No Scrap Left Behind
I am one of those people who does not like to sit idle. So I try to bring a small project with me to keep my hands busy while waiting. Usually that is a small knitting project, and one of the easiest portable projects is knitting small dish cloths. I knit in the car (as a passenger of course), while sitting and chatting with friends, during Zoom meetings for work, etc. My go to pattern is called Corrugated Cloth which I knit on 4.5 mm needles with 33 stitches in a row. So far in 2023 I’ve knit over 225 dish cloths and there are still a couple of months left.
I had been accumulating odd balls of scraps. Bits of yarn too small to make a full dish cloth. My scrap yarn bag had filled to the top and so I decided to make a scrap blanket.
After browsing patterns and projects on Ravelry I picked the pattern Excavation, but with a couple of modifications. I opted to omit the fringe and instead knit the blanket continuously. I also opted to alternate 2 balls of yarn, doing 2 rows with the first colour, then 2 rows of the second colour. This resulted in a nicely striped blanket. Often I joined in new yarn mid-row using a Russian join to splice the yarns together. Generally I alternated scraps with a bit of white in them with scraps that were darker (no white).
About a month later, my cotton scrap blanket was done. The finished project is 46″ x 48″ (116.8 cm x 121.9 cm). It was a very relaxing knit and the growth of the blanket was aided by some long Zoom training sessions for work.
Now that the blanket is complete, I was evaluating my bag of scraps and there are still quite a few left. I think I used 2/3 of the initial bag of scraps in the blanket. I also found another bag with scraps and a couple of odd balls. Another scrap blanket is on the horizon. Maybe next time I’ll use a single colour to contrast with the scraps. I will keep this in mind next time I’m shopping for more cotton yarn and see if I can find a main yarn I’d like to use. I wonder what colour I should pick? (I am open to suggestions!)
15 thoughts on “No Scrap Left Behind”
That looks a great idea, even I (a non-knitter) could do this. I can see it in Tunisian Simple crochet and I do have lots of balls of yarn – though not as many as I did before I handed over a load to a knit/crochet (she somehow did both at the same time 🤔) amdram friend.
More power to your elbow.
Ann
It’s nice to keep your hands busy although I’m not sure I could pay attention during a work meeting 😜
Your scrap dishcloths and blanket came out great. Do you give them as gifts or to charity or…? I give my yarn leftovers to my niece who crochets mainly but has also started knitting.
Yes, mostly I give my dish cloths away, though often to strangers. For example, need to go for blood work give the tech a dish cloth. Go for surgery, leave a bag of dish cloths for the nurses, etc. The scrap blanket went to one of my friends and she tells me that she loves it.
I love the idea of using up all the scrap yarns. Currently I have an ongoing project just for this, where I knit these diamonds and stuff them. Once I have lots I’ll stitch them together to create a sort of puffy throw. I love the idea of looking at each colour and knowing each came from a finished project that I got to continue with the blanket 🙂
Like Ruth, I also want to know what you do with the dishcloths and blankets!
I do give away the dish cloths. Our guild is having a penny auction next week and I will bring some to donate. I also donated 20 of them as a volunteer prize for our guild recently as well. Dish cloths also make a nice hostess gift although with Covid we rarely go out anymore. I did give away a few dish cloths at Halloween when we celebrated my best friends birthday.
Wow, over 225 dish cloths and there are still a couple of months left.…!
As above – what do you do with all of them, you’ve photographed a massive pile so you don’t seem to be giving them away on completion!
I’m with you on using scraps (for me it is fabric) and love your scrap blanket.
Maybe if you made these ‘blankets’ smaller, say 12-16 inches (30-40cm) square you could sew them together and create a patchwork scrap yarn blanket for a bed.
I have discovered that I don’t enjoy seaming stuff, though I do suffer through it on occasion. With a large corner to corner blanket there is almost no finishing work (just that one last tail to sew in) and that is a wonderful thing.
The blanket is gorgeous! The colour scheme looks planned and not from random scraps 🙂
Knitting is a great way to keep fingers busy. What do you do with all the dishcloths? We had to look up the Russian Join as we’d not heard of it before – it’s very clever.
Looking forward to seeing your next blanket and seeing if you do go with a main colour or not.
I bought some grey yarn to try as an accent colour. But for now I’ve picked up a hat I started a while back and so I’ll try to finish that. Plus do a bit of spinning and weaving.
Wonderful, I envy your ability to knit while in a moving car – I get travel sickness as a car passenger, so I have to look out at the horizon. I love the colours of your squares.
They are great dish cloths. the blanket looks great and I would go with navy blue or maybe a mallard green for the next one. You saying you do a bit of spinning is just about the funniest thing I have heard.
I haven’t had as much time to spin. The Sale and Ex prep and show, plus working on another knit corner to corner blanket for a baby gift (it was mailed the day before the baby was born) have taken most of my time. Oh yes… and weaving yardage for my mom. That has also been stealing my attention. At least I’m having fun.
What a fabulous blanket and I love the colour scheme. I am so pleased that it is fully appreciated by the lucky friend you gifted it to. The dish cloths are super. You must be a fast knitter to make 225 of them at the time of your blog post. It’s so generous of you to give them away.
Helene
I do not consider myself a fast knitter. A dish cloth takes me over an hour to knit. But making them keeps me out of trouble. And I can do a few rows here and there without worrying about messing anything up. So those ‘stolen moments’ add up to more productivity.
I’m with you on needing to keep the hands busy and those small cloths make such a useful little gift. I love that you give some of them to strangers!