Russian Join For Handspun

Day 112: The Russian Join is a knotless, secure way of connecting two yarn ends. It is especially effective with two-ply handspun. Here is my adaptation of the technique.

Image 1: Cross the two parent yarns and take the ends back toward themselves. Ends should be slightly longer than a yarn needle.
Image 2: Separate the plies back to the point of crossing. Now you have four loose ends.
Image 3: Thread a single ply of one yarn into the needle. Take the needle through the 2-ply parent strand, piercing the strand in several places. (Not shown: Do the same with the second separated ply, bringing the needle out a little past where the end of the previous single ply emerged, i.e., stagger the join).
Image 4: Thread a single ply of the second yarn into the needle. Take the needle through the parent strand as before.
Image 5: Repeat with the remaining single ply of the second yarn.
Image 6: At this point, the parent yarn will be bunched up along the single plies.
Image 7: Tug the parent yarns in opposite directions to smooth out the join.
Image 8: Trim the loose ends of the single plies.
Image 9: Close-up of completed join.

The Russian Join will be thicker where the two yarns were crossed, so if you're connecting handspun, select a thinner place in each parent yarn to make the join. When complete, the join should be almost undetectable. This technique can also be used with commercial yarns, but if using a 4-ply yarn, you can separate the plies into two groups of two if you'd like.