Yarn Remnants

This is my storage tub of small remnants.

I like to crochet. Well, it might actually be more like I need to crochet. As a result, I have a lot of remnants of yarn.

If the skein remnants are large enough, I leave them as they are. If they are small, I make them into balls. Some of the balls are ridiculously small. Up until recently, I’ve kept them anyway. Last week, I threw a bunch of them away. Still can’t believe I did that.

This is my current yarn supply minus a couple of skeins that are in my crochet caddie.

I’ve wondered from time to time why I save the scraps of yarn. I think mostly it’s because I have a hard time throwing away something that might maybe be useful at some time in the far distant future. I’m not a hoarder … really … at least not yet.

Sometimes a skein of yarn, all fresh and new and never been used before, will come with a knot in it where they have tied two ends of yarn together. Mostly it’s the really big “money-saver” skeins where I find this. Recently, I had one such skein and it got me to thinking.

When you tie two ends of something together, often a square knot is the best knot to use. You know, the old “left over right and right over left” knot. For the most part, these don’t come apart. There is only one way to pull on them that might loosen them.

But for tying yarn ends together, it works beautifully. Pulling on the “long” (working) ends only tightens the knot further. So trimming the “short” ends as close to the knot as possible practically insures the knot will not come apart because those ends then cannot be pulled on.

To start a square knot, put the left thread (white) over the right thread (red). Or you can reverse the whole thing if you like. It works easiest for me this way.

Then slip the white thread under the red as if you were making a simple single knot.

Take the white thread (which has become the right thread) and put it over the red thread (which has become the left thread.

Slip the white thread under the red thread and pull it tight. Snug it down first by pulling on all four “ends” and then pull hard on only the long ends to tighten the knot firmly.

Trim the short ends as close to the knot as you can. Pull on it again to make sure it doesn’t come apart and you’ve got two pieces of yarn joined together as seamlessly as possible.

So I got this idea. I’d take a bunch of the yarn remnant balls and cut lengths off of them and tie them all together into one big ball of yarn.

I tied a lot of square knots. It was pretty tedious. But when I started working up a scarf with it, it looked so nice that I decided it was worth it.

My pretty multi-color scarf in progress.

I don’t know if I will do this again in the future. But for now, it’s worked out nicely.

Courtesy of Craft World