Today I discovered that while I THOUGHT I could knit 3 dishcloths from one ball of Knit Picks Dishie, my reality was that I can knit ALMOST 3 dishcloths from one ball of Dishie. As I inched closer to the end of my ball and closer to that realization, I mentally shrugged, decided it was just going to be used for washing dishes, and finished in another colour. My 7 year old niece kept coming by to check on my progress declared at one point that it looked “kind of kooky”.
Indeed it does. I remembered my grandmother making similar “kooky” dishcloths with her leftover yarn with little rhyme or reason to the colour choices. (This could also be related to her eyesight issues; my brother has a blue sweater with a purple arm which she thought was the same colour). As this was before I started knitting, I couldn’t imagine why you would do something like that; they were just scraps of yarn. (My teenage snobby-ism may have been at play as well.) They were distributed to family members only. I thnk there’s one at my office she gave me before she died.
Now, I get it. Whether it’s my hoarding tendency or a knitter thing, I save my scraps of yarn. I have great intentions of doing scrappy dishcloths (planned with thought, not by accident on the beach). I have the requisite sock yarn blanket started and I’ve done a number of worsted scrappy-striped hats.
Today’s dishcloth though felt more like a right of passage; a link to my grandmother as she knit up her scraps of yarn.
I’m wondering if you save yarn scraps and what you do with them?
Yes, I do save yarn scraps. I managed to use quite a lot in a scarf that I never wear. Now I mostly use them to swatch stitch patterns.
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I do save my scraps…I like to think eventually I’ll use them for some project. I have used a bit of my scraps here and there, I ended up taking a good chunk to Vogue Knitting Live in Chicago for the classes I took since I needed yarn to swatch with 🙂
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I never really understood “scrappy” things either until I was a knitter. I was given a bunch of scrappy hotpads made by my great aunt. I remember thinking they were kind of ugly. Now I totally love them! I appreciate what went into them now so much more!
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