I might have known that any real solution would be very work-intensive.
Thanks a million for the suggestions, Wooly. I've never actually
done a split-splice, but weaving in separate plies sounds feasible for
me. Six-inch lengths, though...my heart quails!!

Wooly wrote:
Snip each strand stair-step style, make the new ball mirror-image,
then make a spit-splice. As long as the stuff is 100% non-superwash
wool it'll work.

Otherwise, just leave 6" ends at the ball changes and work in each
individual ply separately when the knitting is done.

On Sat, 06 Nov 2004 10:30:28 -0500, spampot wrote:


I tried some knitting yesterday, the Oddball Sweater from Threads, which
is straight-around knitting, which I'm making with the lovely heathery
merino Classic Elite "Beatrice" I got from Ranee's destashing. It's
very interesting looking, as it's three separate yarns...let me see, how
can I describe this? Rope-laid, I think, says it best -- the three
yarns are like fingering, twisted together to make one thicker yarn.
The label says the gauge is 4 sts/inch on size 10-1/2 needles. The
problem comes when I try to join a new ball. Knotting it seems to be
the only way of doing it securely, but of course the knots show on such
a large gauge. The three strands don't like to stay together when the
ends are loose, and weaving them in still leaves thicker spots, as does
the "Fair-Isle-type" join. Knitting a few stitches with both yarns is
utterly impossible as it leaves very thick spots. Does anyone have any
ideas? I think it's going to look terrific when it's done, but the
balls are only 63 yds each so you can see I have a LOT of joins to
contend with.