 While many articles offer suggestions for projects for small amounts of leftover yarn, the focus of this post is to work on larger projects that combine individual whole skeins with collections of smaller skeins to create attractive shawls, blankets and lapgahns. My closet bins were stuffed to overflowing, and there were several shopping bags filled with skeins that no longer fit into the closet. I was determined not to buy any additional yarn and to make a significant dent into my stash. How did I accumulate so much yarn that had not been designated for a specific project?
What is important to note is that there was usually not enough yarn in any skein or collection to make a complete project. A key element of the plan was to use what I had on hand without buying any more yarn. While I worked with basic shawl patterns, I had to adapt and improvise as I was not sure how the yardages would play out. I am still contributing to Threads of Love to help our chapter reach our 1000 piece goal. Therefore, creating shawls was a good place to start. The second part of my mission would be to crochet blankets or lapgans. However, as I started writing this post, I realized that series of projects would have to wait for my next article.  Project 1: This shawl was based on a basic triangular scarf pattern that incorporated 5 skeins of light blue worsted weight Premier Just Yarn that I purchased from my local Dollar Store. This yarn had a lovely hand feel, but with a total yardage of about 600 yarns there was not enough yardage to complete crocheted triangle shawl that required 900 to 1000 yards. Luckily, I had a several orphan partial white worsted skeins that were compatible with the blue yarn. I combined the two fibers by starting with a large white triangle. Then I proceeded to alternate several white and blue rounds of granny cluster stitches. I ended the body of the shawl with several rows of white. Although I was about to run out of blue yarn, I had enough to edge the shawl with one row of HDC in blue and a second row of HDC of white. The finished blocked measurement was 62 inches wide by 30 inches deep.   Project 2: This pink shawl with lacy white edging was based on 5 skeins of Red Heart Jiffy Yarn that yielded 650 yards of fiber. I started with the Secret Paths Pattern by Mijocrochet . Since this was a #5 yarn, I used a K hook. I really liked the ridged effect that was achieved with FPDC, but I could not incorporate the rows of bobble stitch as the yarn was just too thick. I just skipped that part of the sequence. When I ran out of pink yarn, I transitioned to orphan white worsted that I had in my stash. There was no label, but the yarn worked with the pink Jiiffy yarn. Since this yarn was a worsted. I was able to work in a single row of puff stitch before I switched over to the lacy edging with a J hook. This was my first experience with a lacy edging, and I was happy with the feminine touch it gave to the shawl. The finished piece measured 62 inches wide by 31 inches deep.   Project 3 made use of 2 complete and 2 partial skeins of Caron Simply Soft in lavender. This yarn was donated, but I did not think that I would use it for personal projects. I wanted to crochet a soft draping shawl, and designed a stitch sequence to achieve this goal. The pattern was based on the typical triangle shawl crocheted from the top down. After an initial starting set up triangle, increases were made in the corners and in the chain 2 space in he middle. Row 1: Double crochet Row 2: Triple crochet Row 3: Triple Crochet mesh stitch. I finished the body with a DC row. A round of HDC provided the base for a final round of picot stitching   Project 4: Somehow I had 2 rolls of Sweet Roll Self-striping yarn languishing in the bottom of one of my bins. I had bought the yarn to use with my fingerless gloves, but had decided to work with more neutral hues. The turquoise, iris blue, and white stretches of yarn would make adelightful shawl. With 285 yards per skein, I had 570 yards to work with. I had bought a lot of white yarn at one time because I could easily add it to other skeins when trying out different combinations. I stayed with my tried and true triangle pattern and started with a white triangle. ThenI transitioned to the Sweet Heart Rolls that made their own self striping display of colors. Since I wanted to finish with a row of HDC in colored yarn, I had to cut off enough yardage to anticipate this round. I crocheted several rows of white Granny clusters before working the single row to top off the piece. The final measurements for the shawl were 60 inches wide by 30 inches deep. Our group was quite happy to receive these attractive shawls in spring colors. We bagged them and included the Threads of Love card of wishing and caring. The decorated bags would be delivered to Yale New Haven Hospital and to the St. Rapahel Campus in the following week. Did I succeed in denting my stash? I used 15 smaller colored skeins and 2 larger white skeins of white yarn in this part of my mission. I folded up 2 extra shopping bags that had contributed to the clutter in my craft room. Now I am moving onto the blanket phase of my enterprise. I look forward to showing you the results in my next post. Thank you for your feedback and reflections. I welcome you to join me on my stitching journey.
1 Comment
Miriam Edberg
11/15/2022 01:57:40 pm
Beautiful wok! Leave a Reply. |
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