THE INFORMATION IN THE BELOW POST REMAINS CORRECT, BUT IT MIGHT BE EASIER TO READ THE SIMPLIFIED VERSION FIRST.

Here's how to do the back-join in circular knitting:
Suppose you are knitting with lavender yarn, and you want to switch colors, and knit with purple. With the lavender yarn, knit to the exact spot you want to change colors from lavender to purple. Mark the standing yarn just past the end of the last lavender stitch. (standing yarn=yarn coming from the ball). A paperclip or a straight pin, or anything small and handy will easily mark the spot. For me--being an impatient person by nature--hunting out a pin or a clip would slow me down, and being a continental knitter by preference, my left hand is relatively free, so I choose to mark the spot by pinching it.After marking the spot, unravel the three stitches you most recently knit, returning the raveled-out stitches to the left needle. If you are pinching the yarn, keep hold of it.Take the purple yarn, and fold it over the lavender yarn at the exact spot you have marked or are pinching. In this way, you are interlocking the yarns in exactly the correct spot where the color change will not show on re-knitting. Leave a plenty gracious tail on the purple yarn--several inches, at least.Re-knit the next three stitches using the doubled lavender strand of folded-back yarn. Do you see what you've done? On the lavender yarn, you've magically transformed the standing yarn into the tail of the yarn, and worked this tail in backwards as you knit forwards! (Knitting the folded back doubled strand has always seemed to me like a tiny time machine--going backwards and forwards at the same time!)

When you've got these three lavender stitches knitted with the doubled strand, snip off the yarn going back to the ball. Again, leave a plenty gracious lavender tail hanging on the back of the fabric, just in case you'll need to rip out in the future.

The next step is to knit the next three stitches in purple yarn, again using a doubled strand of folded yarn--purple yarn this time. Again, the doubled strand of purple is composed of the tail yarn held alongside the standing yarn. The result: The lavender yarn and the purple yarn are interlocked on the back of the fabric, and the tails of both are worked in.If the color change of the join somehow hasn't come out in quite the right place, only six stitches stand in the way of correcting that--rip the six double stranded stitches back and start again. Also, if you find a future need to rip out more of your work, there is excess yarn hanging on the back of the fabric, just waiting for you to use it for correcting a mistake. When the project is finished, wash and block it, then gleefully snip off all the excess ends about 1/2 or 1/4 inch from the fabric back--they've already been worked in! In wool, after few more washings, any tails that haven't disappeared by being matted onto the fabric surface, can be clipped level with the face of the fabric. In slippery fibers--acrylic, cotton, linen, bamboo, and the like--you're probably better off leaving a short tail on the inside for all time.

Modifications:

1) REDUCED BULK BACK JOIN If you do not care for the bulk of six doubled stitches in a row (3 lavender, 3 purple) try this. Work the lavender stitches in as usual. However, instead of working the tail of the purple yarn into the first three purple stitches after the color change, leave the purple tail dangling on the back of the work and knit a whole round. When you have come to the joined color change-spot on the next round, the purple yarn will still be dangling back there. Now pick it up, hold it together with the standing yarn, and knit it into the first three purple stitches in this SECOND round. These three doubled purple stitches will be separated from the first three doubled lavender stitches by one row--making the lump in the fabric less concentrated. This reduced bulk join "jogs" where the color changes. In a circular knit garment where the "jog" would be a problem, you can make this reduced bulk join "jogless"

2) JOGLESS BACK JOIN. If you are making colored stripes in the round with only two colors, there is no need to work in the ends--normally, you would carry the yarn of the second color behind the stripe of the first color. However, if you're using many different colors, then carrying the yarn behind from stripe to stripe is not an option. You might like to combine the back join with the jogless stripe technique (jogless joins are described in the TECHknitting post of 1/27/07). Here's how:
(1) Knit the last three lavender stitches with a folded back doubled strand. Switch to purple, but knit ONLY with the standing yarn--leave the tail dangling on the back of the fabric.
(2) When you come back to the color-change spot on the second round, SLIP the first purple stitch which you knit in the round below.
(3) knit the following three purple stitches with the doubled stand (that is: knit the second, third and fourth purple stitch of the second round with the tail yarn--which you will find dangling where you left it on the round below--held together with the standing yarn, to make a double strand).

Here is an photo of both fabric faces of a jogless back join, "in the wool."
To make a back join on back and forth (flat) knitting, locate and pinch a spot just past the last lavender stitch in the last lavender row. Unravel the last three lavender stitches you knit, interlock the lavender and purple yarns, re-knit the last three lavender stitches with the lavender standing yarn PLUS folded-back standing yarn. Snip the lavender yarn, leaving several inches of tail. On the next row, knit (or purl) the first three purple stitches with a double strand made of the purple tail yarn held alongside the purple standing yarn. If you don't want two rows of double yarn, one above another, you can modify the join to reduce bulk: leave the tail hanging on the first purple row, then wait until the second pass-through in purple to knit in the purple tail.

Last note: After you have located, marked (or pinched), raveled out and re-knit several sets of three stitches, you will know instinctively where to locate the interlock color change point WITHOUT having to knit, mark and ravel out--you'll be able to interlock, fold back and knit without any break in your rhythm. At this point, I believe you will find the back join far faster (and more satisfactory) than the Russian join.

*An "unvention," is a knitting trick which doubtlessly has been invented before, but which is revealing itself to the unventor anew.

--TECHknitter

PS:  Here is a link to a post with 10 (!)  different methods of working in ends in knitting, eight of which are "as you go."
(You have been reading TECHknitting on: the back join.)