Spinner's Alphabet: What begins with J? Join!

By Amelia © June 15, 2026

I once joined two spindle-fulls
to make a larger skein

J

is for join. Joins are crucial in spinning - you join old fiber to new unless you spin continuously from one large bump of fiber. I see people avoid joins with a passion. I took the other route - I was having such trouble with joins when learning that I created a bunch of 6" lengths of fiber and did join after join after join trying to get better at them. I wish I knew then what I know now!

A successful join holds together once spun, and also when plied (if you are plying) and when the yarn is put to use in knitting, weaving, or whichever use you put it to. I've seen them fall apart at each stage over the years - did I mention how much trouble I had with joins when I was first learning to spin?

I tend to name my joins so I can remember when they are appropriate to use. The first successful one I learned was the "staple length join", where you hold old fiber against new fiber for at least a staple length of the fiber, and draft the two together. Usually holds. Hard to hold slippery fibers.

The second one I learned was introduced to me as a V join, useful for slippery fibers. It's a fantastic join, because it increases the surface area of old fibers against new fibers: you split the remaining staple of old fiber into a V, and put the drafted out new fiber within. I describe this as a sandwich to my students, and one came back with "it's a Victory sandwich!" and since then the name has stuck: Victory join. I teach this join to beginners as it is the most likely to succeed in the yearbook of joins.

The third one I leared was introduced to me as a Worsted join, used when you have to join fiber to yarn - perhaps your leader, or the yarn you were spinning snapped and you can't get a staple length of fiber to join against. It is also called a Cotton join. I don't know why it's called a Worsted join, as the other joins also can be used when you are spinning worsted without removing any % of worsted-ness from your spin. I made my peace with this join when I renamed it as "Rescue Join" - it's used to rescue a spin when all I have is yarn I need to join to fiber. Hold yarn against fiber until there is enough twist that the yarn grabs onto the fiber.

I was thinking this morning about joins and realized that Victory Joins are great except when you have very short staple fibers. Then the staple length join is about all I can manage, but I do fan out the ends of old and new fiber. So I'm thinking of calling this one the "Fan Join" now to make it clear you want to maximize surface area of old and new fibers to help them grab hold of each other as you draft, uniting them in twist as yarn.

If you want to read about how to join when plying, see How do you make joins when plying?

Whichever way you join, if it holds together, it's a good join!

My only other J is "just" - whenever I find myself saying that I always back off. We use that word like the thing we are describing is easy (oooh - another four letter word!) when in fact it's our skill and expertise that make us think that. As a great manager once said to me, you don't know what someone else's experience is, only your own. So don't tell them something is simple, as it may not match up to their skill and expertise.

I'm curious - what joins do you use? Do you have another spinning J?

~~~~
© June 15, 2026 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/