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Have you heard of a Magic Ball?

It’s a ball of yarn that changes colors and textures as you work. It’s something offered by a number of artisan yarn makers… but it’s also something you can make yourself with your leftover yarn!

Besides ending up with an awesomely fun end-product… you’ll finally get to use up all of those weird leftover pieces of yarn that are too small (you thought!) to do anything with! How great is that?

Perfect for the scrap-a-long!

Magic Balls are fun to make… but they’re even more fun if you have a project in mind!

How about joining in on our scrap-a-long?

Ready to get started?

You’ll need two things. One, gather all of the leftover yarn bits that are lurking in your stash. You know what I mean. They’re too small for their own projects, but too big to toss out. You keep thinking you’ll do something with them…

And a tapestry needle.

(mine is a bent-tip needle, but that’s by no means necessary for this. All you need is a needle that’s big enough to fit your yarn through the eye.)

Okay, now we’re ready to start!

We’re going to make our magic ball by joining all of these leftover yarns together using a technique called the ‘Russian Join’. The Russian join allows you to fasten yarns together without a knot, and it has the advantage of working with any type of yarn (unlike the ‘spit splice’, which relies on 100% wool yarn.)

In terms of grouping your yarns together, you’ll want to group yarns in a way that is pleasing to you. Some folks prefer the random approach, but I like creating a color theme (check out How to organize your scraps for help!). For my magic ball, I’m attaching only various shades of purple. I also recommend using yarns of the same weight. My magic ball is composed entirely of worsted weight yarns.

How to do the Russian Join

Step 1: Thread your tapestry needle with yarn A (to start, yarn A will be an arbitrary choice. As you continue, yarn A will be the yarn that is attached to your ball).

Step 2: About 2 inches from the end of the yarn, insert your tapestry needle through the yarn. Split the plies, and work the needle through the yarn for about an inch, then pull the needle through, bringing the yarn tail through this bit of yarn.

Notice that you have a loop!

Step 3: Okay, now, thread yarn B (the other yarn) through the tapestry needle, and stick the tapestry needle through the loop in yarn A.

Step 4: About 2 inches from the end of yarn B’s tail, insert the tapestry needle through the yarn… just like you did before.

Now you’ve made a second loop, joined onto yarn A!

When you pull the ends, you’ll notice the two yarns are fully joined! Hooray!

To make a magic ball, keep attaching yarns, one after another. You’ll probably find it helpful to wind the ball up as you go, particularly if you’re using long leftover lengths of yarn.

Once you’ve run out of leftovers (or have a ball that’s big enough), you can use your magic ball for any project! When knitted or crocheted, it’ll create an awesome striping-effect! And, you don’t need to do anything special at the joins, just keep working!

Isn’t that fun?

And doesn’t it make you want to gather up (and use) your leftovers?

Here are handy links to all the posts about yarn. . .

• How to Join Yarn with No Knot
• 3 Ways to Join Yarn without Tying a Knot
• What to Do If There’s a Knot in Your Yarn
• How to Work with Eyelash Yarn
• How Much Yarn Do I Need?
• How to Calculate Yarn Weight from Length
• How to Make a Magic Ball
• How to Use a Ball Winder
• Using a Nostepinne Replacement to Make a Center-Pull Yarn Ball
• How to Make Yarn from Fabric Strips
• Dye Yarn with Wilton Icing Dye

Return to the main table of contents for Let’s Learn to Crochet Amigurumi.

Move on to the lessons for the basic crochet stitches.

Happy stitching!