Knitting

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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 But I know I always want to give new life to projects that are outgrown or long longer useful as what they were originally made for, and this list is a great place to start.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!

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?

Knit a Simple Pair of Shorts that Fits

Last year I shared a roundup of shorts knitting patterns over at Our Daily Craft, and it’s consistently one of my most popular posts this time of year. 

What that post lacked, though, was any projects of mine, because I have never written a shorts knitting pattern before. 

And I guess technically I still haven’t, but I have written a detailed tutorial of how to knit shorts that fit you. Use whatever yarn you have, at whatever gauge you like, and knit using whatever stitch pattern you want to make the size you need. 

The “pattern” walks you through knitting a swatch and the measurements and math you’ll need to do to make sure your shorts fit. Yes there is math. It’s not terrible, I promise. And because gauge is sometimes a liar, I talk you through all the points along the way where I tried the shorts on as I went to adjust the fit as needed. 

This was actually a really fun project. I used yarn I’d salvaged from ripping up one of my husband’s old sweaters (with permission, of course!) and made a really simple pair of lounge shorts that’s all stockinette stitch with knit hems. 

But it’s really easy to change it to make ribbed edges, or throw in an allover stitch pattern, or stripes, or whatever else you want to do. I love writing tutorials like this instead of patterns because I don’t know what your body is like or what kind of fit you want, or how long you’d like the legs on your shorts to be. And it’s really satisfying to be able to figure it out for yourself. 

And once you know how to knit shorts that fit you, there’s nothing stopping you from keeping on with the legs and knitting a pair of pants in just the same way. 

I’m actually really tempted to do just that. Good thing I’ve got another sweater to unravel.