You know I’ve been working on reducing my stash, and giving love and/or life to all those odds and ends that were knocking about. In some cases they’d been knocking about for a decade or more. That’s a long old time.
You may recall that I have a colleague who works with a homelessness charity, and they distribute warm clothes along with food and other essentials. I started producing scarves (and a hat and even some mitts) for them last year, and kept on going into 2025.
It can be a trip down memory lane to make items out of remnants. While some of the yarns were a mystery to me, others were old friends. Like the bronze I’d bought for yet another Doctor Who scarf, or the speckly purple/gold I made into a jumper for my mum’s Christmas just last year. There are no photos of that jumper but I may remedy that one day – she really loves it and it was a nice project!
My favourite of this batch of scarves marled grey together with the discontinued Stylecraft Batik Elements I bought for a zig zag wrap two years ago, a gift for my best friend’s 40th. I paired it with grey then, too, and it’s just so pleasing to the eye.
Each scarf uses over 100g of yarn, how much more depends on the yarn and the scarf! I used the same four hour bias scarf pattern for all of them, though I did accidentally start using 6mm needles instead of 6.5mm somewhere along the line. No real harm was done. Where I had chunky yarn, I held it single; where I had DK (and I had a LOT of DK), I held it double. I cast on between 26 and 30 stitches depending on yarn and mood. I knit each one until I ran out, and then I started the next one.
I also did two 53 row hats (Ravelry link) by Madelyn Santa (designer’s mum’s Insta). These are designed to use up scraps in stripes but I went ahead and marled it up instead. It’s a great, quick hat pattern. I accidentally didn’t increase my needle size after the ribbing on one of them and our was still a perfectly functioning hat, just didn’t have a brim to fold over.
The whole process has been a win/win/win – I get to knit, which I love; I’m upcycling my stash; and someone is getting a handmade gift.
The Crafty Yarnster 