Prayer shawls: how do I *switch* yarns?

How-to Questions
1

[FONT=“Century Gothic”][SIZE=“4”][/SIZE][/FONT]Hello Folks,

This is my first post and I am also very new to knitting. Baby’s First Post!! I am working on prayer shawls. For now that’s the only thing Im focusing on because it’s the simplest thing.

I searched the forum for anything related to this and couldn’t really find what I was looking for. My question is how do you change yarns in the middle of knitting? I know you should wait until you start a new row, if possible, but I’ve been just tying a knot so that the new and old yarns are tied together. But it’s a weird looking knotted mess. So Im wondering what else I can do to make it look more uniform.

Thanks Y’all!!:waving:

Mojo

2

You just cut your old color about 5" from the knitting. Then, leaving another 5" tail, you knit one stitch with it, knit one stitch with the tail of the same yarn, and continue knitting with the yarn directly from the skein. Hope that makes sense… Not sure how to describe it right.

3

That’s what I do, but it depends on the type of yarn it is. I tie them together loosely, knit a few more rows, then reposition the knot and tighten it, and thread the ends through the adjoining sts. It can’t be seen - sometimes I can’t find them when I look for them - and they don’t work around to the front.

4

I’m big on leaving long tails and then weaving them consistent with the stitch pattern using a tapestry ndl. If stockinette it’s easy enough to do duplicate stitch but with anything else I follow the path of the yarn for a few inches. If necessary, I’ll tack the cut end with a tiny dab of FrayCheck so it doesn’t show (esp for anything that’s reversible or where both sides may be seen). I avoid leaving knots as they seem to create bumps. ‘Russian join’ also works very well if you have fully plied yarns and find yourself starting a new skein w/in a row. Most of mine, however, are recycled thrift sweater yarns which, once harvested, are just multi-stranded threads (no plies).

cam

5

I usually knit the old one with the new one. If you watch Amy’s video of a small sample project, she does that at the beginning. I find it the easiest way to join it in. I’m a little crazy with it and usually knit it for like 4-6 stitches, but 3 is usually enough.

I wanted to add that when I am knitting a new color I will often use the Russian join.

6

Thank you for these suggestions! :muah: They all make sense and you described the procedures well.

Hey, I noticed that it says “casting on” below my name, and other things below everyone else’s. Is that the member status, like junior, senior? That’s so cute!

Merci.

Mojo

7

Hey, I noticed that it says “casting on” below my name, and other things below everyone else’s. Is that the member status, like junior, senior?

Changes based on the number of posts.

cam