Russian Joins

I have got as far as winding the second skein for my silk cashmere shawl so got to thinking about the join.  While sewing ends is all well and good, I wanted to make sure this one can't come undone.  A this shawl is going to be auctioned for charity I want to make it as perfect as possible.  The answer (after much googling to check) is the Russian Join. I have looked at using this before and have tried spit splicing (as yukky as it sounds but very effective) but am usually quite content to sew in ends.  This time I have perfected a Russian join.

Step one:  Choose the right needle
​ (this was the wrong one!).

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Step Two:  Choose the right needle (this was the right one!)  It helps if the yarn will go through the eye.

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Step Three is another obvious one -- thread the needle.  I think I'll stop with the steps now  though!   Thread the needle with the end of the working yarn (yarn a) and leave a reasonable tail 4-5cm then weave the needle back up the yarn up the centre of the plies, pull the needle up and the end of the yarn through which will leave you with something like the third picture below.  Take the end of the new ball of yarn (b) and thread as before.  Now take that end through the little loop on the end of yarn a (third and fourth pictures) and then weave it up through yarn b as you did with yarn a.  You can snip any ends off.  This gives a pretty good join and shouldn't come undone.  The last picture shows the yarn knitted in -- I haven't snipped the ends as I'll do that after the shawl is finished as it will be blocked quite heavily.  I'll take some extra pictures for another post so this is clearer and also report back on how well it stood up to blocking.