Marcy, one of the advantages of knitting with others, whether in a class or a group, is that you don't have to invent every useful tip yourself! In fact, there are many ways of joining yarns during construction. The Russian join is especially helpful when joining yarns of different colors.

Someone taught me the usefulness of using the spit-splice method of joining like yarns a few years ago; I never would have thought to use the felting properties of wool to permanently link the ends of yarn on my own. Now I use this way of connecting skeins whenever possible; the yarn must be at least 80 percent wool and not processed for machine washability.

I covered this topic in a newsletter awhile back. If you missed it, go to CreativeKnittingMagazine.com and click on Newsletter. In the Select an Issue box, click on Archived Newsletters. Under Archives, scroll down to January 2009 and choose the first link. Upon opening this issue, you'll find the directions and photos under Spit Splice. -- Editor