To provide an apparatus temporarily retaining a part of pre-existing twists in a twist yarn for yarn tieing operation.

This apparatus for temporarily retaining a thread segment of a twist yarn having a pre-existing twist in a manner which substantially preserves the pre-existing twist along a predetermined length of the thread segment in preparation for prescribed yarn joining operation is provided. The apparatus includes stationary clamp surface members 2 and 3 and movable clamp surface members 4 and 5. These movable clamp surface members are movable relative to these stationary clamp surface member to form therewith a clamping extent in which the thread segment is clamped between each movable clamp surface member and each stationary clamp surface member. The clamping extent is dimensioned in correspondence with the length of the thread segment and may have, for example, a length corresponding to one-half the length of the predetermined length of the thread segment or about 35 to about 40 mm.