Assigned Pooling
When I first saw these words I couldn't quite understand what they meant. Assigned, my understanding is, organised to be or do something and pooling as far as knitting is concerned is something that most knitters avoid i.e. areas of one colour gathered in one spot when using a 2 or more colours skein. On further investigation I realised that assigned pooling could be a good thing and an attractive knitting technique. Another consideration is why? Why would anyone want to use a yarn that changes colour and then back to the original colour all the way to the end of the skein? Not being the same as speckled, tweed, fade or multicoloured yarns, the assigned pooling yarn is measured lengths of colours throughout the skein. You are able to make with different colours without having to join-in another skein of a different colour.
I remember a few years ago at a spinning group, hearing someone extoll the praises of 'spit splicing'. We were shown how and decided that it was a good technique but preferred to use tap water. Other than that there is the overlap, knot and cut, braided, back, alternating and Russian joins which work fine and everyone has their preference. However, these methods would be tiresome and impractical to use every few stitches unless of course you were carrying the threads at the back of the fabric. This creates a lovely and thicker fabric but if you do not wish to waste precious yarn you can use yarn that is dyed with assigned pooling in its design.
Paton and Daughter
East Sussex, England