What to Do with Leftover Yarn?

So, what do I do with all those yarn leftovers? One skein here, three skeins there, and eight more over there. Not enough for a whole throw, not even for half of one. Maybe a sweater? But I already have a red sweater. And a teal one too – made from the same wool, Norwegian fur sheep, just in a finer yarn. This yarn, though, is thick and airy, a beautiful carded yarn. It felts in no time, perfect for warm mittens. But honestly – who’s going to wear all those mittens? And besides, I’ve got a folk costume shawls on the needles and no desire to mass-produce mittens.

So throws it is – that’s what I originally bought and used the yarn for. First for the Ripple series, throws with a tactile wave structure, and later for Tracks, the series with hand-embroidered lines.

But what next? I still had a bit of black warp left on the loom. With such small amounts per color, the only options were large blocks or stripes. I went for stripes – and a structure that would highlight them while still keeping things interesting. A wavy twill seemed right. I wove a small sample on the pattern loom. The wave structure felted immediately – almost too much – and the twill swallowed up a lot of weft. So, instead of three throws I had planned, I only got yarn for two!

And how to desing the stripe pattern? Not easy. As always, I started with the yarn: how much of each color did I have, and what percentage of the total? That way I could calculate the stripe sizes within the repeat. In the end, I decided on one throw with cool colors base and one with mainly warm colors. I made color drafts in Weavepoint, which let me quickly see what worked and what didn’t. For example: red next to greenish shades looked good, both with a cool green and with a olive green – complementary colors. Red next to mustard yellow was ok, but not uninteresting. But warm mustard against cool teal – that really popped.

The weaving went smoothly. At the edges, I added plain weave. Afterwards I twisted the fringes and gave the blankets a quick felting wash to make the surface soft and fluffy. And there they were: two unique pieces made entirely from leftover yarn.

What do you make from your leftover yarns? I’d love to hear your tips and experiences!