Okay, so I’m a fairly basic knitter - I typically stick to hats, mittens and scarves as I don’t really have the patience to really concentrate on an elaborate pattern. But, I’ve been doing this for about six years now and have accumulated a nice basket full of scraps - just little bits and pieces of assorted yarns I’ve worked with. Several of them are discontinued, so the prospect of getting more of them and making something big is fairly slim.
So, I was thinking about patchwork designs. I know this is an accepted practice in quilting, but I wasn’t sure if there was a knitting equivalent. I tried google, but just got a bunch of people trying to sell me designs. How realistic of an idea is this? I’d imagine the biggest problems would be getting the gauge right. Plus, I have yarns of different weights hanging about - at least one super-bulky, and a bunch of worsted and sport weights.
Does anyone have any advice, or previous experience with something like this? Should I just toss the super bulky yarn out? Is there some way to blend it in with the rest and have it turn out okay? I’m envisioning knitting a bunch of squares and then sewing them together to form a blanket of some sort. Maybe I could get some other fabric and put a backing on it, so at least one side is smooth? I’m not terribly creative or crafty, all ideas are appreciated!
I think your idea will work. You may find some yarn knits up bulkier than others, so you’ll have to stick to a certain size, maybe 4 inches square. Then, sew them all up together! The other thing you can do is donate the yarn to a school or a retirement center. They’ll probably be able to use it too.
I like to knit and crochet for The Snuggles Project. Snuggles are blankets for shelter dogs and cats. They should be machine washable, but other than that, virtually anything goes.
So you could take your stash and make a crazy patchwork or stripey blanket. If you did stripes, gauge wouldn’t matter much at all. Just double up the thinner yarns so they’re approximately the same as the thickest one and do it on big needles.
I am in love with this scrap yarn blanket. The inventor stuck to sock yarn, but there’s no reason that you couldn’t do it based on worsted, doubling up on the sportweight and lighter yarns to get a similar gauge. The big draw of this particular scrap blanket is that each square is knitted onto the previous ones, so that you’re not confronted at the end with the soul-killing task of sewing together eleventy billion squares.
That’s a great link!! We’re starting an afterschool ‘learn to knit and crochet’ club and that seems like it would be a great project to start some kids on. Dogs don’t care if their blankie is a bit lopsided.
I was going to suggest domino knitting, but I see something like that has already been linked to.
Anyway, I aw a neat idea in a knitting magasine - take all you scraps, and knit a scarf of long “strings”, where, each row, you switch to a new yarn. That way, you get a lengthwise striped scarf were the loose ends form a fringe all on their own.
has tons of smallish squares in interesting patterns. You could make each square out of a different scrap, and put the squares together into pillow tops or an afghan or a tote bag.
There are other patterns like this, too. Knitter’s Magazine published a whole series of them called the Great American Afghan books, I think. Though they are called afghan books, the patterns are all squares that can be used for other things.
I love that! And it looks perfect for my scraps - I have several little pieces that I might not be able to get a 4x4 square out of, but that looks just about right.
I’m often amazed by the knitting blog world - I don’t know enough about it to really use it as a resource, but every once in a while someone links to some fantastic pattern and I’m blown away.
for very small pieces that you trim off you could get a clear glass ornament and put the yarn orts in it. i’ve done this with bits left over from cross stitch, knitting, and other fabric crafts. it is kinda neat to look at them through the glass and remember the project.
they look cool in a bowl or hanging from something.
Years ago, I had a book of designs for squares - the intent being you could do an afghan composed of a bunch of different squares, each of different pattern (if desired). This was 30 years ago however. Still, something like that would seem to be ideal for what you’re talking about doing. The individual squares ranged from very basic (k-across, turn, k1p1 across, repeat) to involved patterns involving cables etc.
For an assortment of weights of yarn, you might have to play around with needle sizes of course.
This isn’t the book I had, but it’s a similar idea:
I think it would actually be a pretty neat thing to do. Do a boatload of different squares, then join them all using a fairly neutral color of yarn in a crochet stitch.
(edit: I see others have linked to similar books :))
