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Use Your Leftover Yarn and Old Projects in New Ways

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What to do with yarn scraps and leftoversWhenever you finish a knitting project, there’s almost always a little bit (or a lot) of yarn left over. Sometimes it can be hard to know what to do with those partial balls of yarn, but there are all sorts of fun things you can try.

When you have a whole lot of odd balls in similar weights, you can do something like my Garter Stitch strip afghan that I’ve been working on for more than a year now. It’s the project I come back to when I don’t have anything else pressing, and it’s going to be huge and fabulous when it’s done. As it is, it’s already keeping me warm while I knit it, which is lovely.

 

Specific to knitters, you can join our Knitting Patterns Only group to get, well, knitting patterns, ask questions and gain inspiration for what to knit next.

Last year I did a whole series on using your yarn stash, which has links to lots of great patterns for using little bits of yarn. Though it doesn’t have pictures, this collection of patterns for using leftover sock yarn from Knitting for Charity is a good one.

If you also happen to crochet or like to decorate with yarn, check out Donna’s Dozen Ways to Use Up Scrap Yarn. This collection of patterns from Red Heart has some cute stuff on it, including this really cute cell phone resting station.

And if you problem runs more toward shrunken sweaters and worn out hats, BuzzFeed has a nice collection of projects you can make with old sweaters. Some are felted, some are not, and you can certainly use thrift store or commercially purchased sweaters as well. But I know I always want to give new life to projects that are outgrown or long longer useful as what they were originally made for, and this list is a great place to start.

Do you have any tips or projects you love to make when using up bits of extra yarn? I’d love to hear about it!

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Comments

  1. i use my scraps, no matter how big, to make scarves for the homeless shelters. some of them look….a bit wild. i doubt those that get them mind if it helps, even in a small way, to keep them warm.

  3. We collect leftover half balls of yarn from other knitters in the health department and use them to make hats, scarves and mittens to give to the children who come to our clinics. There is a fairly large emigrant population here from west and southwest Africa, and they are not prepared for Midwest winters. A lot of our projects, naturally, are striped.

    A local knitting guild does the same — they are the Nighttime Knitters and we are the Noontime Knitters (we take over the conference room every Tuesday at lunchtime).

Have you read?

A Whimsical Sock Pattern to Blow Your Mind

You probably know by now if you’re a regular reader (and if you’re not, welcome!) that I love a knitting pattern that’s a little silly or a little different from the usual. Classic patterns are great, too, but sometimes you just want to make something with a bit of whimsy. And when it’s super functional, too, that’s even better.

That’s the case with the Bananen-Socken pattern from Susanne Shahin. These banana socks are one of those patterns no one seems to be totally sure where it came from, and this free pattern on Ravelry explains how she makes them based on how she learned it.

It’s a sock that’s curved and when not on a foot it looks rather like a banana. There’s no heel, and you can use whatever number of stitches you need to make it fit your foot. If you’ve knit enough socks to know how many stitches you like you can just use that number, or the pattern notes include sizing charts to help. (It needs to be multiples of 2 for the ribbing.)

After working a traditional cuff, the body is made with ribbing on the back and welts (or what the pattern calls horizontal ribbing) on the front, which is what gives it the curved shape. There’s no heel, but there is toe shaping, but for the leg and the foot you just keep working the same pattern as long as you like.

I’m a little skeptical about how these socks will feel with ribbing on the bottom of the foot, but I’m definitely intrigued and will probably give them a try. 

The pattern notes are available on Ravelry in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. If you head to the pattern page you can see a photo of what it looks like on a foot, and it just looks like a normal sock.

Have you ever knit banana socks or do you want to now? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo: Susanne Shahin]