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How to Reuse Ripped Out Yarn

April 13, 2023 by Sarah White

I think every knitter form time to time starts a project (and maybe even finishes a project) only to determine it’s just not right. Maybe the garment doesn’t fit, or you don’t like it as much as you thought you would, or you just are sure you’re never going to finish knitting it.

It totally happens, but if you still like the yarn, how can you reuse it?

I will admit to having ripped out projects and immediately (or some time later) knitting with the yarn again while it’s still all wavy from having been knit before. But I also know that’s not the best way to do it.

Yarn gets wavy because it’s held under tension in the knit fabric, and that funky fiber might make the project you want to knit with it look a little weird. It might change your tension or make the stitches wavy in a way that’s not super attractive. Some people find it harder to knit with the second time around, too.

The good new is, while it’s not a quick process, it’s pretty easy to reset the yarn so it’s like new when you want to knit with it again. I found this post from My Crochetory that explains how to do it.

It’s basically working backwards by turning the yarn back into a hank (or into a hank for the first time) and then relaxing the fibers by washing and drying them. The most important thing is to make sure you do this gently so you don’t felt the yarn to itself if you’re working with natural fibers.

She’s got lots of great tips and illustrations of the process over there, so be sure to check it out for all the details.

Have you ever knit with reused yarn? Do you do this process or just knit with the yarn as is? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[Photo: My Crochetory.]

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Embellish Your Knit Dishcloth with Flowers

One great thing to knit when the weather is warm (or honestly any other time) is dishcloths and washcloths. They are fun and easy projects and a great way to play with new skills. Pretty washcloths make cleaning a tiny bit more fun, and they’re great to have on hand as a quick addition to a store-bought gift. 

The Daisy Delight Dishcloth from Yarnspirations is a fun one for using leftover bits of green in your cotton yarn stash. What looks like the bottom in the picture is actually the left side as you knit it, and each little color section is worked with its own ball of yarn, intarsia style. 

That’s a little fiddly for a washcloth, but the effect is cute, and it’s a simple way to learn the basics of intarsia knitting (as well as reading a chart) if you don’t already have those skills. 

One the knitting is done, you add the flowers with a bit of lazy daisy embroidery, which is really easy to do even if you’re not that into embroidery. You could also potentially add flowers in duplicate stitch if you’d rather. 

This may be the most work you’ve put into a dishcloth, but isn’t it adorable? It would be fun to use as a hand towel through the spring and summer, and if you already have some leftover green yarn from other projects it should be pretty easy to do. 

You could also take this same concept and make it different colors. All dark green stems with stars on top might be reminiscent of Christmas trees, or brown with daisy stitch on top in different colors could be trees in the fall. 

However you stitch it, this looks like a fun little project for knitters who are comfortable with intarsia and reading charts or who are ready to try those skills. 

You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations. 

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

Book Review – Dishcloths for Special Days [Knitting]

Book Review – Holiday Knit Dishcloths

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