the perfect spit splice

no ends, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Look ma, no ends!

Thanks to a trade on ravelry, I received a whole bunch of green and brown leftovers in order to make a second slipper. They won't match exactly... but they're slippers, right? No one will see them and they can be whimsical (which I can't say without thinking of regretsy (potentially NSFW)), right?

Anywho... I wanted to show you all how I made the perfect spit splice. No, I don't mean that I'm going to give you the right spit to yarn ratio, I mean that I'm going to show you how to line up your yarns so that there are no ends to weave in and it transitions perfectly from one colour to another at the beginning of a new row. Note: this will, of course, only work on feltable yarns. Since this project is going to be felted anyway, it only makes sense that I'm using a feltable yarn. What is a feltable yarn? One that is made 100% of animal fiber, which has not been treated to be washable (aka, it should NOT say superwash on the label). Malabrigo, used here, is a perfect example of a great feltable yarn.

So: when you get to the last row of your old colour, knit until there are 3 stitches left. Wrap the yarn around your needle (like a yarn over) 4 times, like so:



Cut the yarn.

Next, pick up your new colour and pull the ends of both yarns apart, like so:



Now, spit splice the yarns together. (No, I am not going to show you a picture of me spitting in my hand... you'll just have to use your imagination.) If you've never done this before, basically just lay the two ends that you have pulled apart over each other in your hand. Place a little spit over the two yarns and rub your hands together quickly until the two yarns stick together and won't pull apart when you tug on them.

Knit the last 3 stitches and voila:



If you look very closely you will see that the new colour (brown) is hanging out just under the last stitch, ready to start a new row. There might be a little bit of overlap in that first stitch, but you'll never see it in the final product. (Especially since these are going to be felted anyway... but even if it were just a stripy scarf, I don't think you'd ever know.)

Happy spit splicing! (Bet you never thought anyone would say that to you...)