As they say in high dollar French...

"HOLY CRAP!" That's actually what slipped out of my mouth yesterday as I completed the finishing work on a fantastic new garment for a client. All the seaming was done, and I had carefully woven in all the tails. The piece was ready to wear. I held it up, and there it was. Right in the middle of the yoke. A hole about the size of a nickel. Not an eyelet, but an actual hole in the fabric. The stitches were coming undone. Already there were a few live stitches just hanging out, framing an empty spot in the knitting. What was that about? As it turns out, there had been a knot in the yarn, and, by manipulating the piece during the finishing process, the knot had worked itself open and caused the fabric to unravel. I've written a couple articles here on the blog as well as in the newsletter, and y'all have all heard me harp on it over and again in the shop: never, never, never, never tie knots in your yarn. "Well, I've always tied knots". My answer: Mt. St. Helen's was just a beautiful tree covered peak in Washington state, until the early 1980's. I can not stress enough the importance of taking the time to join yarn properly and to weave the ends into the fabric. Woven ends are secure. Knots are not secure. No knot, regardless how tightly tied at the moment, will remain a knot forever, especially in a garment that is worn by a human being (or even by a pet!). Normal movement of the body as well as the interaction of the knitted piece with other articles of clothing will....and I repeat: WILL eventually help the knot to untie itself. A woven end stays put and becomes part of the fabric, whereas a knot stays a knot (for a time), something foreign, apart from the fabric. The finishing job yesterday had a happy ending, thank goodness, because my client had supplied me with the remains of the yarn used to work the garment -- to complete the seams. Since the ends of the knot were so short, they could not be used to make the repair. So, I needed to make the gash worse at first so that there would be enough material to execute the repair. New yarn was required to replace the unraveled portion, and the old bit I wove in as a customary join. If you are in the habit of accesorizing your fabric with knots, stop doing that. Stop doing that NOW! Weaving in the ends of the new yarn and the old yarn is just one of the many little techniques that set a garment apart as an expertly finished piece. Here's how: Work your yarn until you have about 6-8 inches left. Take the new strand and lay it next to the old yarn with the yarn ends facing opposite directions. Now, work with BOTH old and new strands together for 2-4 stitches. The tails can hang on the wrong side to be woven in completely as part of the finishing, or you can work them in as you go. This same technique works for crochet as well. In knitting, when you return to the spot with the join on the next row, just remember that at the join, the stitches each have two strands. Treat these double stranded stitches as regular stitches: if you knit each strand by itself, you'll have a sudden unwanted increase. No more knots, folks! So you say the yarn came with a knot tied in the hank? That happens sometimes. But knots tied in the mill are just about as good as knots tied in your wingback at the house. If you come up with a knot, unknit your work until you have a good tail about 6-8 inches from the knot and untie the knot, or cut it out if the yarn is fuzzy. Join the ends as I've described. No knots. Take a look at our machete-prepared friend pictured above. You can think of him as the knitter and his long-toothed adversary as the knots you USED to tie in your fabric. Most of the time, all you see is nostrils and a pair of eyes on the surface of the bayou. But disturb that? Watch out where he might sneak up and bite you....