Tail Free Knitting/Crochet: Part 2 - Felted Join

In Part 1 of the Tail Free post, I talked about the Russian Join, were a tapestry needle is used to join two strands of yarn together. In this post I'll be taking you through the Felted Join method, also known as the Spit Join, yes SPIT.

This is a great way to achieve an invisible join on two strands of yarn, however, it only works on animal fibers such as wool, alpaca, mohair etc. The yarn pictured is Rowan's Creative Focus Worsted, which I'm using to make the Madison Poncho by Martin Storey.

Step 1: Unwind the plies on the ends of each strand of yarn.

Step 2: Place one strand on top of the other.

Step 3: Wet strands of yarn with water or spit (which shouldn't be a problem
if you're making it for yourself).

Step 4: Hold the yarn in the palm of your hands

Step 5: Rub the yarn between both hands. The heat that is produced will cause

the yarn to felted, fusing all the strands together.

You now have a continuous strand of yarn and can continue with your work without having to sew in those pesky tails.

What other methods other than this and the Russian Join do you know of, I would love to know if there are any other methods out there.