**Knots Happen: What to do when yarn has knots**

NUTS! KNOTS!

If you've knitted any amount of time you've probably discovered a knot or two in your fiber. It happens across the board, from workhorse yarns to the luxury fibers. Industry standards actually allow up to 3 knots per ball as being acceptable.

It's all about the milling process and isn't necessarily an indicator of a bad yarn. Ok, that's not a whole lot of consolation when you run into that bump in the road, so what do you do about those knots when they do show up?

Real Life Knitters Story

A long time and one of my favorite knitters had an unhappy experience with knots recently and she is the inspiration for this blog. I think her story is worth sharing.

Her project was a over-sized baby blanket in an intricate stitch motif for a very special new baby. The yarn had knots and as she had often knitted in her knots with no problems afterward, she knitted the knots. Her project was a huge success.

The new mother loved it and laundered it gently and those knots are no longer there, but holes are. You guessed it . . . those knots came undone. To avoid this happening to you read on.

Sometimes You Just Must Cut!

Cutting The Knot With A Little Help From My Friend. — **Cutting The Knot With A Little Help From My Friend**.

The best solution is to cut out the knot as I'm getting ready to do in the image above.

Next Step - Joining The Yarn

There are 2 methods I like to use:

1. Wet Splice (for non-superwash wool) How to Wet Splice Yarn

2. Standard Join

Work back until you have 5" or so before the cut. Drop that strand and resume knitting with the new strand (again leaving about a 5" tail).

Tie the ends together loosely ( I use a simple bow).

Work a couple of rows then untie the bow and gently snug the ends ( waiting a couple of rows will prevent securing the ends too tightly which will cause puckering).