Ideas for your yarn scraps

Opening a yarn countdown calendar every day leading up to an event can be lots of fun, but what do you do with lots of small amounts of yarn? Here are a few suggestions, and all of them will also work with yarn scraps, which, let’s face it, most knitters have in abundance! If you add a bit to your project every time day, by the day of the big event, you might even have completed your project!

Simple stripey socks 

This is my preferred way to use up scraps. I use a basic vanilla sock pattern, and alternate a main colour with contrasting stripes. I’m not a big fan of clashing colours, and I find that adding a neutral main colour really pulls all the other yarns together. You can use whatever basic sock pattern you like; I usually make a tube and add either an afterthought or Fish Lips Kiss heel.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fish-lips-kiss-heel*

 

Pixel rise socks by Kemper Wray

 

Pixel rise socks by Kemper Wrap - Image copyright Kemper Wray

A friend has made several pairs of these and they look great, and like they’re a lot of fun to knit! One thing to look out for though is that the colourwork portions will reduce the stretch of the socks, so you’d be wise to go up from your usual sock size.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pixel-rise*

 

Pixel rise cowl by Kemper Wray

Pixel rise cowl by Kepmer Wray - Image copyright Mari Chiba

If you’re concerned about how colourwork socks might fit, or have larger scraps, why not try knitting the cowl version instead?

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pixel-rise-cowl*

 

Sprocket socks by Megan Nodecker

 

Sprocket socks by Megan Nodecker - Image copyright Mega Nodecker

These socks were everywhere at the end of 2019 and I think they look great! Again, you might want to go up a size to compensate for the reduced stretch, but these socks are a great way to either use up leftovers, or a mini skein set.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sprocket-socks*

 

Mitred square blanket

I’ve had an ongoing mitred square blanket for a few years now. It spends a lot of time in hibernation, but occasionally I pick it up and add a collection of squares – last year I added one square for every day leading up to Christmas. There are loads of patterns, but I used the one by Georgie Nicolson and it’s totally customisable for your yarn weight and the size of size of your scraps. Georgie’s blog post also contains other ideas for making blankets with your yarn scraps.

https://www.tikkiknits.com/blog/knitting-blankets

 

Granny stripe blanket

Granny stripe blanket by Attic24 - Image copyright Attic24

This one is great if you have lots of tiny scraps – you can add scraps of any length and just keep crocheting. You can even join all your scraps together at the start and make a magic ball! Lucy from Attic24 is my go-to recommendation for new crocheters, and she has a great tutorial for making a granny stripe blanket.

https://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/granny-stripe-blanket.html

 

Another crochet option

Battenberg blanket by Sandra Paul - Image copyright Sandra Paul

Like the idea of crochet, but prefer squares to stripes? The Battenberg blanket by Sandra Paul might be the project for you. Made of lots of tiny squares that are joined using neutral squares, this is a good project if you have lots of yarn scraps that are roughly the same size. You don’t have to worry about having to sew all the squares together as the blanket is joined using a join as you go method.

https://www.cherryheart.co.uk/2018/12/battenberg-blanket.html

 

A chunky, scrappy jumper

Metropolis by Tanis Fiber Arts - Image copyright Tanis Fiber Arts

Maybe you want to go the whole hog and make a jumper with your yarn scraps? Tanis Fiber Arts has a free pattern for a top-down chunky weight sweater, and a blog post on how she modified it to use up scraps of yarn. You might want to plan your project out a bit before you start, but this would be a great way to use up lots of scraps or partial skeins!

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/metropolis-3

https://www.tanisfiberarts.com/blog/2019/11/marled-metropolis

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What are you planning to do with your yarn scraps?

If you want tips on how to make your own yarn advent calendar, why not check out yetserday's blog post?

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*Ravelry links may cause issues to people with photosensitivity, proceed with caution.

Make your own yarn advent calendar

Advent calendars are a big thing in the UK: the original advent calendars had you open a door on a cardboard calendar every day in the lead up to Christmas, at some point these were upgraded to cardboard calendars with a  chocolate behind each door, and in the past few years luxury calendars with *anything you like* behind the doors have become really popular! Obviously these countdown calendars are a huge commercial opportunity, but you don’t have to spend a fortune: if you knit a lot, you probably have plenty of yarn scraps lying around, so you can make your own! If you’re bored of your own yarn scraps, you can arrange to swap yarn advents with a friend, so you get to appreciate their leftovers, and yours get a new and appreciative audience.

Countdown calendars aren’t just for advent, you can also use them to countdown to a big birthday, to cheer up a particularly bleak looking month (hi there, February), or to make your yarn scraps look more appealing!

So, how can you make your own yarn advent?

1. Gather your leftovers!

Anything goes for this step! It is sensible though to make sure all your yarn scraps are the same weight, so choose one weight of yarn (e.g. 4ply or DK), and gather all your leftovers of that weight.

 

2. Make your scraps presentable

If you’re swapping yarn advents with someone else, you’ll want to agree in advance how much yarn you’re going to include in each package: anything 5 g or larger gives you plenty of opportunity to create something sizeable out of your countdown calendar. 5 g balls will make a good-sized pair of socks; 20 g balls will make a decent-sized lap blanket.

If your leftovers are lots of different sizes, you’ll need to wind off a constant amount from each scrap. You can either do this with a set of scales:

• Wind off what you need into a neat ball
• Stop when you get to the required amount
• Snip the yarn and move on to the next yarn

Or go by length:

• Create a metre-long guide – use a length of yarn, or a strip of cardboard
• Measure out the desired length of yarn (e.g. if a sock yarn has 400 m per 100 g, 5 g will be (5 g/100 g x 400 m =) 20 m
• Wind your yarn into neat balls

You can also make your yarns into mini skeins, but it’s a lot of effort, and they’ll need rewinding so you can knit from them, so you may as well save yourself a step!

 

3. Grab some packaging materials and any extras

You can use anything you like to package your scraps

• Paper bags
• Little boxes
• Wrapping paper scraps
• Fabric scraps

I used little paper bags for mine (you can order them in bulk cheaply online).

You might want to label your little yarn packages (totally optional if it doesn’t really matter what order they’re opened in). You can do this using pieces of card tied on with string, or stickers. You can buy stickers pre-printed with numbers, but I used some plain stickers, stamped them with festive designs then wrote the numbers on with a marker pen.

A yarn package is always extra nice if it comes with an edible treat, so I bought some chocolate coins and mini chocolate bars to add to my packages (if you’re doing this for someone else, don’t forget to check for allergies).

 

4. Package your yarn

Wrap your yarn, one parcel per day. Each of my packages contained yarn and one or two sweet treats. I then used my number stickers to seal the packages.

 

 

5. Present your yarn advent

To present your yarn advent, you can:

• Put all your little parcels in a bag
• Hang your parcels on a string using little pegs
• Display your packages in a box
• Put your parcels in the pockets of a fabric advent calendar
• Buy a refillable advent calendar with doors or drawer and put one parcel in each compartment

If you’re sending your yarn advent to someone, don’t forget to add a little note or card to say hello, and make sure the outer packaging is nice and secure so none of the little parcels escape.

 

All done! If you want suggestions on what to make with your yarn countdown calendar, stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog post, which will feature a host of pattern suggestions.