My First Splice

Right now, it's all about getting my O.W.L. up to the 50% mark by June 30th (and preferably several days in advance, and more preferably, comfortably past the 50% mark). I just finished Row 27 of Chart D, which, according to the Girasole Tracker, puts me at 31.2%. Since I really only started knitting on this project again on Sunday, I've done about 12% in three days. I'm still reacting to the yarn enough that I need to wear disposable gloves to knit (annoying) and should probably be wearing a particle mask - but since I need one of those to breathe the "air" outside right now, that's not really a problem. I have, however, hit a kinda cool milestone the end of my first ball of yarn:


Yes, there's a yarn-end in that blurry bit.
The train wasn't cooperating with me
for the photo-taking.
This will lead into another milestone: My first-ever Yarn Splice.

I know, I've been seriously knitting for - um... eight years now, and have been knitting, period, for about (ye gods!) thirty-three. I've only been able to work easily with most animal fibers for the last year or so, though, and I haven't worked anything that I haven't figured out a way to weave in the ends somehow. "Weaving in" just isn't gonna cut it on Girasole, so Jared showed us how to splice in class. On the itty-bitty chance that you've never spliced, here's a quick how-to video:


So, I did the fray-the-ends-a-bit method:

... and then used warm water instead of spit. Rubbed everything together to felt it all, and it actually worked!!


I've already knit a row past the join, and it's both holding (delightful!) and pretty much unnoticable unless you really, really stare for a long time at each individual stitch to spot the differences - and with 320 stitches per round, and this buried somewhere in the middle of Chart D, I don't think anyone will. I'm certainly going to try to forget where it is!!